(light music) - I realized in 2005 that I could probably do this for a living and do something that I love and enjoy and make a good product for other people.

I wanted to make great shapes for people.

Nothing excites me more than someone coming back and saying, "Hey, that's the best board I ever road."

Mainly it's because when they come back and they're stoked and they're like, "Man, that was it.

That was the best board."

The feeling that you get from that and having somebody with that type of excitement is just, it fuels me.

- My brother was a huge influence on my life.

He always been a hero of mine.

He's probably the main reason that I went to the Navy.

We've always done good together and I enjoy being around my brother every day.

- I was in the Navy for 20 years.

I retired as a chief petty officer.

- I served for 21 years and retired as a chief petty officer.

- As an air crewman, I flew in airplanes all the time.

I started taking all these principles that I learned from 20 years of military aviation and I started putting that into my surfboard.

And so, that led me to being able to get a better finished product.

- The inspiration probably came from 21 years of experience and composites which are your epoxies, your fiberglass, your carbon fiber, all of that different stuff on jets it just rolled right over into this and was a real fit.

- I do either the shape itself and the cut.

I go upstairs and glass it and then my little brother is the sander and he puts in the leash plugs and the fin boxes.

If I started shaping, because I didn't necessarily get what I wanted from the shapes that I had and I didn't know how to express it so I started doing the expression on foam.

- His passion for this industry and for the art of surfboards in general is amazing.

Every day he lives surf boards.

- He understands me and how I glass and that makes him a better sander.

People were telling me like, "Hey man, you can't just make white boards.

You need to have a logo."

I went to my kids and I was like, "Hey, we need a logo for the surf board."

My oldest daughter came up with the one, "40 Toes."

I was like, "What's "40 Toes," I don't get it?"

And she's like, "It's how many toes are in our family."

And I was like, "Oh, I get it, yes."

She made a logo out of sidewalk chalk and water.

And then me and my wife and my daughter stepped in that and made the logo.

Continuing on with that logo has really brought our family together in the aspect that we designed this together and it's still going and it's something we've done as a family.

- Organization is Disabled Veteran Surf Club and basically it's building a community of surfers that help each other cope with different situations and to spread ocean therapy to other veterans.

What we do is we take out a small group of veterans and we go out and we introduce them to surfing.

It takes your mind off everything and it brings you into community of other like-minded individuals who can help each other with their struggles.

The surf shop wanted me to come by and talk a little bit about how they could help out with the organization.

He said, "You know, we wanna get together with you.

We wanna help you get some surfboards to get more guys out in the water."

Well, shortly after that I meet Joe.

What he's doing now is he's gonna start a chapter in Florida, in San Diego, Gulf Coast, and also on the Texas Coast.

That's where I found my peace and I wanted other veterans to find that same peace that I found.

- The art comes in to what you take with that shape and what you can do with it and how you can personalize it to every individual that comes in.