BOARDS
What I Build
Being an avid surfer/shaper that now lives in the mountains, 2+ hours away from the ocean, I’ve developed a different view of surfboard design. You can’t always be there when it’s good, but when it is you still have to be prepared. When you finally get to the beach, you’re going to surf your brains out, so you need a variety of boards to facilitate surfing multiple times a day, despite changing conditions, moods, and physical exhaustion. This calls for a specifically designed quiver consisting of the fewest boards possible that cover the widest range of surfing styles, conditions, and disciplines, designed to match the types of waves that will be found most often in North county San Diego.
My goal in board building has always been one thing to make myself catch more waves and surf better than I could on any other board. So, rather than exploring many board styles over the years, I’ve sought to continually refine a small number of board styles in order to fine tune their performance to cover the broadest possible range of typical North County SD waves and conditions. With over 10 years of consistent board building with this one target in mind has led to a few gems. Pick the right one for the day and you’re sure to be turning heads and making new friends. Every board is truly hand shaped, glassed and sanded all by yours truly. I find that each board benefits from true solo production by allowing each element of the design and construction process to support one and other in creating the desired function of the board. While this way of building boards won't turn much profit, for the few that may be interested in seeing why these boards are so much fun, you're sure to get a well built craft.
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I’m not the kind of shaper that will make the board you think you want, rather the board I know you’ll be stoked with. My boards cater to energetic, fun-prioritizing surfing. More waves, more speed, more radical turning through wider, flatter, thicker, and lighter boards with complimentary rails, concaves and fin placement to keep the turning tight and responsive.
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Formerly Safari Surfboards, established in 2011. Rebranded to Mountain Surf Co. with the move from Carlsbad to Big Bear Lake in 2018.
The Asym
A very mild take on an Asym, as my goal is not to have a weird/unique feeling board, but instead a to have a fishy/hybrid type board that continues to perform in larger/punchy surf longer than its symmetrical counterpart would. Symmetrical nose, asymmetrical tail with subtle side to side variations in tail width, rail line, and fin placement refined to complement the anatomical strength and weakness' of toe-side and heel-side turning. Since So-Cal surf doesn't get big or powerful very often, it's nice to have a board that excels in the usual small stuff, but then let's you keep the same comfortable feel under your feet when it gets big, without feeling like your rail game gets overpowered. If I could only have one board, this would definitely be it. Run with typical performance quad set-up.
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For those that need to hear it (because I still continuously get asked) Asyms are not just for going exclusively right or left. They are designed to compliment the obvious differences in strength and control between your toe-side and heel-side rail, so they have to match your stance. Personally I've found that more dramatically asymmetrical boards tend to require bit of a learning curve because they ride very different than a symmetrical board. Unless you ride them all the time, it can be a little tricky to find your groove on them. I refined these boards to provide a user friendly blend Asym concepts that let you enjoy the benefits of an asymmetrical design without feeling like you're riding something you have to get used to. Tighter forehand wraps, quicker, more precise backhand bottom turns, with some extra board under your toes where you have the strength to control it and get that extra drive and glide.
These boards are awesome for a what I call a So-Cal step-up. Kept a little shorter and wider than you would typically consider a step-up, to better match the smaller/weaker than expected surf you usually find, but still handling the big ones when they actually show. Slightly narrowed outline, accentuated tail rocker and beefed up glassing schedule to add some beneficial weight and stiffness to the board. The regular version of this board is kept high volume, mild rocker and super light for everyday use.
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Size range: 5'2" -6'3"
The Not-Asym
The same general board as the Asym, but symmetrical. Why? Because some people don’t like asyms, or in my case I often need to pack or carry a single board to the beach that can work for both my wife and I who is the opposite stance. This is a fishy/hybrid but still performance oriented shortboard designed to be a single go-to shape for most days in North County SD. The tail shape can be varied to your liking to tailor it to your style or the waves you’re looking to ride. I prefer it as a round tail for tight wraps in the pocket at reefs and points, or a squash for feeling skatey at beach breaks.
Size range: 5'2" - 6'3"
The Mini-Longboard
The board that makes everyone jealous. Catches waves like the loggers and turns like a short board. Tons of volume for catching anything, enough width and nose to cross-step and hang some toes, but small and light enough to pump and turn like a short board (even airs easily if you’re into that). The super light weight and high buoyancy feel takes a little more finesse for cross-stepping to the nose, but the improved speed and turning makes every wave have heaps more potential. It's also mighty nice to fill the longboard quiver niche with something so much easier to transport. The only downside to this board is that it takes some self-restraint to not take every good wave, and you often feel a little sheepish having so much more fun than everyone else.
