His surfing and shaping developed under the influence of his surfer/artist dad Simon, a pivotal figure in the iconographies of Australian surfing, and his fathers’ close friend Wayne Lynch. You couldn’t begin a pedigree any more finely, but add to that Simon Anderson and Maurice Cole, and you have some of the more acute board design minds in world surfing - as your closest mentors. Shyama is his own man though. His elite surfing ability works in complement with a shaping discipline that allows him analyse his own feedback - the feelings he gets when surfing - as well as a design intelligence that helps him interpret the feedback of those who ride his boards. He revels in refining pure high performance shapes, as well as creating boards built to satisfy those parts of your surfing that touch the heart. After all the art is as important as the show. 

A student of art history and colour theory, Shyama grew up surrounded by the arts, and surfing. Both became part of the air that he breathes, all reflected in the attention to detail and aesthetic of the surfboards he creates. The heart and the craft put into these ‘objets d’surf-art’ speaks as loudly as the way they ride. A perusal of his instagram account @shyamabuttonshawdesigns reveals an eclectic exploration of high performance on a broad spectrum of craft, both under his own feet and those drawn to the experience of his shapes.