A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Alexandre, João (Dapin)

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

General description used for a surfboard produced by any one of a number of machine-molding methods, as opposed to conventional polyurethane-core custom boards. Diwain Surfboards, located in a converted gas station in Huntington Beach, California, produced a two-piece molded plastic surfboard in the early 1960s that sold for $86 (a custom board cost about $125), and was advertised as "ding proof." The 1963-founded Dextra also produced a line of molded plastic boards, as did a half-dozen other companies in the '60s. Molded boards were disparaged in the surf press as shoddily built (true in some cases) and poor performing (true when used by advanced surfers, not true for beginners and most intermediates). Early molded boards were commonly known as "popouts."

Molded board manufacturers in the 1970s—including Hansen Surfboards, W.A.V.E., Aqua Jet Honeycomb Surfboards, and Powerboards—did their best to remove the molded board stigma by hiring top surfers and board designers, and by utilizing complex aerospace construction methods. (W.A.V.E. boards, spearheaded by San Diego's Karl Pope, were made from a heat- and pressure-bonded honeycombed composite of epoxy resin, fiberglass, urethane, and nylon.) Nonetheless, the new molded boards often leaked or delaminated, and were generally denounced as a soulless industrial intrusion on what was often depicted as a near-sacred relationship between surfer and shaper. Again, they didn't catch on.

A third generation of molded boards, also doomed to failure, came in 1988, when renowned Australian boardmaker Bob McTavish introduced his Pro Circuit Boards, which were molded replicas of famous surfers' "magic" boards. Sailboard manufacturers had meanwhile taken to the molding process enthusiastically.

The idea of a durable and replicable surfboard remained intriguing, and as machines were more and more often used to create "hand-shaped" foam boards, the molded model was further pursued. Surftech, founded in 1997 in Santa Cruz, California, became the first viable producer of molded surfboards. The Surftech manufacturing process is a more intricate version of the '70s molding method: a foam core is wrapped in a layer of high-density sheet foam, along with multiple layers of epoxy resin and fiberglass, then topped with a coat of polyurethane paint. The resulting board is more expensive than a conventional board, but is lighter and stronger. By 2012, Surftech had outsourced production to Thailand and had a 90-model line, with models of designed by such notable surfers and shapers as Glenn Minami, Bob McTavish, Dale Velzy, and Reynolds Yater.

Global Surf Industries, meanwhile, an Australia-based multi-label boardmaking conglomerate, has been pumping out huge numbers of surfboards since 2002 (from the same Thai factory used by Surftech). Experimental and custom boards remain the sole province of traditional foam-and-fiberglass manufacturers, and virtually no expert-level surfers, as of 2013, ride molded boards. Still, the market is expanding—mostly among beginners, longboards, and stand-up paddleboarders—and the molded board is here to stay.

molded surfboard

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews