Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Jump
Hi Tim, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started painting surfboards while I was lifeguard at the Jersey Shore on LBI in 2001/2002. it was there that I met up with a local shaper Marty Bennett. I started painting boards for Marty who at one point took me to Brian Wynn’s surfboard factory in Vineland, NJ. it was there that I got a peek behind the scenes and saw how boards were made. At this time there were not videos on Youtube, i think there was one video on VHS that you could get on how to build boards, otherwise you had to know someone and have them show you. So fast forward to 2004. I am working at a Trader Joe’s as an in-store artist and they said I could work whenever I wanted as long as I put in my required number of hours. So I totally abused this and when there were waves, I would drive down to Long Beach Island and go surfing, sleep a bit go hang out at Brian’s factory then head back to the Medford Trader Joe’s, do art while the night shift was stocking shelves, and if there were still waves head back down to surf. I did this as much as I could until they more or less told me I couldn’t and I had to work during the day. But it exposed me to the Surfboard factory and Brian would let me use his shaping room after they were done as long as I cleaned up what he did for the day. So I started out shaping my own boards and he would glass them. I started making boards for friends like a lot of people do starting out and slowly started to do more and more of the process myself. My dad and my grandfather were always working with their hands, and being really into the punk rock/hard-core DIY scene it was only a natural progression for me to get to the point where I was doing everything in the board start to finish. So I did this for a while at the same time I got my masters in Special Education, and taught in various states as we moved around with my wife completing her medical degree. I was building boards off and on, but we always didn’t have space so sometimes I’d have to wait until I could get back to my parents house and build a few boards. 10 years ago, we moved down to Charleston where she got a job at the Children’s Hospital. I knew that I didn’t want to teach anymore (I have an enormous amount of respect for all of the people that do, it’s a hard job and you guys all don’t get paid enough) so for a few years I stayed home and did art and built some boards on the side until my kids were old enough to go to preschool. At that time I got more heavily into building boards and doing repairs,I was also doing some graphic design work and just general art on the side. Once they were both in school, decided I would give it a shot and go all in on building boards and worst case scenario, I have a garage full of Surfboards that I like. Luckily I was able to get boards under the right people’s feet. Through my friend Chad Davis (who nows runs Carolina Surf Brand, check them out) I was able to meet the people at Ocean Surf Shop and they were gracious enough to have some of my boards in their shop. I started doing graphic design work for them. I did some markets around town which helped me get my space in The Station Park Circle. And I was just luckily enough that my wife gave me the support to go for it, and that word got around and I got busy. I am very grateful. When I was in high school art class all I wanted to do was be the guy that designed the bottoms of skateboards. I didn’t even skate that much. I just thought that to me that was the coolest job that you could have. So in my mind, I’m living a dream.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Every other job that I had before this you got a paycheck that you could rely on. So taking that plunge was nerve-racking.
I moved down here 10 years ago, nobody knew me. I had built boards before, but not for anyone down here so getting people to try your boards when they look a little bit different was a challenge, I knew the boards worked, but they don’t look like everything that you see on the rack at the surf shop. I held some demo days at the beach, where people could just come and try out boards and luckily, I became friends with some open-minded surfers that were willing to try some weird shit. There were sometimes where I would build a new board and meet my buddy at the pier and just hand it to him in the bag and say “just take it out and try it, don’t look at it first.” because I knew if they just looked at the board they we’re going to have preconceived notions. I mean waves are a limited commodity and they don’t always come consistently so trying to get somebody to try out something different on a day when we have waves. I’m asking them to potentially sacrifice a day of surfing if it doesn’t go well.
Charleston isn’t a board building hub. It’s not Virginia Beach or Wilmington or Florida where you have all of these suppliers so you have to order things in bolt to save money but when you’re doing that, you’re dealing with Surfboard blanks. So when you build a board you start with this foam blank, you shape it into the shape that it needs to be and then it gets covered with fiberglass and resin. But depending on the board you want to build you will use the appropriate blank so you have the least amount of waste possible, and you can build the board you want. So in order to do that every year, I’d get a shipment of blanks, but I’d have to guess what I thought people were going to want because I had two small kids. I can’t take a day to drive up to Wilmington to throw a bunch of blanks in the car to come back or drive down to Florida. So I had to work some things out that way. Also, I’m a one-man show so there are things that I want to do. I just can’t because there’s only so much time in the day. At the same time because I am a small operation it has allowed me to pivot and adapt more easily than a bigger company. This was especially evident during Covid when a lot of of these bigger companies had to close and everyone wanted to be outside and surfing exploded I was able to build custom boards for people and I also at that time started doing and taking on a lot more repairs which has helped. Surfboards and cars are kind of similar from the aspect of if the economy is good you find people buying new ones when it takes a dip you see a lot more people repairing what they have. So that has been very beneficial.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I build hand shaped, custom Surfboards. I do surfboard repairs and make art.
I make colorful boards, that are durable. I am proud of the fact that If you pick up the phone to call and order a board you’re going to talk to me, you’re not going to talk to somebody sitting at a desk just plugging-in numbers into a computer to get cut by a CNC machine. I build every single board from start to finish by hand. I cut my own blanks from giant chunks of foam, I shaped the board, glass, sand, do the art, everything. Then I will take the waste product from building boards and use it the best I can. Excess resin gets turned into planters, bottle stoppers, ground down to make earrings, cufflinks, etc. Small scraps of foam get recycled, and larger pieces get cut up and used for insulation, or for art.
I truly put everything I have into these boards and I want the person that gets it to be happy with it. Surfing is a very intimate and important experience for a lot of people. Some people just go to the beach and they surf and it’s just riding a wave and that’s great. It’s supposed to be fun, that’s why we do it. But there’s also those times where surfing is what keeps your life together. You paddle out into the middle of the ocean on your board and for that brief amount of time nothing else matters, everything gets left on the beach. Bills, work, relationship problems, whatever it is unless the people that need those things are going to paddle out into the water and sit next to you and bother you about them, as long as you’re in the water that doesn’t exist. And that is really important for a lot of people and it’s not something that I take lightly and that’s why I want to build the best product that I can for them. I want to build a board that works and a board that lasts. We live in this hyper consumable disposable culture. I want you to come back to get a new board because you want something new, to experience a new feeling not because your board lasted one or two years and now it’s busted. That’s also why I take the resin from glassing the boards and turn it into planters and earrings and bottle, stoppers and all that stuff because yes, it’s an additional source of income but also otherwise this stuff is just gonna go in the landfill and it’s just gonna sit there so why not take it and turn it into something useful?
At the end of the day, I’m just making ocean toys for adults, which isn’t the most important thing in the world. But just like that morning cup of coffee I think we all know some people that would be horrible humans if they didn’t have it. I think we all have our own special role to play in society, because we don’t live in a bubble, I’m just very grateful that I found my place, that people support me and I get to do what I do.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
The list of things that make me happy in no particular order: family, beach days, surfing, hiking, birds, bikes, baseball, beer, backyard wiffleball games, the woods, dogs, running, stars, drawing, painting, making surfboards, the garden, coffee, puzzles. There are a lot of things that make me happy, I love being outside and making things and being with family and friends, so if I can do that I’m pretty stoked.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Seculasurf.com
- Instagram: @seculasurf
