Born and raised in Maui, Weisfeld and his wife moved to Alpena, her hometown, after losing their house and surfboard factory in the Lahaina wildfire.

“It was kind of hard for me to come here because my career choice and my creative outlet of making surfboards is pretty tied to, well, what I thought was the ocean, but I guess the lakes now, too,” he said.

Since moving here in June, Weisfeld has made a goal to introduce Alpena and the surrounding area to surfing and doing more activities in the Great Lakes, saying he’d like to open the Sunrise Side’s first surf shop with custom boards, wetsuits, and surfboard/paddleboard rentals, as well as offer repairs.

“I would love to have the Sunrise Side’s first surf shop,” he said. “I think it could be really cool. Not everybody — most people, in fact — are not going to be in the market for a high-end, custom board. But that’s something, if more people progressed, they could be interested in.”

News Photo by Torianna Marasco Sunrises and northern lights were the inspiration for this board created by Joshua Weisfeld seen Tuesday.

He said having cheaper alternatives and rentals will engage people and draw them in, allowing him to continue his passion.

In 2013, Weisfeld created his first “real” surfboard from a blank, but he has been messing with composites for over 20 years.

Weisfeld said it all began when he was creating the skateboards he would use for racing in the World Cup of Downhill Skateboard competition.

“I was making the skateboards I was racing on,” he said. “That was my initial introduction, and I kind of ran through the paces of competitive skateboard racing and traveling. I was living abroad in Canada for a while, and ended up moving back home to Maui and got back into surfing.”

He said looking at the boards you surf on and the high-end skateboards he was making at the time, the materials were very similar. He tore apart an old longboard and reshaped it as one of the first experiments.

Courtesy Photo Joshua Weisfeld is seen surfing.

Weisfeld’s surfboards are created using classic construction methods and can take 10 to 25 hours to complete, based on the complexity of the build or design.

The surfboards are constructed out of either a polyurethane or expanded polystyrene blank, which is shaped with various hand tools. It is then covered in fiberglass saturated with resin, which is then sanded to have a smooth honed finish. Color can be added to either the fiberglass or resin to craft designs or a more traditional, solid-tone finish.

He said he sometimes uses measuring tools and templates to create the boards, but a lot of it is by eye, a training he’s learned to perfect over time.

Weisfeld worked in a surfboard factory, the biggest on Maui, for a year, where he was properly trained.

“It was really awesome, but really heartbreaking at the same time,” he said. “It was awesome because I learned and got to be in the factory, learning from pros, but I also saw, on a production standpoint and scale, how people wash over details and send things out the door that are going to break or be a problem shortly after the surfer rides it for the first time.”

Courtesy Photo Joshua Weisfeld works on a surfboard in his workshop in this undated photo.

He said he was a bit disheartened by that, but it led him to craft high-quality surfboards himself, made with care.

“It wasn’t really paying the bills at the time, but was filling the soul,” he said of making surfboards.

Growing up in Hawaii, he said he’s so accustomed to people always being in the water, but he thinks it’s a different culture here in Alpena.

“I’m getting to experience what I’ve never experienced before, and that’s having space,” he said. “Everyone is on top of each other in Hawaii. You can’t go anywhere cool without a bunch of people being there.”

Weisfeld said that now he’s in Alpena, he’s hoping to play a part in getting people in the water more.

Courtesy Photo Joshua Weisfeld and his wife Emily pose for a photo together.

Since moving here in June, he said there were some days that he saw the possibilities of surfing in parks along the coastline, claiming it could easily be possible to find surf nearby.

“They’re perfect learning waves,” he said. “Great waves for people who want to learn since it’s shallow enough that they can stand up at any time.”

“There isn’t really surf in the Thunder Bay,” he continued. “But there’s a lot of waves around the Thunder Bay. And the water as a resource is insane, how much of it there is, how expansive, it’s beautiful, and nobody’s in it.”

Despite not a lot of surfing happening in Thunder Bay, Weisfeld said he’s considering the possibility of expanding his work into something more suited for the community. He said wake surfing and paddle boards are something he could see himself doing to get people out there.

Weisfeld said that though it’s not yet in the works, he’s been brainstorming the possibility of opening his own shop in the area. He also said he’d like to see if there’s anything he can do about bringing Gone Boarding, a scholastic program at schools where they teach kids to make surfboards, skateboards, paddleboards, snowboards, etc., to local schools.

News Photo by Torianna Marasco Surfboards created by Joshua Weisfeld are seen drying in his workshop on Tuesday.

“It could bring in something else,” he said. “Getting started and getting this up, like this is a skill that could be taught, and there could be surfboard jobs in Alpena … It’d be cool to have something like that or have a surf shop where people could work at, or even surf instructors in Alpena.”

He said he’d love to see kids get involved in the area, especially as he has a young son who he hopes to teach to surf and make boards one day.

“I would love for him and other kids to have an opportunity to experience the joy and excitement for surfing and working with your hands,” he said. “It’d be great to see the kids up here having an outlet and getting to utilize the expansive coastline up here.”

In the meantime, he said his online presence is going to help him continue to sell until the surf scene hopefully grows in Alpena.

“Mostly everything is going to be going elsewhere,” he said about selling the boards nationwide. “Doesn’t mean we can’t build it here.”

Weisfeld said if anyone has old boards kicking around, he’d love to see them. In Hawaii, he specialized in restoring vintage boards from the 1960s and 1970s.

Connect with Weisfeld on Instagram @jaw.surf and check out his website, jawsurfboards.com.

Courtesy Photo Joshua Weisfeld holds a surfboard in this undated courtesy image.