All right, welcome to Water Talks.
Got my buddy Ashton on here today.
So Ashton, him and I live in the same town.
Ashton grew up here, his family's here.
And him and his wife and two kids live here in San Clemente.
Ashton is a surfboard shaper, really, really good surfer.
He won't say that, but I'll say it.
No.
I know you won't say that.
Because I know you will.
But Ashton is a really, really good surfer.
And Ashton has also, is a lover of school.
He has completed his doctorate in physical therapy.
So also helps people with that from time to time.
And most importantly, just a wonderful, wonderful guy.
So thanks for being on here today, dude.
I'm glad you got a chance to talk about a bunch of different things.
So when you're at home these days, as we have all been, where do you like to go?
What do you like to eat?
Probably so my favorite spot.
I'm actually going to change this up because I actually thought about it more.
I like Kalamata Seafood in Capo.
And that's my absolute favorite spot because I was just, right after this, I'm actually
going to go up there with my buddy and we're going to go grab some poke.
But they have the best poke in town.
And it's super simple, but fish is always fresh.
They don't charge a bunch.
Yeah, the place is insane.
Awesome, man.
So what are you doing these days and how did you get into it?
So these days, what I mostly do is shape surfboards.
Still from time to time, I'll still help out my buddy who does physical therapy company
and just help them out every from time to time again.
But I mostly just use my kind of physical therapy in order to help my friends and family
out kind of just for free.
Because honestly, even though I don't really use my degree anymore, it's so nice that I
just have that ability to be able to just help somebody who's in pain.
And a lot of it ends up being my friends who are surfers, then they're not able to surf
because they have back pain or knee pain or shoulder pain.
And then I'm able to get them back in the water.
And a lot of my friends who I help, they end up, they also ride my surfboards.
And so it ends up working out pretty good.
And yeah, so right now I mostly, I shape surfboards.
I've been shaping surfboards for seven years, only really been doing it the last year as
a business and to make money.
But yeah, just, I love shaping surfboards.
It allows me to hang out with my family a lot more.
It gives me a more flexible schedule.
I love surfing just and love just kind of getting to meet people on a day to day basis
that I never really would meet.
And so it kind of fits in line with what I like most out of life and feel called to do.
And so that's kind of the path that I went down versus doing physical therapy, where
you tend to be inside and in an office kind of same kind of thing, just nine to five.
And so that just what's never really attracted to me.
And so even when I was a year in to physical therapy school, I was like, I don't really
want to do physical therapy when I get out.
I just told myself I'd finish.
So I still got my doctorate.
And yeah, I actually learned a lot of stuff in physical therapy school that I can apply
to shaping.
So that's been pretty awesome.
Great.
I can't get can't wait to get ride one of your asymmetrical twins.
Good man.
Dude, tomorrow, tomorrow if you actually surf or if your knees feeling better.
Yeah, yeah, I have that one just waiting, waiting on my rap.
No, says says Ryan on it.
Great.
Well, I look forward to it.
So is there anything you know, you kind of just alluded to something about kind of discovering
things you like, you kind of went down this path of school and kind of decided like, you
know, I really want to finish act as it's important to finish things that we start.
But then you felt like a pivot, you want to do something that you felt really passionate
about.
It's really fun.
It really is so much thinking that goes into surfboard design.
You're not a cat.
You're not a computer.
You're like a human.
Yeah, who's shaping and it's art.
And there's so much time that goes into that craft.
And are there is there anything that you wish you had known when you when you started out
shaping that you know now?
I think the one thing that I definitely didn't I think in the beginning of shaping and it's
like you do a lot of comparison or comparing yourself to other people or other shapes or
other surfboards and like that is good because obviously in the beginning your boards really
aren't that great.
It takes a while just with anything just when you're learning something you're not really
good at it at first and you got to put in time and that's how you develop a skill with
that.
But I think what I wish I would have done the beginning is just not really where worries
too much about comparison and just kind of go down what I think what I think is most
fun or what I think is most enjoyable to make.
