Ted Kearns first started shaping in 1986 under the supervision of Outer Banks hero Murray Ross. He started out cutting fin patches and sanding rails for Ross and a year later both moved to Mickey McCarthy’s Sun Surfboards shop. Ted polished and glassed boards with Rascoe Hunt and the two started Gale Force Glassing in 1992 and soon their shop became a surfboard label with growing demand of Ted’s shapes. Kearns has been influence by Murray Ross, Lynn Shell, Mickey Mcarthy, Scott Busbey, Matt Kinoshita , Donald Takayama, and Greg Loehr.

Ted’s shaping philosophy is in understanding what the customer needs in his or her surfboard(s) as every surfer is unique with their own style, ability, grace, and athleticism. He also believes that every shaper should know how to shape all styles of boards in demand and shaping only one style board is boring. TK Performance Shapes offers custom surfboards from 5′2″ grom blades to 10′0″+ tankers and everything in between and is based on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.