Surfboard shaping, largely a hand-craft pursuit, is a fraught and hotly debated topic in the surfer community. "They all look the same to me" is the landlubber's first response when overhearing such conversation. The second might be: "What the hell are they talking about?""I was riding a rocker-chip, my bru, until a china tuned me I should try out his Spiderbomb. My bru, it changed my life! I got one made in a quad set-up. And I reckon I'm gonna try out a fish too - a twinnie. Might even get a Mini-sim. Build up my quiver a bit, bru."For the uninitiated, the gist is that there's no "one-size-fits-all" formula when it comes to the shape of a surfer's wave-riding vehicle. The rule of thumb is that the longer the board, the easier it is to learn to surf on. From there on in, anything goes, and there's been a trend in recent years to cast back to earlier board design for inspiration.Polyurethane foam cores wrapped in fibreglass and resin dominate modern surfboard construction; it's in the shaping of that foam core that lurks a black art of sorts.The artists of this milieu are to be found in scrappy ''board shorts" in the backyard sheds of places like Scarborough, Kommetjie and Muizenberg, covered head to toe in fine white powder, plying their trade with a stony determination and a thousand-yard stare (they're to be found in modern factory units along the Marine Parade in Paarden Island, too).They're often men of few words. It's something of a labour of love; surfboard shaping is not a lucrative profession. Among the "legends" are Spider Murphy, Pierre de Villiers, Hugh Thompson, Baron Stander, Dave Stubbs, Peter Lawson and Graeme Smith (father of World Surf League pro and world-title contender Jordy). One of the country's most influential shapers, Peter Daniels, died recently, aged 66, in Spain. Max Wetteland, mentor to Daniels, also died this year.A younger generation is filling in as the old guard looks towards the sunset. Equally taciturn and as hard-charging are men such as Dave van Ginkel (DVG), Clayton Nienaber, Jeremy Fowkes (Jerm) and Twiggy Baker (Twig Surfboards).I once commissioned a board from Scarborough-based De Villiers, who is known for his sometimes eclectic, but thoroughly big-wave-tested shapes. A proven big-wave rider himself, he's often the go-to craftsman for a surfer serious about treading the six-foot-plus winter swells of the Cape. The 8 foot, 2 inch long, 3 inch thick ( surfers cling to the imperial system), primary yellow, single-fin, semi-big-wave hybrid he made has pride of place in the living room of the flat I rent in Sandton, standing by for the next opportunity I might have to travel coastward to slide some heavy water.Loker is the author of the short story collection 'New Swell' and member of Joburg Boardriders, an attempt to take a landlocked team to the national championships for the first time..