What’s your name and what fills your time?
Mike Whisnant. Whisnant Surfboards. My time is dominated these days with shaping and managing the manufacture of my own brand of surfboards as well as several other lines including Von Sol.
Anything special going on for this summer?
Nothing much more this summer than most past years. Juggling time between work and family is always a challenge but we always get it right in the end. Summer is a big time of year at the factory because with school out it’s full-on competition season and with so many excellent young surfers coming out of the First Coast I am beyond proud to have my boards ridden by many of the top young competitors.
Any hobbies or interests worth telling us about?
I don’t know if it’s so much a hobby or not, but I do get to work with a lot of these young surfers who represent my boards and it’s a great feeling knowing that my experience is imparted to so many in the form of teaching kids about board design in a way that fits their personal body type, their style of surfing, teaching them how to understand board design at a young age so when they get older they know exactly what designs what will work for them depending on what location in the world they are going to be surfing.
What’s one thing (funny, different, cool) that many might not know about you?
Well, let’s see… I think it’s pretty cool that in all my years of being in the surfboard design and manufacturing business that I have been recognized as an industry leader according to some pretty tough standards. This recognition resulted in an invitation to the Florida Shape-Off at the Surf Expo in 2011. The Challenge was to copy one of Joe Shriver’s (WRV) last boards, a step deck shortboard. Out of all of the many talented East Coast shapers, I won by replicating the board closest to perfection in 45 min! I won again in 2015, and in 2016 I even won the Master of Masters!
How do you like living on the First Coast?
I love living here. My life is here and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else now. Besides surfing I have a pretty amazing family life, I have connected with so many incredibly awesome people from here and my community is as important to me as I guess it is to others who are proud to call North Florida home.
What’s the best part of living here on the First Coast?
The best part about the First Coast is the people. It doesn’t matter if you’re mostly into fishing, or golf or surfing or music or traveling or what. There’s something about the people here who transcend their profession and seem to accept their friends and neighbors (and even their competitors for the most part), on a level of equality that I’m sure exists other places, but that I see here on a daily basis and it just makes a lot of things very worthwhile to be here.
Anything else that you would like to tell the community?
I talked a lot about surfing in these questions because that is where my life and my focus are, but aside from surfing, don’t let any one thing define you. We are all just people trying to get through this thing we call life. Be kind, be considerate and be helpful because in the end you never know what is going to come your way. Breathe in and smile and say, “Yeah!”
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Mike is a native First Coaster and was a leading figure in surfing and skateboarding for most of his life. After promoting music for many years on the local music scene, Mike now brings a unique perspective to FirstCoast.Life as a contributing writer.
