ABOUT

The Maker and Vision

Paul Surf is the creative studio of Paul J. Schmidt – designer, shaper, artist, and engineer. Every surfboard and art piece is conceived, shaped, glassed, and finished entirely by hand in a converted shipping container studio in Rockaway Beach, New York.

The philosophy is simple: true mastery requires full ownership of the creative process, from raw material to finished work.

THE JOURNEY

From Craft Tradition to Creative Studio

Raised by a carpenter, Paul learned precision and respect for material before he learned to shape surfboards. After earning an MFA in Poetry from Brooklyn College and working for a SoHo design studio specializing in handmade glass chandeliers, he founded Paul Surf in 2014.

The poetry degree taught obsessive attention to structure and rhythm – every line must be intentional. The chandelier work taught him to engineer suspended systems and manipulate light through resin. These experiences converged in his invention of The Chandelier Technique, a gravity-fed apparatus that produces gradient work with unprecedented control.

Over a decade and 10,000+ hours of shaping and glassing, Paul has become one of the few craftsmen worldwide who hand-builds surfboards entirely from start to finish. Each piece reflects this singular authorship: rocker curves informed by thousands of waves surfed, resin work calibrated by hand, every surface hand-finished.

THE STUDIO

A Shipping Container on the Edge of New York

Paul works from a converted shipping container at a marina in Rockaway Beach, where the Atlantic meets the edge of New York City. The studio is modest, almost covert – you'd never know what's being created inside. But from raw foam blank to finished sculpture, every Paul Surf piece is built here: shaped by hand, laminated with proprietary techniques, and finished with the obsessive attention that defines the work.

The location is intentional. Rockaway sits at the intersection of urban density and wild coast, where subway trains end and surf begins. It reflects the duality Paul explores in his work – where surf culture meets fine art, where engineering serves aesthetics, where functional objects that perform in the ocean also command attention on the wall.

Select Commisions and Partnerships

Paul Surf has created commissioned work for Tiffany & Co., Oakley, and Faherty Brand, alongside pieces held in private collections across North America and Europe. Each collaboration maintains the studio's uncompromising standards – whether for a global brand or an individual collector, every piece receives the same level of craft and attention.