Jurie chased his first big swell at Dungeons in 2008 and after scoring his first barrel on a 25ft wave the crazy sheep farmer decided to take on the task of hand shaping his own crafts.
Inspired by Hunter S Thompson’s GONZO journalism style where the writer becomes part of the story, portraying events through their own experience…
Jurie decided to start “writing his own narrative”
Gonzo Shapes was born in 2010 (in an old chicken shed on the farm) and since then Jurie has been facing big waves on his own handcrafted whips whilst making a few handshapes for custom orders.
After facing a tough 7-year drought, Jurie was inspired by the prickly pears that grow naturally in abundance on the farm and the idea of making alcohol from the plants that can be found in his natural surrounds started to come to mind.
The remarkable love to create artisanal crafts, together with his curious mind led him on the road to distilling.
