Fletcher Chouinard Design’s roots began in Ventura, California where Yvon Chouinard opened his blacksmith shop in the 1960’s. The Chouinard Equipment Company built some of the finest mountaineering gear and the shop’s location allowed everyone to surf and make equipment better.

30 years later, Yvon and Fletcher opened Fletcher Chouinard Designs with the goal of producing better surfboards. They were intent on finding the best technologies and composite materials in hopes of creating a stronger and lighter surfboard. Their openness to change and embracing new ideas has helped them explore fiberglass composite technologies and experimenting with their team riders. Their main goal has always been about building a better surfboard.

Another one of the Chouinards’ goals is to create the best surfboards possible and reduce the use of toxic and non-renewable materials used in the production of traditional surfboards. After a year of testing various “greener” materials, they’ve come up with a “cutting edge” composite surfboard that’s lighter, stonger, and less toxic.

Johnny Rice grew up in Santa Cruz, California and shaped his own balsa wood surfboard early on in his garage. That board didn’t end up working so well but it was the beginning of his shaping career. Rice, who is part Plains Indian, would find himself working for Dale Velzy in Venice, California. One day Velzy asked Rice if he wanted to learn how to shape and through the teachings of Velzy, he learned the art of surfboard shaping.

Johnny Rice has worked for a few of the industry’s biggest names including, Velzy, Jacobs, Kim Kidd, Con, Rick, South Bay, Oceanside, and Dick Catri to name a few. Over the eyars, he’s made surfboards with interesting names such as Malibu Competition, the Black Widow, the Scorpion, V 360, Instrument and Renegade. Recently, he teamed up with Surftech to produce epoxy versions of his high performance and cruiser models. Rice shapes his boards a little thinner than normal with more V in the tail leading to faster turns.

Hunt Custom Surfboards was started by Gregg Hunt in 2000 and is located in Alhambra, CA. Hunt Custom Surfboards specializes in quality hand shaped longboards with emphasis on classic style and modern performance characteristics. While they do offer a large variety of stock boards, if you can’t find a board that fits your surfing style, they can shape a custom board for you.

All surfboards feature Walker Foam blanks and quality glass jobs from Shoreline Glassing, located in Hermosa Beach. All Hunt Custom Surfboards utilize hand crafted fins from Fibreglas Fin Co.

Gregg Hunt grew up surfing in California at well known spots like Malibu and D&W Jetty. He began shaping custom surfboards in 2000 specifically for noseriding and trimming and has constantly refined his shapes over the last six years.

San Diego shaper Tim Bessell’s shaping beginnings happened in his parent’s garage when he shaped his first board at the age of 13. A couple years later he began shaping for Sunset Surfboards and began making a name for himself. Tim later moved to to ultimate testing grounds of Hawaii where his shaping was put to the highest test. He shaped for Lightning Bolt Surfboards which at the time was one of the top surfboard manufacturers around.

After moving back to California, Tim got into art and apparel and began making a name for himself in those respective endeavors. In 1997, he decided to focus only on surfboards and Tim Bessell Surfboards was resurrected.

Tim has produced over 43,000 surfboards which have been featured on the covers of major surf publications. He has also shaped surfboards for some of the top surfers in the world who include eter King, Luke Egan, Jon Roseman, Glen Winton, Brad Gerlach, Vetea David, and Ricky Irons to name a few.

Bessell’s custom surfboards and willingness to work with each individual customer has help build his strong reputation in San Deigo.

Paddle Surf Hawaii shaper Blane Chambers is arguably Hawaii’s hottest and most sought after stand-up paddle surfboard shaper. He’s shaped stand-up boards for all of Hawaii’s big names which include big wave hellmen Darrick Doerner, Kealii Mamala, Jamie Sterling, and Garrett McNamara. Blane is relatively new to surfboard shaping but has quickly grown to becoming a sought after commodity. Last year, he stand-up paddle surfed every session to show his commitment and stoke on his stand-up paddle designs.

Paddle Surf Hawaii has also teamed up with Dave Parmenter providing Hawaii surfers with some of the top cutting edge stand-up paddle board designs. Dave Parmenter who is still based out of Makaha, is one of Hawaii’s top shapers who has built his reputation as a master craftsman and builds a variety of surfboards in all shapes and sizes.

One of surfing’s high performance pioneers, Larry Bertlemann became one of the sport’s biggest influences. Born on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1955, he moved to Oahu at age 11 and surfed at Queens off Waikiki. One day he broke his 9’6 and tried glassing the fin to the front half of the board but had trouble getting it to stay. A guy walked up to show him how to do it properly and that guy turned to be Donald Takayama. From that very day he mindset changed on what types of surfboards could be ridden (longboards were the norm in the 60’s) and he would also work with Ben Aipa who began shaping shorter, wider, and faster twin fins, swallow tails, and stinger designs.

The new shorter designs allowed Bertlemann to surf faster and begin experimenting with radical maneuvers and would change surfing forever. Larry became one of the most popular and highest paid surfers during the 1970’s signing endorsement deals with soft drink and airline companies.

Larry first shaped his surfboard when he was 19 and has been most influenced by Ben Aipa. He firmly believes in hand shaping all of his boards and feels that there will always be a market for the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into a hand built surfboard. You can still order his famous twin fin design he used from his surfing hey day as well as retro shortboards, swallow tail thrusters, and quad models.

Because the thruster has been most surfers’ “go to” board for quite some time, it isn’t uncommon to see hot-dogging shortboarders riding their 5’10 potato chip in all types of wave conditions including 2 foot slop. I always see these shortboarders struggling to catch waves on days like this and when they get lucky enough to catch one, the lack of foam causes their board to bog and after a weak turn their wave is over.

The retro revival has shown many of us how functional and exceptionally fun old throw back boards can be. The twin fin fish is arguably the most popular retro board out in the line-ups and if you watch good surfers on these things, the first thing you’ll notice is how insanely fast they can go in weak and pathetic waves.

While the hot dogging younger crowd is obsessed with riding their Kelly Slater shortie, the smarter surfers are riding twin fins, quad fin fishes, single fins, eggs, and longboards. These surfers are not only catching more waves than surfers riding potato chips, but they’re also learning about lines and curves and different positioning and feel required to surf each type of board.

Take it from Rasta and Rob Machado who both believe that expanding your quiver and riding a variety of different shapes will improve your surfing tremendously. Longboarders will find that learning how to ride shortboards drastically improves their ability to pump and turn those huge planks around and shortboarders will find that riding a longboard for a few sessions will smooth out their surfing and help them draw better lines.

Check out TORE Surfboards if you need help or advice with expanding your quiver.