48: Surfer and Surfboard Shaper Leo Ravina

Earlier this month I had the luck to catch my friend Leo Ravina for a sit-down interview about his life as a surfboard builder and surfer in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, our shared home. 

The first 30 seconds of our interview!

In the interest of expanding my skills in crafting questions, unearthing interesting stories, and general interviewing, I am setting my sights on doing regular feature pieces on people I know and find interesting. Whether they have a unique lifestyle, an uncommon story, niche wisdom, or passion that lights them up as individuals, I want to find a way to capture and share it for the sake of us all. 

You can watch the full interview here. If you like these, subscribe to my YouTube channel to help me keep making more!

It was a rainy and dark Tuesday evening when I headed out down the road to Leo’s place, which is actually where I used to live last year as one of his roommates before moving to Italy. I brought my tripods and took photos with a free Nikon D40 I still don’t quite know how to use--especially when it’s dark--so excuse my Auto mode blurs from long exposures and unsteady shots.

With two Miller lites in hand, we sat down in the terrarium room full of plant life and surf paraphernalia in the remaining light of the dying day, and thus, we began. Why does it sound so dramatic? Anyway, not all of the quotes are transcribed word for word, some are paraphrased for brevity and clarity. I also shortened my commentary to highlight Leo’s answers. 

Leo and my boyfriend, Franko, in the storage area for board blanks.

Me: “So, here I am with the legendary surfboard shaper[builder] and surfer, Leo Ravina. For the people that don’t know you, who are you and what do you do?”

Leo: “I’m a surfboard builder. Though shaping is part of my job, I do the whole process from…usually from start to finish.. Not always with WRV you know there's a whole crew, whole team there. But usually I shape them, glass them, pinline them, airbrush sometimes depending on the job. But yeah! It’s not just shaping, I’m a board builder.”

Me: “And you work for both WRV (Wave Riding Vehicles) as well as do your own custom work under ‘Uncle Leo’s Surfboards’, right?”

Leo: “Yes, so I work full time with WRV shaping, machining, glassing, pin-lining and what not, and then Uncle Leo’s is what got me to where I am now, but it’s becoming more of a passion project. So all the boards that I want to make that they don’t approve of or they know won’t sell, I’m willing to bite the bullet on that one. Because I want to see it exist and I want to make it and so I make it but it’s mutually beneficial to both parties, it’s kind of like Lockheed Martin and Skunkworks… That’s kind of how I explain it it’s like you know I’ll do all the far out crazy stuff with Uncle Leo’s and if I like it it’s like you know I think we could sell this. You know I start implementing it more with WRV boards. They don’t know they want to but once I start doing it they’re like … yeah we want it.”

Photo of Leo at work in the shaping bay by WRV (Wave Riding Vehicles).

Me: “Alright so that’s a good overview for the people, now let’s reel it back to some questions so people can get to understand your personality better. What’s your favorite album/musician right now?”

Leo: “Oh boy. I’ve been listening to a lot of Jimmy Buffet, the last couple months I got really into Jimmy Buffet…A-1-A [1974], great album. Uh Volcano [1979], very fun there’s a lot of hits on there so anyone who’s trying to get into Jimmy Buffet I recommend Volcano. Uh. Living And Dying In 3/4 Time[1973], it’s very relatable to living on the beach.”

Me: “It reminds me of that WWJBD sticker you have on the back of your van, ‘What would Jimmy Buffet Do?’ hahaha…”

Leo: “Yeah that sticker was actually a gift haha”

Me: “Okay, If this season of your life had an episode title, what would it be?”

Leo: “I think it would be… this is gonna be the best summer again. I was thinking about it the other day actually…yeah yeah it’s like every year I’m like this summer is gonna be sick! And I’m having such a good time with everything with my friends and hanging out on the beach and surfing and just the whole thing. It's like man, every summer for the rest of my life could be the best summer for the rest of my life… so let’s keep it rolling. MAYBE, gotta dial it back a bit in some areas, partied pretty hard there through April haha [Me: It was your birthday month! haha] coming into 30, coming into 30. Haha”

Me: “Beach or Mountains?”

