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 The sanctuary of surfboards opened its doors once again, but this time to present an even greater number of sacred crafts. Ranging from balsa and polyurethane to cardboard and bamboo, there was virtually everything that one could expect from the board building industry, and some more.
Sacred Craft, a surfboard exposition show, which began last year, has as its main purpose to put the shaper back on the forefront of the surf industry. The mission, although far from accomplished, is clearly moving in the right direction. This year the event was hosted in a larger facility at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and witnessed a much greater number of booths and audience than it did last year.
 And by virtually anyone’s count, there was much on which to feast the eye. Located across the aisle from one another, much like two moments of history staring into each other’s eyes, Greg Noll’s and Rusty’s booth showcased two drastically different, but historically connected, periods of the board building craft. On the one side, Greg Noll, the big wave rider pioneer from the 50’s and 60’s, had a booth with his son, Jed Noll, where the two presented various different models of ancient Hawaiian boards, all of which, as one would naturally expect, were strictly made out of wood. While on the other side, Rusty, who was nominated by Surfing Magazine as 2008 Shaper of the Year, had myriad boards on display, nearly all of which were made out of the latest board building materials, such as epoxy resin and polystyrene blanks.
 And while these two booths set the historical span of the boards in the show, there was undoudtedly much more in terms of board design and construction material. In terms of board design, just to name a few, there were classic single-fin and two-plus-one longboards, Simmons-style and “regular-style” fishes, performance-tailored thrusters and quads, and more. And in terms of construction material, the list was similarly long: wood, polyurethane, polystyrene, carbon, bamboo, cardboard, etc. Then adding to it all, there were the fins, the board bags, the photo-cloths, the wetsuits, and so on. All these different products and designs arguably turned the show into a Pentecost of sacred crafts.
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