Derek learned his apprenticeship at Safari surfboards under the supervision of Spider Murphy. After three years at Safari, he traveled to Australia to work with other shapers such as Matt Haymes, Mike Psillakis, Rex Marchel and others. Derek returns annually to shape for some of the biggest surfboard labels in Australia to keep himself current with international trends and get feedback from other initational surfers. Back in South Africa, he then started shaping Rusty surfboards in conjunction with his own label DGS surfboards.

Derek has produced boards for many of the world, lop surfers such as Greg Emslie, Chris Ward, David Gonzales, Simon Nicholson, Shane Thorne, Paul Canning, and many other “SA series” top surfers.
DGS surfboards can now be found in the water and stores worldwide, as far a field as: Reunion, Dubai,Israel , Spain , Italy , Norway , Mauritius , Canary island, and Australia .

DGS surfboards are created for the true surfer – both young and old – at DGS there are no limitations!!