Hi all this is Jason Buckmaster (JB). I am the owner and shaper here at Ronin Bodyboards.

I was born in Fresno, California and grew up skate and snowboarding. I have been an avid fine woodworker since I was 14 years old. I also have a degree in Architecture. 

In the mid 90's I made my first trip to Hawaii and it changed my life forever. I fell in love with the ocean on that trip and came home with a mission to get certified in scuba diving.

In 2002, I moved from Fresno to Morro Bay right up the street from the beach. I was designing beach houses and doing custom woodworking (I still do this as well as building bodyboards) and I wanted to get into surfing but decided to start off bodyboarding because of my history with scuba and being comfortable with fins on my feet while swimming. I went into the local surf shop looking for a board and wetsuit when they told me that there was a company in town that builds bodyboards. They sent me over to the Toobs factory and once again my life changed forever. When I walked into the Toobs factory and realized that I could have a custom board made to my specs I was all in. For the next ten years I was a loyal Toobs customer and rode nothing but custom Toobs boards. I walked into the shop one day looking to get my next custom and had some ideas that were a little outside the norm. I was wanting a v-tail with a single concave bottom with some deck contours. They looked at me like I was crazy and said they were to busy and if I want something like that I would have to come in and do the sanding and shape the core myself. It was on!

Fast forward a year or two and I got a phone call from the guys at the Toobs factory. They were really backed up in the factory and wanted to know if i would be interested in helping them part time building boards to get them thru the holiday rush. I was super stoked to have this opportunity.

I worked under the main shaper at Toobs for a year or two when one day I walked into the shop and the main shaper had been let go and now I was going to be the only one shaping boards. I had quite the learning curve to get over but with some help from Buzz and Mez (who flew all the way from Indo to hang out with me for a week showing me how he builds boards, an amazing gesture that I will be eternally thankful for) I was on my way to being a custom bodyboard shaper. 

Over the next 2 years I made all the custom order Toobs boards for riders all over the world and fell in love with shaping. 

In the middle of 2017 I left Toobs and it left me at the crossroads. I have spent a lifetime chasing my dreams and doing what I love to do whether it be Woodworking, Architecture, Skate or Snowboarding, etc. The decision was easy, start up my own brand of bodyboards.

My mission is to help keep the bodyboard stoke alive here in the USA and around the world.

I don't just build Ronin bodyboards, I ride them too.

​See you in the water,

Jason Buckmaster (JB)