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For Wakesurfing Too: I've never understood why longboard style wakesurfing has not caught on more. Just as fun, but completely different. Adding practically a whole different sport to the same old wake. After 20+ years of spending equal time riding short and longboards behind the boat, we've found that a mini-longboard is the ticket for big board fun. Still cross-stepping and hanging toes, but enough agility to whip some turns, and extra speed and glide that lets you get further from the boat than a typical wakesurf board ever could. If you haven't tried it, you're definitely missing out.
Size Range: 6’6” - 8’0”
The Wakesurfer
As the name suggests it is actually a wakesurf board, but it also rips in the surf. Allowing for mind-blowing fast and radical surfing on the smallest weakest waves out there. I won’t lie it feels funny both paddling and surfing on a board so small, but once you get going on a wave it is more likely to put a smile on your face than anything you’ve ever ridden in small/mushy surf. Unlike your typical wakesurf board, the width and thickness keep the volume similar to your typical groveler, while the short length and minimal tail rocker give you the fastest & loosest ride around for those extra weak or small waves. Think speed and glide like a mini Simmons that can be pumped and turned more like a traditional shortboard. Given the frequent lackluster surf of North County SD, this has actually become my most frequently ridden board.
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As for the wake, it makes wakesurfing behind a 20yr old ski boat look and feel like you're behind a modern dedicated wakesurf boat. Take it behind a dedicated wakesurf boat and you’ll feel like you’re actually surfing in the ocean. Insanely fast and more engaged turning and pumping than typical wakesurf boards. The extra volume and more surf style fin set-up will accommodate a wider range of wake and rider sizes, and will give the ultimate surf-like feel. Optional added foot strap inserts open a whole new door to airs that you otherwise couldn’t pull off, so you can expand the relatively limited options afforded by the same old wake. Added carbon and fiberglass reinforcements to the deck helps keep the weight down while affording the needed durability for the repetitive and often misplaced airs on the wake or on mush-ball ocean waves when youre feeling spunky. If you favor surf-style wakesurfing or still want to rip on a less than perfect wake this board will blow your mind.
Runs best with small to medium size front fins and nubsters in the back for wake, and as a performance quad for surf.
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Size Range: 4’6” to 5’6”
-For me (6'0" 170lbs) 4'10" for wake, 5'0" for Surf would be ideal
Depending if the primary use is for surf or wake, the board can be tailored slightly to the desired discipline, or kept a middle-ground for both!
The Swiss Army Knife
One board to do it all (almost). Small wave groveler, prone foil, wakesurf and wakefoil all in one. Despite having a large quiver at my disposal, I really like being able utilize one board for multiple things. Hiking down to beach with 2 kids and a cooler puts a limit on how many boards you can bring, but if there happens to be good waves for both foiling and surfing... problem solved. Then again, space is often tight on a boat, especially when bringing foil gear. Unless you're going for backflips or pumping records, a super short dedicated wakefoil board is really not that necessary when a well equipped wakesurfer can double as your foil board. Shaped much like the wakesurfer, but with a slightly fuller nose and more pulled in tail. A deep central channel keeps the foil tracks in line with the deck, but in surf mode provides a nice squirt of speed for gliding through flat sections while still maintaining enough rocker in the rail line to lay into some carves. The channel even provides a little more hold to an otherwise extremely loose board. With a touch more length than I would have thought I wanted for prone foiling, I've been amazed how easily this thing paddles into waves, to the point that my dedicated 4'0" prone board is collecting dust. Built with an extra stiff/durable construction and foot strap inserts to take to the air. While this board started as a novelty experiment, it has delivered so well on every front that it's quickly become the most used craft in the arsenal.
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Size Range: 4’6” to 5’6”
-For me (6'0" 170lbs) 4'10" hits the sweet spot for short enough for the foil and long enough to shine as a groveler.
What to expect:
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Materials: Only EPS/Epoxy
While production time, effort and cost are increased, the boards are lighter, livelier and longer lasting. In my opinion they tend to perform better than PU boards for high performance style surfing in the typical gutless waves of North country SD, and certainly better on a wake. I go to every extra length to minimize weight while retaining strength and ideal flex, think more glass with less resin than typical production boards. This gives my boards a feeling of almost feeling too radical for the first few surfs before the flex characteristics smooth out, almost like they have to be broken in. After those first few surfs they feel like a typical new board, but will retain that ideal "pop" feeling for substantially longer than I've seen with other board construction styles.
Aesthetics
My goal is to prioritize performance, so I only make boards as pretty as they can be without sacrificing performance. It's all give and take with surfboard construction, and my shapes benefit from being exceptionally lightweight at the cost of semi-limited options for color and artwork. I'm constantly looking for new looks that maintain performance characteristic while still standing out from the pack, and in the process I am slowing becoming more unwilling to continue with airbrushing and fancy resin work. The boards pictured on the website represent some of the variety of looks and styles I've played with, but we can work out the best option for your color and artwork desires when you order a custom board.
Turn-around time
Let’s call it highly variable. A true one man show, who works another job, and refuses to cut any corners in production or material quality. This means if I’m home and don’t have a waitlist it can be as short as a couple weeks, but if the swells keep coming and your last on a waitlist it might be 6 months or more. I'm not turning much profit on these boards, so I really make them to share the stoke, re-invigorate your surfing, and keep the art alive.
Only quads and only Futures (kinda)
Not that I don’t appreciate other fin configurations/shapes, but I only want to sell boards that are truly dialed in. Since I have found quads to be the best match to my surfing style and the waves I typically surf, each one of my production shapes has been refined for a quad fin set-up. I’ll say it again here, I don’t make the board you think you want, I make boards I know you’ll love. If you really want a 5th box/thruster option I could throw one on there, I just tend to favor the weight savings and clean look without it, since it so rarely gets used.
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I think futures have the best design, so I only invested in futures installation equipment. Sorry, not sorry.
Coming very soon or not so soon
Some of these have gone through a few generations already, and some are just a plot in my mind. Hopefully they’ll all become available soon, as I refine the design to one I’m happy to put my name on.
The Easy Rider
For new or aging surfers that want wave catching, getting to your feet, and also transporting and handling to all be as easy as possible. Designed to provide whats lacking in the beginner/funboard market. Basically a bigger version of the MiniLongBoard with more nose rocker, a fuller cruisey tail, and added width and volume for stability. Super light and sized shorter than comparable boards on the market with optional screw inserts for cloth handles near the rails to easily transport & handle such a wide and stable high volume board.
The Prone Foil
Seems everybody is still sorting out their preferences in the foil world. I have now whittled my way down to find my limits for too short, wide and thin, and am now moving back to thicker, narrower and longer to find the sweetspot (I'm almost there). I’ve found I favor simple shapes, as I feel like with the new speed driven take-off of higher aspect foils, excessive curves and contours in the board do more to impede paddling and wave catching than they do to assist in release and touchdowns.
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The Mini SUP/wing foil
Seems like most of the market in this style is geared towards places with more wind or better waves than we have here in So-Cal. I'm trying to refine a shape for light wind winging and versatile small wave SUP foiling. Using design influence from both Race SUP's and boat hulls that facilitate plaining low speed and handling chop well for bouncing the nose on the water when pumping up onto foil. It's always surprising how small you can make a SUP foil board given the substantial stability added by the foil.
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The Downwinder SUP Foil
This one's probably coming soon. Optimizing paddling speed and in-turn early/easy flight characteristics, through keeping a board excessively narrow. At the same time using thick race SUP style rails and minimal chine to keep enough stability for something so narrow without having to add much length. Lot's of theory, let's hope I'm right, and you see me hoping on boat wakes in Big Bear!
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The Surf SUP
So many hater’s out there, but when you know, you know. SUP surfing is awesome! Way higher wave count, killer exercise, can still trunk it when the water’s freezing, access remote or otherwise undesirable waves, and still get in another session when you’re too surfed out for anything else. Surfing always reigns supreme but there’s a very important place in a quiver for the surf SUP. I’ve gone through a handful of these boards and have my North County SD shape characteristics fairly ironed out. Super light and performance oriented, but shorter and less tail rocker than other high performance models to match the mushy waves of north county, but still shred like its head high and firing.
The Race SUP
Don’t hold your breath on this one. I’ve been wanting to get into making these for many years and still haven’t taken the leap. So much more material and arduous construction process for a hand shaper. So many ideas waiting to be put into practice, but I probably won’t really dig in here until I start dabbling in racing myself.
