The vast majority of backyard sheds across the valley play host to lawnmowers and cobwebbed seasonal decorations, but in one 12-foot by 24-foot outbuilding in Hyde Park, handcrafted surfboards are taking shape.

Logan native Thad Nicholls moved back from Florida to Cache Valley with his wife, Abby, and two daughters nearly two years ago and keeps his connection to surfing with countless hours of shaping and glass work on custom surfboards he has sold across the country.

“I am like a fish out of water. I have embraced the mountains again since being back. There are a lot of things about Florida that I miss — like surfing often. I do not miss the bugs and super humidity,” Nicholls said.

Surfing seemed to come naturally for Nicholls. He spent the first session flailing around in the waters of Virginia but was popping up onto the board consistently by his second go-round and was smitten by the sport.

Following his time in Virginia, Nicholls moved down the Eastern Seaboard for the waters of Florida where he began working at a nonprofit helping with oyster bed restoration efforts all while living a short distance from the water.

“It was a dream job and I was five minutes from the most consistent break on the East Coast. I started surfing in Virginia, but New Smyrna Beach is where I really learned to surf,” Nicholls said.

It was during this time when Nicholls met Randy Richenberg — who served on the board of directors for the nonprofit — and began having the custom surfboard builder make him boards.

“Randy has made a living making surfboards and I was probably driving him crazy with all the shapes I was throwing at him,” Nicholls said. “I kinda got sick of waiting for boards and thought I would try to make some myself.”

Nicholls said he was allowed into Richenberg Surfboards to help with odds and ends around the shop and began picking up the craft. He made his first board with direction from Randy nearly six years ago.

After the first board, Nicholls said he began working on alternative designs adapted from classic board shapes.

“I like to specialize in the really short, fat, tombstone shaped boards called a mini-Simmons which is a miniature version of a Bob Simmons board,” Nicholls said. “Some guys are riding sub-five-foot boards which is like taking longboard that is cut in half, but just as wide.”

Day-to-day, Nicholls works as an environmental scientist for Martin Environmental Solutions and maintains a home office but gets into the shed as much as possible as he builds one board at a time.

“Start to finish, if I have nothing but time to donate, a board can be done pretty quick,” Nicholls said. “My production is low, but I focus on doing it well. I am passionate about this and love doing it. I am willing to do every step in the process to keep making them.”

Nicholls has handcrafted nearly 100 boards since starting in 2012 and has a pile of foam blanks in the corner of his shed awaiting his masterful eye to shape them into ocean-going boards.

Pricing for a Slide Theory Surf Craft board depends on what you are looking for, Nicholls explained. The base price for one of Nicholls’ boards is $500. It is a “plain vanilla” board and then go up from there as more bells and whistles are added. Longboards enter into another dimension as they can range from $800 to $1,200.

“Some of the bigger companies still have hands on the boards and they are made in the United States, which is a big thing,” Nicholls said. “There is a lot of outsourcing going on overseas for boards. There are factories in China that are knocking the boards out. Some are doing quality work, but it is also taking away.”

Through work travels Nicholls visits surf shops, allowing him to stay current with design changes across the sport and fill his need to get into the water with a board.

Before he moved to landlocked Hyde Park, Nicholls said the number of surfboards crafted in the valley could probably have been counted on one hand.

“I know there have been some,” he laughed. “I have heard of people doing it, but there probably haven’t been many. One of my old high school buddies has built a few hollow wooden stand-up paddleboards. I am sure it has been done. There are a surprising number of surfers in this area.”

Looking to the horizon, the 38-year-old said crafting surfboards probably won’t replace his day job, but rather said it is a retirement plan.

“It is a way to feed my habit more than it is to feed the kids. This is definitely not a career. It is more of a retirement plan for me. I am really hoping I don’t get a ton of stand-up paddleboard orders, but if someone is willing to pay me, by God, I will build them one,” he said.