Leo: “It's a tough call. I don’t ski like I used to but I did it for shit…13 years. Hard core. Really going as hard as surfing um but I don't think I could ever be away from the ocean again, or just a large body of water for that matter. I guess the great lakes would kind of count. I know guys surfing up there so we would still have fun.”

Me: “Coffee or tea?”

Leo: “Coffee. I wanna go fast gabby I wanna go fast! Haha”

Me: “Okay so back to more specific life questions… Where are you from and how did you end up in the Outer Banks?”

Leo: “Hell it’s a long crazy story but I grew up in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Um, a Coal region. We have a funny silly dialect everybody thinks I’m from Canada but actually the dialect is called ‘coal cracker’. I moved down here probably about 7 years ago uh yeah I just kinda couldn’t get a job after college and I always wanted to build boards so it just kind of happened that way. I never knew there was such a thriving industry, or once upon a time a thriving industry on the Outer Banks even though it was once the gem of the east coast, but now with better wetsuit technology like in Maine there's a lot more structure and so everybody kind of moved North with better surfing… but we still have great waves and its still a mecca in some kind of weird way.”

Me: “Do you think OBX surf is as good as it was a decade ago? Why/why not?”

Leo: “I know guys that say it isn’t. Uh I was so bad at surfing when I got here that I wouldn’t know the difference between good surf and shitty surf. So I think it just comes and goes. We live on a sandbar, it's constantly changing, constantly evolving. Breaks pop up here, they pop up there, they disappear here, disappear there. Ya know there's some places that stay tried and true but ya know it’s part of the environment here [Me: Right, it’s a shifting place] it’s constantly changing.”

Me: “How long did it take to go from your first job here at a hot dog stand to a surfboard shaper?”

Leo: “I was here… I don’t even think I was here for a full season. Because I moved down in the summer and that fall I got hired by WRV as a sander, glosser, polisher, and fin-setter. And it was just like that! Yeah, so the summer was fun. We really burnt it out. I didn't really know what was going to happen but uh yeah the WRV thing was really clutch. It was a weird time to come in too.”

Vintage pilot helmet with “Make love not war” painted on it below cutouts of fin shapes in Leo’s garage.

Me: “So, tying it all back in with uh what you mentioned earlier about college. You have an engineering degree. Do you feel it helps with your work?”

Leo: “It’s uh.. It’s funny. Everybody’s like you’re an engineer you’re an engineer. The title of my degree is like… so ridiculously long so I stopped telling people what it is because the immediate question is ‘what’s that?’ So I have a Bachelor's degree in Industrial and Human Factors Design with an emphasis on Prosthetics and Ergonomics. That’s a very fancy way of saying product designer that worked with prosthetics. But it’s mostly product design so I think it really in hindsight really paid off. Just working with surfboards in general you've really got to connect with them [Me: Right, it’s an extension of yourself] Yes! Pretty much, be it expressional or actually physical and stuff like that. So I think it paid off… Do my parents think so? I don't know hahah.”

Me: “Haha yes the classic conundrum. So your specialty is longboards. Why longboards?”

Leo: “Yes they are my specialty. I am absolutely obsessed with boards from the 60s, obsessed with the 60s in general! I love…it’s just such a dynamic time in space and socially and economically and all these wild things were happening and so much change happening and, specifically with surfboards, it went from zero to one hundred at a rate that we’ve only just recently seen once again… but not even quite in design terms but shit… surfing to me I mean I grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania so when I first saw surfing…Everybody asks well how did you get into surfing? And I thought well The Beach Boys were really groovy and I saw the movie Endless Summer and they're all on longboards and like that's what swayed me, ya know? They're knee paddling and there’s girls on the beach and they're hanging out and they're having a good time and I’m like… I wanna do that!

And you get to the beach and there's a bunch of guys on short boards and it's like what's the deal with that? You can’t knee paddle on one of those! [hahaha] That’s physically impossible! And yeah so that was a huge sway in my direction and even building boards, especially longboards, it's kind of a direct connection to that time period and it's one of the only things I’d say besides hot rods that’s like directly correlated to those ya know 50s, 60s and into the 70s so I’m obsessed. So it’s past the point of like…oh he likes longboards. Haha.”

