New Starts

So last week was 2 years since I lost my best mate and mentor Midget Smith. So today I thought I would finish the balsa board that Midget started about 6 months before he died. It was hard to finish both emotionally and physically because it was balsa and I've never worked with that material before. So the board came out looking unreal and to me it was a way to reconnect with my mate Midget. It's been 2 long years with out him but as they say the show must go on.

So as I started the next board today it felt like a brand new start like I'm now really the shaper of Midget Smith Surfboards. I have used all the knowledge Midget has given me to create surfboards that hopefully the people who ride them really like.

It's a new beginning for me and Midget Smith Surfboards new designs and new people riding our boards. I pretty sure Midget would be happy with everything but he would just want me to do it all faster.

Welcome

Hello to everyone I'm Tim Marshall and I have stepped into the massive shoes Midget left behind. I first meet Midget in Brazil around 2000 for the Longboard Tour. We had a couple of Bundy Rums together and we were friends ever since. We judged WLT and WQS events around the world for the next 7 years and had a great time doing it. Midget was always looking out for me and giving me advice around the world about different things and would always have a good laugh at my antics from the night before.

It must have been around 2005 that Midget offered me a job to come work with him and learn how to shape. This had always been a dream of mine and to learn from such a great shaper I couldn't believe it. So I moved to San Clemente from the Gold Coast of Australia at the start of 2006 and have lived in America ever since. Midget would pick me up and take me surfing in the morning then drop me off at the factory to get some work done and come back at 3pm and give me shit about the boards that I had just worked on. He was pretty classic. But every now and then he would tell me what a good job I was doing which was always great to hear.

So this went on for a couple of years with Midget giving me more boards to do and teaching me more and more each week and then Midget and I went to France for a contest and he was really sick at that event. It was after that event Midget found out he had cancer.

For a year Midget battled the cancer, still shaping, still making everyone laugh and still being his normal self. He was a big inspiration to me around this time and all I could do was help him as much as I could. Just before Midget's death he asked me to keep doing his boards and keep his name alive. I've never been so touched and scared in my life. So this is how I became the shaper for Midget Smith Surfboards it's a great honor for me and to keep his name alive for a man who had done so much for me it was the least I could do. I've had a lot of help and support from the Drummy Family and friends of Midget. I'm just trying to keep his name and shapes alive.

Thanks for reading more blogs to come.

Cheers

Tim Marshall