And so it just took me kind of like I still did that in the beginning but then sometimes
you kind of cater to this people seem to like this a little more and then you kind of go
down that path rather than if you do what you love and do what you're most happy about
or psyched on then I think that everything ends up working out a lot better and that's
kind of what I've definitely learned is obviously going down kind of you can use a lot of inspiration
from a lot of people as I do but then just kind of honing in and kind of finding where
your place is just kind of in surfboard shaping and surfing and not really trying to copy
somebody else and kind of to put your own spin on it and I think that's what can make
you most successful and most best at and that's how you can get better at shaping is just
finding your own path essentially.
I know you and I have the both we both have the same spot in the lineup you and I both
like to sit 10 feet 10 yards in from everybody and froth out and catch 30 waves.
Yes exactly.
Yeah that's and that definitely we definitely have the same program.
Never quit paddling never stop paddling never sit on the same page it's super funny so you
know a lot of a lot of life is just like what are you curious about what are you interested
in so what do you got going on these days what's some stuff here you got bopping around
in your mind what are you curious about these days.
I think what I'm most interested in these days is like yes like still developing my
business but thinking about more how I can use my business or gifts in order to help
others rather than just benefit myself and not just benefit myself monetarily and so
something that I really like is building like I've always loved skateboarding and so where
now I've kind of used the business to because we built a skate park in Africa and Tanzania
my parents have a nonprofit over there and so I always wanted to build a skate park so
build a skateboarding community just for the local people over there and so that community
kind of still needs money as far as like new equipment.
I hired on a couple local Tanzanian skaters so just obviously making sure that they get
paid and so I use a portion of just my business and any time like somebody orders a board
or I make a board I just do like 10% to support that and so that then I can find a just find
a way in order to like grow that and so it's also been I've been most excited on anybody
that I meet just making sure that I talk to them and I just kind of get to know each person
I come into contact with in a personal way as far as like wish surfboard shaping because
we have just in our daily life we have enormous amount of opportunities in order to impact
people in a positive way so every person that I meet on a daily basis where I'm always meeting
just new people every week and being able to maybe just make that person stay a little
better or a little brighter and so I think that's why I've been most excited on lately
and less about how successful my business is and that's kind of just a shift I've had
in the past month that I think is a lot more fruitful for sure.
Wow that's great man.
It's good to see you using the things that you love to help serve different people in
different ways.
Yeah.
It's one of the reasons we struck up friendship you know we've been talking about maybe traveling
somewhere together and yes joining forces so we're down the road on that I know.
Oh yes.
I know it'll be in fact you told me the other day that you're gonna go to Indo with us in
March even if you have to sleep on the sand.
Dude honestly if there's a spot I've already talked to my wife and she's like oh yeah you
have to go.
There's a spot I just checked with Bobby so what was funny about that is you had told
me that and then we had our guys group in the back of Sir and your wife came by and
I said hey your husband said that he's going to Indo with us even if he has to sleep on
the sand and I was saying that to see if she and she said oh yeah he's already talked to
me all about it.
I said oh well that's great I mean if you feel good about it it's probably gonna happen
so that's so good.
Yeah that's great.
So good.
Yeah we're at that that one's shaping up really really nice and which kind of leads me to
my next question about kind of what's your understanding of like what's happening in
the world of water these days.
Just anything I guess everything.
Yeah just what comes to mind when we talk about you know water in the world.
What do you know about that.
When I talk about water I think water is really cool because obviously water touches every
single continent.
It's impossible for it not to and so it's kind of something that joins everyone together
in a sense because so it kind of brings me back to skateboarding as well.
The reason I really like skateboarding is because it's not exclusive it's very inclusive
and the skateboarding community and it brings a lot of people together no matter what sector
they're from how much money what color their skin is what their age is.
It's just a common ground that everybody can find and especially so water having to do
with like the ocean and the majority of the world is water and so it's easy to find a
common ground with somebody especially if you're a surfer or even just a lover of the
ocean and that everybody kind of gets to experience it for the most part even whether it is on
a lake or inland.
