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OBAMA SURFS?
Hawaiian shaper Glen Pang shapes, Jeannie Chesser airbrushes shortboard for president-elect
By: Marcus Sanders
SURF NEWS OBAMA SURFS?
December 24, 2008
23772 visits
Back in August, when a video surfaced of then presidential candidate Barack Obama bodysurfing Sandy Beach the surf community took notice. Politics aside, we'd never even really entertained the notion that we'd ever have a president who surfs.
 
And while not exactly pulling into death pits at Pipe or anything, the president elect is spending the holidays at home in Hawaii, and longtime T&C shaper Glenn Pang had an idea to get him a surfboard to take back to Washington. "Someone works at our office knows someone who knows Barack," explains Pang. "We're trying to get it to him now."
The classic shortboard is 6'2"x18 ¼" x 2 ¼" squashtail shaped by Pang and airbrushed by South Shore legend Jeannie Chesser, who spent eight hours painting a Hawaiian flag on the sanded finish. "The factory I work at is two doors down from them, but it was such a big job I took it home and painted it there," Chesser explains.

"It's not really shaped for him or anything," Pang continued. "If we did a board for him, it'd probably be a longboard. We're not even sure he surfs -- it's more for him to keep as a memento coming from Hawaii. Hopefully we can get the board to him soon so he can hang it up where lots of people can see it."
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