Yes. That’s right. Jon Pyzel grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and moved to Oahu’s North Shore in 1992.
There he found work fixing dings at Country Surfboards, and Jon quickly learned the ins and outs of the craft, working as a hot coater and laminator, and that was the beginning Jon’s shaping career.
Here are some words of Jon Pyzel to Ed Searfoss the owner of Country Surfboards.
“I met Ed in 1993 when he let me fix my own dinged/buckled/broken boards at his factory right across the street from Sunset Beach. I was there so much that he offered me my first surfboard job as a "ding bat". Ed ran his shop like no one else could, wrangling a bunch of surf rats and getting us to build boards for him between surf sessions. He helped me learn all the stages of board building and let me use one of his shaping rooms when I finally decided I wanted to try shaping myself a board. Ed exemplifies "Aloha" and is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I'm both lucky and grateful to have fallen into his orbit!”