A surfing trophy of sorts in Leo’s living room.

Me: “I love that haha it’s so true. Are there any shapers, and I mean surfboard builders too, or surfers you look up to?”

Leo: “I mean don’t get me wrong like Marty Kiesecker, he was with the company since its inception. I mean I love his boards, they're sick. It's cool hanging with him and talking with him and stuff like that uh… as far as surfers that changed my world a little bit I’m gonna toss my own boy out there a little bit, but freaking Willy. He wants everybody to have as much fun as he’s having. And all those days where I used to paddle out there and get pissed off there were all these guys who used to look at me and be like “man we don’t wanna talk to you, you look mean.” And everybody wants to hang out with Willy because Willy is such a positive influence. I’m like, you know. Willy is it. He brings such a feeling to the lineup. He wants everybody to have fun. And surfing should be fun, that’s what it all comes down to. I really do love him for that. He’s out of his fucking mind, I love him to death but he’s out of his fucking mind but goddamn if he isn’t a damn good surfer and a lot of fun to just be friends with.”

Me: “What makes this place special compared to other surf towns?”

Leo: “That’s a good one. I’ve been around a little[...] I’ve done most of the Southeastern US with work and trucking around with contests and stuff like that and I've gone to all these beach towns and some of them come close but there's just something about this place. 

Especially Kitty Hawk for me. It just feels like home. You know they keep trying to build it up and shit and they fail at it. Because it just can’t be [built up]. It just is what it is. I like the shitty little bars. I like that it’s like…I get sick of eating Art’s burgers all the time [haha] but like at the end of the day this is my spot I like hanging here. I like looking down at the beach at the breaks that I surf. It just makes me happy. It feels like my hometown here. There’s a huge sense of community. Even I mean I’d say I know everybody, I don’t know everybody but in the surf scene I’ve probably seen you once or twice in the water ya know? 
If you’re a kook, you’re a kook. If you’re a good guy, you’re a good guy, whatever but I've probably seen you before when I’m out there smiling haha.”

Me: “For the people that don’t know typical surfing terms, what would you define kook as for context for people?”

Leo: “That’s a good one uhh haha… You know you say these things and you think everybody knows it haha. We’re all kooky in our own ways. I mean I paddled out the other day wearing a 1930s bowler hat and guys were looking at me paddling past them and they’re like, ‘This guy is out of his fucking mind’ and I’m like, ‘I am out of my fucking mind.’ 

I would say in the general sense a Kook is somebody who just doesn’t know what’s going on around them, ya know they're paddling cutting people off, they're just totally oblivious to the situation and sometimes it can be harmful. They just have no business being out there. 

Not saying everyone on a soft top is a kook…but ya know maybe you should get a fiberglass longboard hahaha. But there’s signs ya know everybody’s gotta start somewhere too we're all kooks in our own ways and if you’re beginning and getting into it, you’re not gonna know. It’s like starting anything else. There's silly folk out there that’s the polite way of putting it.”

Leo in action from his Instagram @uncleleos_surfboards, unsure of photographer.

Me: “What advice would you give your younger self?”

Leo: “If I could tell my younger self anything...I’d tell him just to relax and have more fun. I spent so many years focusing so hard on getting ahead. And it's all paid off in the end, but I feel like I may have pissed some of it away, ya know, just going too hard to make my career better, my life better, and stuff like that. Just have more fun and just dig it. Don’t be so up tight ya know. It don’t matter. Have confidence in yourself because you’re the one who’s gonna make it happen. You look back on it and you’re like damn. Why didn’t I take that chance? Why didn't I do that thing like it probably would've been a lot of fun. So that’s my only regret or something I’d tell my younger self.”

Me: “Is there anything you’d like to say to the audience?”

Leo: “Surfboards are the best and surfing should be fun so go out there and get one and we’ll all have fun together! Hahaha”

Thank you for reading! If you are local to the Outer Banks and have any suggestions for interesting people you’d like to see featured, comment below. - gab