It seems that people in general are drawn to the water drawn to the experience of it
or fantasize about it or they've never been to the ocean or surfed or fished or it's something
that is often a dream of people's and so it's kind of cool that you can kind of always use
that as just common ground and it's very inclusive and it's not something that one or two people
don't get to enjoy it's for everybody so I think that's what's cool about water and it
it's ever-changing and it's adaptable and so and it's not rigid and I think it's important
to realize that we can't be rigid in our belief systems or to the point where we're not we're
not willing to hear somebody else out and so I think it it teaches us a lot and yes
the reason why I absolutely love the water and whether it's a lake or an ocean or there's
just something like really calming and about it but I don't know if that answers the question
no absolutely you know and I had an epiphany really in in in in 2012 I want to say it was
the first time I had this thought and that's that's eight years ago now but that was the
first time I had the thought wow you know I've been I've been surfing since I was in junior
high it occurred to me that this thing that I had been playing in you know the ocean that
that could actually be a source of life for people if we could figure out ways to to return
them the ocean water in into drinking water so that that thought I actually remember exactly
where it was I was I was riding my bicycle and I was I was right in front of Swami's
in Encinitas I don't know it there's a little stretch of and I was looking at a Swami's
and I was thinking about my bicycle and I was thinking about water out in the ocean
and I just remember thinking to myself wow I really want to do that I want to work on
that that began this this journey that we're even talking about now and really why why
we're going to going to Indonesia you know we your sister Corinne actually we've been
to El Salvador together yeah I think she went on the the first trip or the second trip yeah
she went pretty early yeah she went she went early on might have been the first trip for
the second trip and it's awesome because she just got she's got married it's been a great
year for her 2020 has been a crazy year it's been a wonderful year for for her and and
her husband I said good for you guys somebody needed to have a good year I'm glad it was
glad it was you and but what we learned after doing work down there for five years we've
now put in put in a system there that that works for those for those 38 families and
helps them source their their water from the ocean so really excited about being able to
help in Indonesia and what's interesting is we I have a friend you know Bobby yeah Bobby's
been there five times six times knows that knows the owner of Kandui Resort for those
who know for those who are watching this who aren't in the surf world can do resorts arguably
that kind of sort of ground zero for one of the best surf playgrounds on the planet I
guess you could say it that way and the waves are incredible and the people and the whole
experience we're gonna partner with them to serve an island where the majority of their
employees come from oh no yes that's really exciting and that's about it's about 20 minutes
away from Sibiru and so we're gonna be able to put that system in there and then help
them securitize their water rights essentially so that the system will function and we'll
have solar capabilities and they'll now be able to source all of their all of their water
from the ocean that's a beautiful thing because water security along with food security along
with housing security are really the staples for for what people need to be fruitful and
be productive and that that's a that's cross-cultural that works works anywhere you put it and so
it's really really fun to have figured out a way to use what we love which is you know
the ocean and surfing is a way to as a way to serve others so I'm really excited to be
able to get over there with you looks like this is lining up so awesome oh yeah yeah
this is lining up real good dude thank you so much for just taking a chance to to talk
to me today get to know some new people they're both kind of our networks and platforms and
stuff and then last thing today is is there anything that we need to hear from Ashton
today dude what do you got closing words brother the floor is yours closing words surfing
is never not fun and for anybody that set and loses joy out of surfing small waves you're
forgetting what why you even started surfing so I think that's been pretty frequent lately
I've been seeing a lot of people they get fun like oh it's small are so much people
but I mean we're pretty lucky that we literally just get that I mean surf every day and we
just get to be in the ocean so I come from Florida and the waves are always small there
and so I've never kind of lost that mentality and so surfing is a lot more fun when you
just kind of view it that way but yeah surf small waves it's better thank you brother
all right thanks Ashton have a beautiful day thank you brother all right later on yeah
bye