Bob Bolen, a self taught surfer and shaper, started surfing in 1958 and shaped his first board one year later. In 1960, “The Greek” opened his shop known as “Surfboards by the Greek” in Huntington Beach. He later closed the shop in 1980 and currently works in Real Estate. His designs can be found at Huntington Beach Realty where his office serves as a real estate office and surf outlet.

Bolen has produced several well known models such as The Eliminator, Maui Model, and the Pickle all of which helped put him on the map. He is also the inventor of the Turbo Tunnel longboard fin and continues to surf in Southern California.

Due to Bob’s limited production schedule, custom Greek surfboards can be hard to find these days. However, die hard Greek fans can find some of his timeless shapes in Surftech epoxy models.

Larry Gordon and partner Floyd Smith began making and shaping their own surfboard blanks in 1959. They were in a great position as the surfing industry exploded in popularity in the following years. Several years later, Gordon & Smith Surfboards experienced tremendous growth and Gordon passed his shaping duties over to his talented team which included Mike Hynson, Roger Ross, Jim Hovde, Paul Bordieri, Bobby Thomas, Rusty Priesendorfer, Hoy Runnels, Terry Goldsmith, Steve Seebold, Hank Warner, John Holly, Mike Eaton, Robin Prodonovich and Larry Mabile.

Gordon & Smith Surfboards was one of California’s premiere surfboard labels from the 1960’s through the 1990’s and were also credited as pioneers of the skateboard industry. They ran four surf shops and created their own clothing line.

You’ll also find a number of Gordan & Smith’s master shapes in the Surftech epoxy line.

Imperial Beach native Jeff Alexander of Alexander Surfboards is most known for his Gemini double-hulled surfboards. Alexander created the patented Gemini design in 1995 and put the boards to the test in Hawaii, Indonesia, Mexicio, Fiji, and his home of California. When Gemini surfboards first burst onto the surf scene, the majority of surfers were unwilling to embrace the radically new design. Featuring two noses blending into a double hull and 4 fin set-up, the Gemini claims to be the ultimate performance surfboard. Alexander also claims that a Gemini can be surfed in 2 foot slop to 8 foot heaving barrels which reduces the need for a surfer to buy a quiver. Tow versions of his Gemini designs have also had success in giant surf here in Hawaii and around the world.

Jeff Alexander has been shaping surfboards since 1974 and has shaped over 4,587 surfboards since then and his team includes Hawaii tow surfer Cully Kamisugi.

Update: I’ve been riding a slick 5’3 Kane Garden fish to try. Read the full review.

Kane Garden Surfboards is a San Diego based surfboard company who build fish type boards inspired by the wave rich area that encompasses their shop. They pride themselves on building unique, technical, and practical fishes with emphasis on strength and durability. They’re motto is: Speed, Maneuverability, and Versatility.

Kane Garden’s owner, shaper, and designer P.J. Johnson is dedicated to building quality surfboards inspired by Southern California’s hot rod culture and craftmanship and has been at the forefront of fish design since its exception.

According to Kane Garden, the fish is proven as one of the most versatile and popular designs in the world and originated in southern San Diego. Steve Lis, who hails from Point Loma and was one of the best surfers in his generation perfected the design over years of RD at Sunset Cliffs. He shaped a large split tail in a wide blank resembling a chopped in half longboard and put two keel fins on it leading to an ultra fast and highly maneuverable surfboard that seemed so futuristic back then.

His design was so futuristic that many fish variations seen today are still based off his original concepts. Almost every surfboard shaper has tweaked his fish design and has put modern concaves and design elements into their fish version. Fishes are some of the best boards for average surfers who ride less than perfect waves as it generates tremendous planing speed, turning ability, and forgiveness.

Kane Garden Fish Series

CLASSIC TWINZER
STINGRAY
CLASSIC TWIN KEEL
SEA VIPER
NAUTILUS
SHOVAL NOSE
ORCA
KINGFISH
MEGLADON

Website: www.KaneGarden.com

With his famous headphones, cigar in his mouth, and planer in hand, William “Stretch” Riedel has been building a wide range of innovative surf craft from surfing to sailing. The freakishly tall (6’6) yet skinny as a rocker stick shaper first learned the art of shaping from his father, who was a shaper for Velzy Jacobs Surfboards in the 1960’s. Stretch worked at several LA surfboard factories before starting Stretch Boards.

Stretch later moved his business to Santa Cruz, California, where his junkyard factory and prime California coastline has enabled him to experiment with alternative design techniques and different resins, making Stretch surfboards lighter and faster.

An unfortunate windsurfing accident caused partial paralysis throughout his right side yet he has been shaping with his locked-up right hand for more than half of his entire shaping career.

For many years, Stretch was as underground as Santa Cruz shapers get until he exploded on the surf scene when he was voted 2005 Shaper of the Year by Surfing Magazine.

His team riders include Jason “Ratboy” Collins, Nathan Fletcher, Nathan Florence, Garret McNamara, Josh Loya, and others. He also has a variety of Surftech epoxy models and the Stretch Quad surfboards are some of surfings hottest/most popular board designs.

Rusty Surfboards was started in 1984 by up and coming shaper Rusty Preisendorfer. Previously, Rusty had been shaping surfboards for Canyon. During his somewhat low key years, he shaped board for 10 of the top 16 surfers in the world which included Mark Occhilupo and Shaun Tomson. One day, former world champion Peter Townend suggested that Rusty develop his own surfobard label and so the R-dot was created.

Rusty has since become one of the surfboard manufacturing world’s icons with a surfboard production near 15,000 annually. The company however, claims that their Rusty brand is still grassroots through its successful custom surfboard offerings.

Rusty’s communication and feedback with team riders and shapers along with his innovation in surf design has helped accelerate the evolution of modern surf design. The company has been at the forefront of CAD surf design and experimentation of composite materials with companies like Surftech, Aviso, and Salomon.

The Rusty team features a wide variety of fresh and experienced world class surfers. A few of those surfers include former World Champion Derek Ho, Pipeline specialist Kalani Chapman, Santa Cruz big wave hellman Flea Virostko, Josh Kerr, and “Freak Show” Jamie O’brien.

Recent News: Rusty was recently sold to the Australian licensee Geoff Backshall of Rusty Australia.

Mike Eaton began his shaping career working for Bing Copeland in 1966. Prior to that he had been making catamarans all through out the 60’s and built one as long as 46 feet. Soon after joining Bing, he made his first paddleboard in 1968 and stayed with Bing until 1978 after the company was sold to Gordan & Smith. Later that year he started his own surfboard label, Eaton Surfboards.

Eaton Surfboards is most known for their classic/vintage surfboards and quality paddle boards. Mike Eaton has two epoxy paddle boards through Boardworks.

Con Surfboards was founded by Con Colburn in 1958. His first surf shop, originally called the Surf House, was located in Santa Monica, California. A year later, two other retail shops were opened and Con changed the name of his surf shops to Con Surfboards.

Con Surfboards’ two most popular models were the ‘Ugly Surfboard’ and the ‘C.C. Rider Surfboard’. The Ugly model was created during the noseriding craze of the 60’s and showcased a ridiculously blunt nose perfect for long noserides. The C.C. Rider, designed by Claude Codgen helped Con Surfboards enter the growing East Coast surfing market and featured classic rocker and superb noseriding.

The company offers a variety of longboard designs from the original ‘Ugly Surfboard’, modern performance noserider, to the classic pin.

Mike Hynson rose to fame in surfing’s iconic film ‘The Endless Summer’. His stylish surfing helped him become one of San Diego’s top surfers and he become one of the first surfers to surf the Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu. A short time later, filmmaker Bruce Brown asked Hynson to star in his upcoming surf movie ‘The Endless Summer’. He went full time into shaping in 1959 and joined the Hobie Surfboard’s team in 1963. After filming ‘The Endless Summer’, he shaped for Gordon and Smith Surfboards and unveiled the triple stringer Hynson model, also known as the ‘red fin’ for its red skeg. He was also instrumental in creating the ‘tucked-under edge’ surfboard rail and invented the ‘DolFin’. The surfer turned shaper now shapes out of his studio in San Diego, California under his own label ‘Hynson and Company’ shaping “one-of-a-kind masterpieces” from balsa to foam.

Get it: www.michaelhynsonsurfboards.com

Edge Core Surf is a direct wholesaler based in San Diego, CA offering traditional fiberglass, epoxy, and carbon fiber boards direct to the public at discounted prices. Their current shapers include Tom Eberly, Wayne Rich, Joe Blair and Dennis Murphy (12’2″ Standup). Edge Core Surfboards can be shipped to any destination in the world. Our main warehouse is in Carlsbad, CA where we have our entire line of products from boards, board bags, and rash guards all at wholesale pricing! You can view their websites at www.bisect.com and www.edgecoresurf.com

Pope Bisect in action!