Darkfeather
By Charlie Kramb

A little about the art and myself

 

First I would like to share the vision and meaning behind the pieces that I build and then, if interested, you can take a few minutes and learn a little about me and my boards. 

 

~MY ART

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When I first started marrying driftwood with miniature surfboards, I lived two hours from the beach and missed the beauty of the boards and waves.  A VA Psychologist helped me realize that I needed something to focus on that would help with the PTSD I have dealt with for over 30 years.  I found that when I am creating one of my pieces that my mood was greatly improved and I woke up in the morning excited to have something to work on.  Building these pieces has become a therapy that has become a cornerstone of my mental health and self esteem. Each piece is a unique blend of natural driftwood and processed wood that I meld into a cohesive piece of art.  With each surfboard I try to create an authentic shape from nose and tail to fins and rails.  The lumber that I purchase to build the boards is hand selected to ensure minimal knots/defects, tightness of grain, and color of the wood.  Often my boards appear to be constructed of more species of wood than I actually use due to the varying colors of the Western Red Cedar that I use. I study the grain of each board, I visualize it, I feel it, I listen to what it tells me and I formulate a plan on how to best use it to produce a truly beautiful piece. The Driftwood comes mainly from the small town of Kilmarnock Virginia and locally procured pieces in South West Florida.  Each piece is  cleaned, treated, and scrutinized from every angle. Some pieces of driftwood I know what I want to create as soon as I see it, others can take hours or days to hear what the wood is saying, and because each piece of driftwood is unique in its own way, there can only ever be 1 like it!!  

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~Background

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I currently reside in Englewood Florida, but hail from Richmond Virginia.  I am married to the love of my life Shelbie, have four adult children and 4 grandbabies. I spent 31 years serving in the United States Military, 11 years in the Navy and 20 in the Virginia Army National Guard.  While I was with the Virginia Army National Guard I served as a GS-12 Web Developer for the United States Property and Fiscal Office for Virginia.  I was  medically retired from both the National Guard and the Federal position with the USPFO with a 100% Disability rating from the VA in 2017 and left Virginia for Florida in 2020. 
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I have always been drawn to the water, unfortunately I was involved in an accident while serving in the Navy that changed my opinion of the water.  On 21 Dec 1990 I was aboard a civilian ferry boat transporting sailors from the port of Haifa Israel to the USS SARATOGA CV-60.  At approximately 2400 the ferry boat TUVIA sank  killing 21 Sailors, I was 1 of 81 survivors.  While I was one of the extremely lucky ones that was resuscitated after being run over by one of the rescue boats, I have lived with that night ever since.   This incident was the cause of both Aquaphobia and Thalassophobia which obviously was extremely detrimental to my Naval Career.  It was through the surfing community and world that I was able to get myself back in the water.

 

~MY BOARDS 

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Even though I was able to work through many of my issues by returning to the beach, I was still plagued by severe PTSD and physical injuries. In 2012 I realized that between broken ankles, bad knees and a failed disk fusion in my lower back, that my surfing days were behind me.  It was at this time that I started building Hollow Core Stand Up Paddle Boards.  It was an extremely steep learning curve and my first SUP weighed in at over 75 lbs, probably closer to 90.  Over the years I refined my work and have been able to produce boards at the 20 - 25 lb range.  While I love making the SUPs, I realized that my medical limitations were causing extreme build times of 5-6 months per board.  I started digging into the history of wooden boards and came across the original prone boards, the Paipo.  The Paipo looks like a cross between a surfboard and a boogie board as it is short and meant to be ridden prone.  I have been building hollow core wooden paipo  for around 9 years and have found that an almost forgotten board has started to make a resurgence. When I originally started building my Paipo there were only two shapers on the East Coast, myself, a  company out of Florida, and a handful of folks on the West Coast and Hawaii.  As far as I know I am still the only hollow core wooden Paipo fabricator in the US.