Jack Reeves

The North Shore Glasser

Jack Reeves

When Jack Reeves was growing up, he traveled to varies part of the US. His father was a pilot in the Navy and that meant being stationed on the West Coast, East Coast or Hawaii. When they were on the West Coast his father was stationed at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. This is where Jack got his first experience of going to the beach. After a few visits he made a plywood skim board to ride the receding waters of the shore pound. Jack was soon hooked on being at the beach and enjoying the waves.

After a couple of years in San Diego his father got orders to transfer to Guam. At the last moment the orders were changed and they were being re-stationed in Hawaii. From the cool waters of San Diego to the warm waters of Hawaii was a pleasant surprise for Jack. He started surfing in town at places like Sand Island, 3's, Queens, Ala Moana and Barber's Point on a board that his Dad bought him. It was a used 9 foot Velzy with a red tint and cost around $80 or $90.

Surfing a few times with his older brother, but mostly with friends of his own age that lived close by. After a while his father was transferred to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. With that in mind they had to sell the board. They sold it for the same amount that his dad had paid.

It was in Florida where Jack’s board building career began. He started doing ding repairs for his friends in his parent’s garage. Then one day Jack and his friends were up in Delray Beach at the Delray Beach Sporting Goods store, just looking around and talking to the owner. Delray Sporting Goods used to sell surfboards that were brought in from the West Coast.

The owner mentioned that he needed someone to do repairs and fix dings. Jack was the logical one out of his group of friends since he was already doing it. It wasn’t long before Jack started working there. He did that for a while and then the owner asked him if he would start shaping and glassing. Being only 14 years old Jack said sure and his board-building career got started. The boards were not as advanced as the other boards in the shop but were selling because of the reasonable price tag.

It was in South Florida at Boca Raton that Jack began getting notice for his surfing. It was the mid 1960’s and noseriding and drop knee turns were in fashion. Graham Jahalka a local board builder in Deerfield Beach was impressed with Jack’s surfing that he offered Jack to be on his surf team. Graham was a very good craftsman and his board building skills left a lasting impression on Jack.

After meeting with Graham and helping around the shop, Jack learned the technique of glossing from Graham. Glossing is when the final coat of resin is applied to the surfboard that has been sanded. Back then all the artwork was done in the gloss.

After glossing Graham taught Jack how to laminate. This is when the fiberglass cloth is laid onto the shaped blank and the laminating resin is worked in with a squeegee and left to harden. Jacked learned a lot from Graham, to this day Jack still uses the technique that Graham had taught him.

Jack started working for his brother at Tomb and Reeves Surf Shop which was located at Indian Harbor Beach. In the fall of 1970 Gary Chapman and Jeff Hakman were in Florida promoting Plastic Fantastic Surfboards and ran into Jack. Gary who was a good surfer and knew some board builders on the North Shore talked Jack into coming to Hawaii. So Jack and Gary drove across country from Florida to California.

While in California Gary went to Hawaii and Jack went south to Del Mar, there he met Paul Johnson who told him about a place to stayed at Tony Channin’s' shop which had a loft. While staying there he met Mike Diffenderfer who was the main shaper and part owner. He was offered a job doing glassing but turned it down since his main destination was Hawaii.

It wasn’t long before Jack was on his way over to Hawaii. Once in Hawaii Jack would stop by Jeff Hakman’s house and surprise his friend. When Jeff opened the door, Jack said “here I am” referring to their last conversation back in Florida. Jack started doing some glassing for Mike Carlson who was part of Plastic Fantastic. Danny Calahan and Jim Turner were one of the notable shapers on the North Shore at this time. Mike Diffenderfer had gone to France and Brewer was on Kauai.

Jack started glassing for Dick Brewer in 1971, this was the time when Owl Chapman, and Sam Hawk were Brewer’s main riders. Long time shapers Larry Felker and Kenny Tilton were shaping for Brewers at this time also. There were some glass jobs for Lightning Bolts Surfboards in Town but his main glassing was for Brewers.

One thing led to another and Jack started working for Country Surfboards and would eventually buy out their glass shop. One day Mike Horax and Mike Turkington who were partners of Country Surfboards asked Jack if he would let Don Koplien have a shop within his shop. Jack was cool about it and said whatever. So Don built a room in the middle of Jack’s shop. They got along and Jack remembers Don was a real good guy and a real good craftsman.

Working in the Haleiwa shop for a couple years, Jack decided to work out of other shops on the North Shore. One of his shop was at Rocky Point, which he glassed there for about 7 years. After that Jack moved on to his Sunset Point shop for 10 years, it was a big garage turned into a glassing shop. Since then he has been at another shop near Sunset Beach for the last 11 years.

Jack putting in foot strap boxes for a tow-in board