MISSOULA - If you have ever walked through Caras Park and seen surfers at Brennan’s Wave you have probably wondered “What, how, and where do they get those boards?”
Some of the surfers are cutting on short boards or long boards - and a select few are riding on Jocko Surf Boards.
“I fell in love with surfing eight or nine years ago," said Dylan Snyder. "From that day on I was just hooked.”
The rush of water beneath foot, river glow, and community is what keeps these river surfers coming back for more.
And the guy crushing Brennan’s wave is Snyder, an avid river surfer who turned his love for the wave into a business — one board at a time.
Snyder says the process of making a board is tedious: "First, shaping your board,” said Snyder. “Then you come out and you laminate it with a fiberglass weave.”
His business started about a year ago: "Being so obsessed with surfing I was like, I gotta make some boards and like thinking about all the endless shapes and designs there are."
Snyder has made 11 boards for surfers out here at the wave.
“He custom makes them for every surfer, every range, every surf style,” said Brennan's Wave surfer Adam Duerk.
For Duerk, riding a Jocko Board brings an added experience to the wave, because his friend and surf buddy makes them.
“All of us are river brothers and sisters out here," Duerk told MTN News. "Dylan is one of my river brothers.”
Making boards brings a new challenge for Snyder.
“It's like a skill where you never reach an endpoint," said Snyder. "You're never going to know everything and there's always something else you can try.”
The best way for you to get a Jocko board is to send Dylan a message on Instagram @jockoboards. Prices start at $550 and go up as you customize it. Snyder also runs a ding-and-dent repair shop for boards.
