NIGHT TRAIN SURFBOARDS
Night Train custom surfboards built for the individual. Shaped and glassed by Jack Sabala in Southern California. Our goal is not to mass produce a bunch of identical boards. The goal is to create a small number unique surfboards catered to the individuals needs and style. No two people are created alike and either should your surfboard. Our differences is what makes life interesting and we want to celebrate that. Don’t follow the herd, be unique, be yourself.
I started my career building surfboards as the shop kid at Waterman’s Guild. Cleaning up boards and doing minor repairs. Eventually I started staying late and watching the others guys work. Taking mental notes of everything they did. After a while I stared glassing my own boards from start to finish. Later in my career as a glasser I got the opportunity to glass boards for my good friend Robin Kegel.
In 2009 I was asked to go with Robin to Japan to glass some boards. After six weeks traveling all over Japan I decided I wasn’t going home. I spent the next year traveling through Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East. When I was in India I met a Japanese surfer who had an extra board with him for me to use. I spent a month with him surfing at a beach in Kovalam. It was there that I decided that if I was going to stay in the surf industry I needed to learn how to shape and start my own board company. When I eventually came back home I reconnected with Tim Stamps and asked him to help me shape my first board. After that I would take my shaped boards to Tim to have him critique them. I came to his shop one day with a newly shaped board and he said “ You Ready”. Thus, Night Train surfboards was born.
It was at this time that I had the honor of doing some finish shaping for Bruce Jones just before he passed away. I have been so lucky to be able to learn from such amazing board builds to whom I will be forever indebted to. The name Night Train came from my main mode of transportation when I was traveling. The beauty of the night train was that you got on in one city and when you woke up you were in a completely new place. Traveling opened up my life to so many unique experiences and showed me how different and exciting life can be.
