Surfboard-maker Terry Martin dies at 74

Well into his 70s, Terry Martin could be found most days in his workshop in the Orange County community of Dana Point, sanding blocks of polyurethane foam into precision-shaped surfboards.

Over a nearly six-decade career, he is said to have shaped more surfboards than anyone else -- some 80,000 -- although the exact number is unknowable.

His output and perfectionism made him an icon among the tight-knit fraternity of surfing's best shapers, one of a dwindling number of craftsmen who earn a living making surfboards by hand.

Martin, 74, died May 12 at his home in Capistrano Beach after a battle with melanoma. His death was announced by the Hobie Surf Shop in Dana Point, where he worked off and on for 40 years.

"He wanted to get out there and make another board up until the day he died," said his wife of 43 years, Candy. "He was at his happiest when he was making people happy in the water."

Martin's career spanned surfing's transformation from a fringe sport. As the sport's popularity has surged, the custom boards by hand-shapers have been largely replaced by factory-made products. "It's becoming a lost art," Martin said in 2007. "It's not something that can just be pumped out of a machine. Where's the soul in that?"

Martin grew up in San Diego. He took up surfing at 14, on a 13-foot, 85-pound wooden board -- standard issue for 1952.

He built his own board, of redwood and balsa he salvaged from a lumberyard trash heap. It was shorter, lighter and easier to maneuver. Other surfers took note, and soon Martin was taking orders and making wood boards in his father's garage.

In 1963 he pestered surfing entrepreneur Hobie Alter to hire him as a shaper in his burgeoning Orange County shop.

Besides his wife, Martin is survived by two sons and a daughter.