WEST PALM BEACH, FL--In a landlocked West Palm Beach warehouse, ankle deep in wood shavings, a self-described retired surf bum and bartender, who left the beaches of Costa Rica behind, sands and shaves and saws old wood, looking to turn back the clock.
"This is a design that goes back to the thirties," Tom Orlando says.
Orlando says it came to him in a converstation with surfing buddy a few years back.
"We were talking about how toxic surf boards were, being made out of styrofoam and fiber."
Why not recycle and take shards and splinters of shatterred wood and make it seaworthy?
"Why couldn't it be back to the future where they put garbage in the car and it runs? Why can't you make a surfboard out of gargage?"
Well, you can.
With carpentry skills, honed by years in building,Tom set about making masterpieces out of refuse.
Between Palm Beach demolitions and discarded construction waste, there was plenty of wood to choose from.
"It's the dumpster for me. I'll be driving down the road. I see a house being renovated and screech. I stop," he explains.
From there it's mixing and blending all kinds of wood. It's long hot hours of painstaking work well out of earshot of the alluring roar of the Atlantic.
Buyers who will use them as decoration are already in place, and another board is on hold.
"That one is for a guy who would rather ride it than stand it in a corner or hang it on the wall," Tom says.
Tom's company is TJO Surfs
He can be reached at TJOSurfs@Hotmail.com
