CulnuCorp Surfboards

For the last of this year's edition of Shaper Stories, we introduce to you Jörg of CulnuCorp Surfboards in Barcelona, Spain.  We've been working with Jörg for a while now, both with single fins, and Glass On fins for his boards - developing our new Macho Fins logo for him for his Glass On fins.

We sent Jörg our Shaper Stories questions to find out a bit more about him and his boards...

Tell us where you’re from and where you’re based

My name is Jörg, I'm German and I was raised in South America and parts of Europe.  Right now I live in Castelldefels, a small town close to Barcelona.

What inspired your logo/brand name?

I never intended to create a brand or have a logo - everything came from a joke amongst friends.  CulnuCorp can be translated as something like the Nudist Corporation in French.  The logo was shamelessly stolen from Capsule Corporation, from the Akira Toriyama shows Dragon Ball and Dr Slump, but as things started to get more serious my friend Jordi changed it by hand to avoid getting into trouble but mostly out of respect. 

Tell us a bit about how, when and why you got into shaping

I started shaping when I returned to the Mediterranean after living south of the Equator for a few years.  None of my boards would work anymore most of the time and none of the boards for sale in shops caught my attention.  I had learned a few things about board building so I bought a few blanks.  It was out of pure necessity.  I built a few boards that didn’t really work, but a few others that really did, so I developed the latter ones and all of a sudden my friends started to order boards, and shortly after I got my first few clients interested in what I was doing.

What kind of boards do you mostly shape?

I already have a few well-established models and I mainly build custom boards, but above all I try to understand the customer's needs to build them a board that works according to their expectations.

What’s your preferred fin set up to a) shape and b) surf?

I love shaping and I love surfboards, so I have no preferred set up when it comes to building boards.  Every board serves a different purpose and that's what drives me so much.

Personally I'm a fan of Twin Fins and everything that is Mini Simmons or derives from it - the feeling that surfing two fins only gives me is of effortless speed and is second to none.

Best tip for the budding shaper?

I’m not sure if I’m the most appropriate person to give advice, but if anyone ever asked me, I would say ¨less is more¨.  Think about what purpose the board you are building is going to serve and stick to that.  That, in my humble opinion, is going to be key to both enjoying the process and gaining experience to tackle more complex shapes.  I have been through very frustrating moments just because I had bitten off a bit more than I could chew.

What’s been the most memorable board you’ve ever shaped & why?

That would probably be the first board I shaped in my garage.  I had no electric planer and no clue about laminating.  I still have it and it’s a 5’3’’ quad Mini Simmons derivative that has worked on 2 foot Mediterranean windslop to way overhead Portuguese pointbreaks.

To this day I haven’t dared to replicate it.

What's the bonus of using Macho Fins in your boards?

The quality of the product, the variety, especially on single fins offered, serious work ethic and the friendly customer service all combined.

In these crazy months we're living I can see a clear effort to meet delivery deadlines, which to me, as a board builder is crucial.  I couldn’t sell a custom surfboard without custom fins.

Thanks Jörg!  And you can check out CulnuCorp Surfboards on their Instagram, Facebook and website.