This Costa Rican Hotel Is Backing World-Class Surfboard Shapers

It’s cooler once you’re inside. Step off the hot, dusty road choked with ATVs, motorbikes and trucks, and a certain multi-story concrete building in Santa Teresa offers more than a reprieve from the oppressive Costa Rican sun. Anyone can walk in from the street and get a glimpse into one of the more unique businesses in the country. 

On the surface, House of Somos looks like many of its neighboring establishments. It’s a hotel, bar and restaurant situated a minute away from the warm beachbreaks at the south end of the Nicoya Peninsula. But it’s also a fully functioning surfboard factory that pays shapers from around the world to build their products in-house. A quick browse through the shop reveals work from dozens of elite board builders, with names like Chris Christenson, Donald Brink, Alex Knost and Ryan Sakal peeking out under the glass. 

A love of making surfboards is the foundation of Somos. Co-founder Forrest Minchinton is a shaper and son of shaping legend Mike Minchinton, a man with 40 years of board-building experience, an estimated 15,000 handshapes to his name, and a member of the International Surfboard Builders Hall Of Fame. 

Having a fully-stocked shaping and glassing facility inside the hotel was part of the plan from the start, says co-founder and shaping residency manager Fabio Pacheco. The floor-to-ceiling windows offer guests a clear view of the craftsmen at work, a scene surfers may be accustomed to seeing on screen but rarely in person. “The whole idea is to bring to the front what most people in the surf world hadn’t seen before,” Fabio said. 

The end goal of Somos's program: give customers surfboards that are as well-made as anywhere in the world. Since the business opened its doors in December 2019, it’s seen a revolving door of shapers staying a week or two at a time. The duration and workload are flexible, but it usually amounts to over a week and 20-plus finished products. Somos also employs two experienced in-house sanders and glassers, ensuring quality control across the production line. As for the boards, each model is either sold off the retail rack, fulfills a custom order, or is placed in perhaps the most high-quality rental rack in Costa Rica.

Most of the rental quiver is filled with colorful longboards, mid-lengths, retro fishes, high-performance twin fins and asymmetrical shortboards; shapes are suited to handle the many moods of Santa Teresa’s beachbreaks. The team also holds the license for Ryan Lovelace’s Love Machine Surfboards, meaning that if you order a custom from the label in Costa Rica, Somos is where it's made. When I visited Somos this year, my favorite rental was a 6’7” x 19 ½” x 2 ½” blood red twin fin by Mike Minchinton. A breeze to paddle, but narrower than most shortboards with thin, knifey rails (This isn't a quid pro quo: I paid full price for the rental and did not stay at the hotel).

Creating and sustaining a board-building operation in a developing country is not a simple or inexpensive process. The Somos team imports materials, blanks, resin and fiberglass from the US. An off-site CNC machine cuts the raw blanks, which are delivered on trucks. 

“It’s tricky. It’s not the easiest place to build boards,” Fabio said. “Santa Teresa is basically an island within Costa Rica. But we try to keep everything top-notch. I think we can tell our efforts are proving themselves because we have shapers coming back again and again.”

For Oahu-based Josh Peterson, traveling around the world to post up in various shaping bays is part of the job description. He’d done stints in New York City’s Pilgrim Surf Supply, Rhode Island’s Space Rock Glassing, Virginia Beach’s Wave Riding Vehicles, and Ericiera’s Waveglider Surf Shop. But for him, the combination of Somos’s location and facilities is a real win-win. 

“It’s such a rewarding shaping trip,” said Josh, who at 30 years old has already been shaping for a decade. “The waves are right out front. It’s so easy to go downstairs, grab a coffee, surf, and shape. The proximity of everything is insane. They’re so intentional about everything they do. The environment Fabio creates is really sick.

"There's definitely run through boards, they're not just sitting on them," he added. "There's definitely a need for guys to go down, there's plenty of work to do. Which is sick, because it sucks when you're on a shaping trip and you're just wondering what to do. That's not the case with Somos."

Shea Somma, a San Luis Obispo-based surfer and custom shaper, built 20 boards at Somos in 12 days. It was his second-ever residency, and he was impressed. “It was wild,” he said. “Beautiful detailing, tons of art everywhere, tons of tools, just a great buildout and glass shop right above where you eat breakfast. Plus AC, which was great in the jungle. It was a more comfortable shaping bay than mine at my home.”

Between sessions out front, Shea found real pleasure in working with the Somos team. Not just for their professionalism, but because they let him do his thing. “They gave me free creative rein,” he said. “They had a container full of blanks, and they essentially said, shape whatever you want, which was insane. Basically, (the job) was to shape what you think would go well around here and what people would like to ride. But it was loose in terms of the parameters. It was open-ended, and that was a pleasure. It’s so nice to have the freedom to do what inspires you. And to have that trust from a new client.”

For Ashton Pickle, founder of San Clemente-based A&H Vessels, Somos was his first time trying a traditional shaping residency. He went in not knowing what to expect from an unfamiliar work environment, but he quickly found his footing, building around 20 boards in a little over a week in 2023. “Fabio is so easy to work with, and they make it so easy,” he said. “You’re staying for free, get a discount on food, so you can make good money there, which is great. We even filmed an edit there from my stint.”

After a morning surf at the beachbreak a minute away, Ashton would begin mowing foam in the late morning and work late into the night. “The place is going all night,” he said. “It makes it conducive to working late. There are people around, poking their heads in. It’s not like it’s dead when it gets late. You feel like you’re a part of the scene.”