Jomi Galeão
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A Silver Coast surfer and Professional Surf Coaching athlete, at home in the barrels from Foz do Arelho to Nazaré, riding boards shaped and tuned by Luis.
The shaper
One pair
One pair
of hands
Every Watta comes from the same workshop, the same eye and the same two hands, on the coast it is built for.
Luis grew up next to Praia da Foz do Arelho, close enough that the beach and its waves were part of daily life. He started on the sand skimming, then took up bodyboard, and learned the sea the way everyone did back then, from the older surfers at the spot who passed on the rules and looked out for the younger ones.
In 1999 he went to study Industrial Design at ESAD in Caldas da Rainha, coming from a technical background as a mechanical draughtsman. Around that time he bought a well used longboard, knowing it was the quickest way to learn, and before long he wanted to make his own. He was working as a sculptor then, so shaping came naturally.
A board has to suit the surfer, not the other way round.
The first Watta board was styrofoam and epoxy, and it did not go to plan. It gained weight and fought him the whole way. He did not stop. He bought a proper PU blank, set up in his grandmother's yard, and shaped, glassed and sanded it himself until it worked. A board made by him, for him, to go and ride a few waves with friends. That is still the whole point.
Luis shapes every board by hand, across short boards, hybrids, mid lengths and long boards, and each one is its own problem, because every surfer is different. The hardest part is not the materials or the shape, it is the surfer's head. His job is to work out what you actually need, then keep tuning the outline, the foil and the volume until the board comes alive under you. He teaches the same craft through Shapecamp, where you design, shape, glass and finish your own board alongside him, then paddle out on it.
saúde, paz, amor e boas ondas
The team
Watta ambassadors
The surfers riding Watta on this coast, alongside Professional Surf Coaching, where Luis tunes boards for the athletes coming through.
