Alex Crews Shapes Or Die
Alex Crews has to be one of the funniest humans on planet earth. The Australian shaper has honed his craft in the shadow of giants along the Gold Coast, quietly picking up bits and pieces over the past decade and its all finally coming together as ACSOD Surfboards. The team just wrapped up their first fill-length surf film so I guess it’s official — even thought Alex has been shaping and running the brand for a decade or more.
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing “Aldo” for a while and when he told me the film that was in the works, I knew it was going to be a smash — especially because he and the crew made sure to tell me every time they scored on a trip. I caught up with him to talk about the new flick starring Mitch Crews, Toby Mossop, Lewie Dunn, Hinata Aizawa and Alex himself (It’s always nice when your shaper shreds too).
Grab yourself a cold one and get ready to meet your favorite new shaper out of Australia.
Watch the film and then brush up on ACSOD Surfboards. We rang him up to find out how it’s going now that he’s a movie mogul and the shaper of one of the best up and coming surfboard brands.—Brandon Guilmette
Watch the film and meet Alex Crews — the shaper behind ACSOD Surfboards — in our interview below.
Inherent Bummer: Are you stoked how [the film] came out?
Alex Crews: Oh, mate, I'm so stoked. It's been quite overwhelming, the feedback…like everyone loves it so yeah, couldn't be happier.
What inspired you to make a full-length surf film for the brand?
Basically, I've always wanted to make a mark in surfing. It’s kind of like two or three things. It [initially] was to make a bit of noise and a statement that ACSOD Surfboards is here and we're legit and showcase that the boards go good.
And then with the boys and the team — as much as they help me and push my designs and all that — I really want to be able to help them have a platform to get their names out there. They’re all so good. Hopefully it’s a platform for them to get seen by the industry and someone goes, “Fuck….!” Toby [Mossop] for example, he's one of the most underrated freesurfers out there. And now people fucking know.
Damn right, they do. When did you start working on it?
Probably around June of last year. We all got together at the Tugun Surf Club and were having a few beers — just talking about a trip of some form. And then it just came into conversation of like, “Why don't we just make a full blown film?” Then we did our first trip down the South Coast of New South Wales and fucking scored that whole first section of Mitch [Crews] and Toby and that on those left barrels…
And you right?
Yeah, [laughs] that little cheeky one of myself. That was funny because the day that was filmed was my 29th birthday. And it was just us three out there with Harry Roach and Craig [Anderson].
“We were just trading off getting pitted on an empty beach. After that I was like, “Holy fucking shit, we’re making a movie.” Then we all got on the piss after and it was cool with Ando [Craig Anderson] there — he’s such a huge inspiration for me and my surfing so to have that moment in the movie is just pretty magic. ”
What else will we find in the film?
Yeah, a bit of Indo. Toby ping-ponged all over the shop. There's Norfolk Island. The two big team trips were South Coast, New South Wales and WA — which is the opening and ending sections.
So you scored West Oz, too?
Oh, dude…we got in overnight and were just waiting for the sun to come up at The Box and it looked a bit slow but as we're watching it these sets were coming through. Mitch [Crews] was all hung because he had something in Sydney the night before and flew straight in. He was straight into those waves hungover, his first surf, just straight into 6- to 8-foot pumping Box. My…ummm…my shoulders were a little sore that session, so I couldn't go out unfortunately [laughs].
Yeah, good call [laughs].
But it was crazy. Then the forecast over there was interesting because it was literally a two day window and then it looked like it was going to be fucked — just like way too big, way too windy. And then we just magically scored the back end of the trip. It was probably as pumping as it gets over there. We were really lucky. We had our mates Jerome Forest and Voltaire, two local boys and Charles around… and Tom Jennings. They were really just putting us in the spots. It was one of those trips where you leave going, “Fuck, I can't believe we're leaving. Like, this is too, too good.”
How long you been shaping now?
This year's my 12th year as a business…but probably all up maybe 13 or 14 years I've been shaping and learning.
When you were starting out — I mean there are so many amazing shapers right there in your backyard — were you going in there and working with those guys and like learning some stuff from them?
Yeah, it kind of just snowballed from fucking around in the backyard with my dad. He always shaped when we were growing up as grommets. So I watched him and being so fascinated with it that it led to hand shaping with him in a little tin shed in the yard.
Jason Hedges was a local shaper here at the time and I literally rocked up to his factory for two weeks straight and cleaned the joint head-to-toe for free. He was like, “Fuck, all right, I guess I'll give you a job because you keep rocking up.” And then from there, I just learned and that led to Super Brand and took over that factory for a bit.
Then I went into working for Lee Stacey…Nick Blair, Joysticks Surfboards. Then I did a little stint at JS for a while and a little moment with Darren Handley and now I'm just here at the Glass Lab and I've been running my business out of here for probably the last five or six years and working alongside some amazing crew.
Are there one or two particular models in the film that all your guys ride the most?
Basically the White Ferrari model is pretty much what they're all surfing in the movie. That's my performance shorty that you ride when it's cooking over here. That's Mitch's comp board, what we've been working on it since I've been shaping. That's the go-to for the team, definitely. In that friends section of the film, in the bottom left corner there's a little logo and you get to see what all the boys are surfing in that last little section. You get a gauge of what's popular in the range.
