I’m very fond of Thomas Bexon. He’s a big, bearded Koala that has created a worldwide buzz from mowing foam. When I recently received a call from the ‘Benkal’ at Deus explaining how I was invited to accompany him on a trip to Java I got very, very excited. I was presented with an interesting idea for my travel… leave all boards at home and take a stab at riding what Deus family member, Husni Rihwand, uses day in and day out. Husni had been fortunate enough to acquire a few of the Deus boards that Thomas had shaped at the Temple in Bali and I was granted access to the whole quiver. Anyone who has ever traveled with a longboard will understand how nice of an idea it was to leave my enormous board bag behind. The scheme came about so that I could familiarize myself with some of Thomas’s previously shaped longboards. Reason being that after doing so we planned to fly back to Bali for the creation of the first Deus ‘Harrison Roach Concept’ surfboard. I was on a plane with the bearded cross-stepper, twenty-four hours after the call. With an expected, if not totally underestimated swell, I began to understand just how much fun I could have on his shapes. I learnt a lot about Thomas’s style from riding his boards. With the knowledge came a sturdy confidence in what we could achieve together in the shaping bay.
-Harrison Roach
