Hey, before we get into today's show, I wanted to let you know that Matt Brown is the lucky winner of the Pat Rossin giveaway that we did last month.

So congrats to Matt Brown. He's been contacted and that'll be coming together soon.

I'll try to post photos as Pat's working on that board.

And we'll be doing another board giveaway next month as well, so look forward to that.

From Matt Warshaw's encyclopedia of surfing about today's guest, Bert Berger, quote,

industrious surfboard shaper from Western Australia, best known as the co-founder of Firewire

surfboards with fellow Aussie Neve Hyman.

Berger was born, 1968, in Perth, pushed into waves by various uncles as a toddler and started riding on his own at

age four. At seven, the precocious burger began fooling around with shaping by cutting channels

into the bottom of a styrofoam coolite board. At 13, he was building tri-fins by stripping off glass from an old throwaway single fins.

Two years later, Berger lied about his age and got an apprentice shaping job at town and country surfboards in the Western Australia factory.

In the early 2000s, Neve Hyman approached Bergberger, who had gained a small but dedicated following for his

custom epoxy wood veneer boards about going into business. In 2006, the duo launched

Firewire, an alternative material surfboard line that quickly gained a following. Burger Star

Rose, and in 2007, Surfer Magazine named him their

Shaper of the Year. Burger's work at both Firewire and his own label, Sanova, centered on

epoxy-glued layers of foam with thin wood veneer deck panels and balsa strips along the rails

that eliminated the center stringer, end quote,

from Matt Worshaw. So we do go pretty deep into construction talk for the first portion of today's show.

Bert then goes into detail about his role in co-founding Firewire and what their practical and

ideological differences were that led to him leaving the company.

He also explains what it's like manufacturing surfboards in Thailand and addresses some of the misconceptions about the Thai surfboard industry.

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