"When I go for a surf I reflect on my experiences and mistakes I have made. The only way you can truly improve is to think about how you went wrong and then work out how you can correct that.
In the shaping bay, it is the same thing. On every board model there are different rules that I have learnt. If it is small waves, fun waves, big waves or hollow waves, they all have rules on how the surfboard should be shaped.
They are all lesson in life, even when I surfed in contests there were reasons why I had lost. Things like sitting in the wrong place, catching the wrong waves, not being prepared or in the right frame of mind. The only person I could have blamed is myself. Mistakes are humbling but if you pay attention to them and your heart, that is how you will succeed. No matter the area of your life, you made them in, it applies to any workplace or any sport.
Right now I have all of this gained experience from years of tweaking and there is all of this exciting new technology, so I can pair them together. For example I can design a custom board in a pro rider's consultation on my laptop using SHAPE3D. From doing years of custom orders I worked out I should change the specs according to the pro's height, weight, shoe size, wave ranges and their go-to surf spots. At a finer level, it comes down to details like what manoeuvres they are capable of and some feedback on their present board.
On brand new board models we launch, our team riders test them and give me feedback, this is even more true with the Missile which has been constantly adapted. Push yourself, make errors, learn from them. That is how you grow."
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