Anton Butler

My name is Anton Butler I am 60 years old, and I have been a creative since I was born. I built my first board in 1982 at the age of 17 and from that day on I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I have been in the business for 40 years and have built over 7000 boards of which the majority were hand shaped.

I have been privileged to have worked with and taught by some of South Africa’s iconic shapers and board builders a few of which are sadly no longer with us. I did a year or two studying graphic design at UCT Michaelis art school, but I felt suffocated and there was too much creative control, so I decided to embark on a creative journey of my own that has led me to where I am now with Ferral surfboards. I became very interested in the technique of resin tinting when I started the Ferral brand 15 years ago. Resin tinting is a process where one mixes the colours into the resin when laminating the surfboard to get the effects that you see on the boards. It has taken me a long to get to a point where I feel I have control over the process.

I specialise in the art of throwing colours together in a random process that creates a marbling affect, as artists we always want some form of control over the medium we are using and that is where the skill comes into it.