About Jeff 'Doc' Lausch

Jeff 'Doc' Lausch - Surf Prescriptions

View all of Doc's Surf Prescriptions models or order now here

When did you start shaping? 1970
Approximately how many surfboards have you shaped?
Hummm good question I have been at it for 40 years but really have no idea. Quite a few for sure.
Where is your business located?
Surf Prescriptions 17671 Metzler Ln. A-10 Huntington Beach Ca. 92647
Other than online at Lunasurf.co.uk, where would a surfer find your boards?
At many of the best core Surf shops both here and abroad. Like HSS, Jacks, Aqua in San Francisco, On the East Coast at Aussie Island N.C. and South End N.C. to name a just a few. Oh and Surfboardbuilders.com. Nakisurf.com, Supreme Japan and All Oceans Costa Rica and Spain.
What shapers influenced you early in your career?
Diff,Brewer, learned the most from Shawn Stussy but also from pretty much everyone who has made some sweet shapes in the past 40 years. With extra respect to what’s happening in surfboards right this minute
What are the main influences in your designs today?
Number one would be team riders for sure. Those guys keep me on track and razor sharp. Then I am attracted to flowing lines, like everything needs to flow together in a clean and refined manner.

Jeff 'Doc' Lausch with team riders Ian Battrick, Donovan Frankenreiter, Timmy Turner

at the Surf Prescriptions factory

How would you describe your shaping philosophy?
Make something fresh and continually dial it in while making sure everything flows together. I really love to get outside the box and mix things up.
What do you get out of shaping that you couldn’t get from any other kind of work?
Foam dust in my ears and a warm fuzzy feeling when my patient reports back with something like ‘’I had the best surf of my life, so stoked…’’.
What do you enjoy most/least about surfboard shaping?
Most….Love filling prescriptions and have my patients report back with positive results and that the board I made them took their surfing to the next level.
Least…. Hate getting foam dust in my eyes.
What personal characteristics do you feel are necessary to be a successful shaper?
There are two traits that all good shapers possess one is some form of artistic creativity the other one being some type of scientific mathematic engineering skills. My forte is defiantly the former but my engineering skills have really progressed in the last 20 years or so. Ultimately you’re only as successful as the performance of your work and the level of stoke that the people get who ride the boards you shape.
How do you bridge the gap between the business and artistic/design side of shaping?
Here in lies the hardest part of it. It’s almost like to be really good at both aspects you’d need to be full on Bipolar or something. Fortunately for me my wife handles a lot of the business side of things which frees me up to concentrate on what I do best shaping designing and creating. Thank you Amber.
Describe yourself in five words.
Artistic, eccentric, passionate, authentic and humbled daily
Tell us about the most rewarding surfboard design you have been involved with in your career.
In the in 2000 I was working with Brad Gerrlach on these beyond flat deck boards we called Y2RSQ’s. I was making boards for full-grown men under 2’’ thick. They featured single to double concave bottoms and slightly concave decks. The theory was to make then thin on the stringer which resulted in madd flex, while leaving the rails quite full or boxey. These boards perform best for back foot power surfers who really put it all into their turns. Definitely not for the finesse type of surfers.  Jay Larson was one team rider who the boards fit perfectly. He had the best results of his career on the Y2RSQ designs. I still do the Y2RSQ boards as they have a following that still claim they are the best designs for their style of surfing. We made this grovel version of the Y2RSQ they had a super wide tail with like a 7’’ wide tail hard square chopped off tail block. Kind of funny one of the most popular surfers in the world has been showing up on something similar. .  
Give us an example of a board you designed that was completely different from what was popular in surfing at the time.
About 10 years ago Donavon Frankenreiter ask me if I had any ideas about finless surfboards to which I responded that I had an idea in my head for years but never did anything with . He says make it and he’d blow it up so I did and he did. We got a fair amount of coverage with that board and I still do an odd one or two year. We call it the USO unidentified surfing object and got some play in Surfer mag. We made a cool little short film about it and Donavon got some clips in a couple of videos with it. I actually made one for the art of shaping sponsored by Billabong at the sacred craft/ ASR show last year and won an award with it.  It’s funny that the finless surfboard became such a big thing we were just a bit ahead of our time.
Where do you see the future of surfboard design headed?
I see people coming back to boards made in America by  American craftsmen who take pride in what they do.
What makes your boards different from others on the market?
I think people who are attracted to my surf designs and label aren’t followers. They are more free thinkers and move to their own beat. My brand Surf Prescriptions really is self explanatory in that your board is a prescription for you to do what you want on the waves you ride.
Of the current models you offer, which are your favorites and why?
Wow I have some personal favs for sure.I love surfing more than ever so my boards are more important to me than ever. I pretty much have chicken legs and little back foot power so the RXP bottom I have been making for years now is my personal prescription. RXP features a forward double concave with ever so slight vee blending to a single concave out the tail. It’s like power steering really easy to get the board over on rail then once it’s on rail the single concave out the tail give speed and once you have speed anything is possible. I Just shaped myself a new 5’11’’ Buddy X model which is my popular New Buddy with the RXP bottom. It’s in the rack to get glassed today and I’m all fired up, can’t wait
Any words of advice for surfers looking to find a great board?
There are a lot of great surfboards available on the market today. With so many choices I’m sure it can be overwhelming. Shopping around before you pull the trigger is something you should consider. Talk to people and get some suggestions for some different sources but ultimately trust your own instincts and be feel free to move about the planet of surfboard options

'Doc' got his nickname from an original Huntington Beach California punk rocker in 1980. "Rex Collision" loved to give the punk nick names and Jeff was the recipient of "Doc Mad" because of the dust mask he'd wear that looked somewhat like a doctor's mask, as Jeff would emerge from the shaping room with his latest creation to the chorus of "There's Doctor Mad". Jeff made the mistake of complaining about the "Doc Mad" nick name, and well, the rest is history.

'Doc' started in a garage factory where he built Freedom Surfboards. In 1984 he got his first real factory and the Freedom Surfboards name just didn't seem to fit any more. He was "Doc" to everyone but his Mom and the cops so it was natural to name his surfboard company Surf Prescriptions by Jeff "Doc" Lausch.

To date he has been shaping boards for over 25 years. During this time he has focused mostly on high performance boards because, “It’s what keeps me excited about the sport and what I’m most comfortable with. I’ve been shaping since 1980 and still love it. It’s the best job in the world. Nothing is better than giving.”

When asked about the state of the industry and designs currently in the water he stated, “You, as a surfer, have more options than any surfer has ever had in the history of the sport! We at Surf Prescriptions are stoked to be on the forefront of new design technology that will ultimately bring your surfing experience to a whole new level. Surf Prescriptions is dedicated to offering the right design to all the fortunate souls who participate in the incredible experience of surfing!” 

Get Your Surf Prescription Click Here