Donald Takayama, legendary shaper of Hawaiian Pro Designs, has had over 55 years of experience in the surfing industry. He designs, shapes, and manufactures shortboards, funboards, and retro and progressive longboards. Hawaiian Pro Designs has several retail locations in Hawaii, California, and Texas. Not only is Takayama known for his line of custom surfboards, he is also a five time United States Surfing Champion. His surfing experience undoubtedly helps him make the ideal surfboards for a wide range of surfing expectations. His shapes have been proven both in Hawaii, California, and around the world as evidenced by his Surftech line which are some of the most popular epoxy boards around today.

A glance at the variety of Takayama Surfboards:

Shortboards:

• Twin Fin: classic board built for speed and agility that holds bigger waves than a tri fin would of the same size
• Thurster: maneuverable model that allows for quick vertical snaps and cutbacks
• Single Fin Gun: built to tackle the biggest waves with a more than capable baord
• Quad: designed to work in all conditions with more speed than a twin fin

Progressive Longboards:

• DT1-4: series of longboards designed for speed and maneuverability
• Beach Break: hard down rails and the extra rocker make this tri-fin a high performance progressive long board
• In the Pink: modern 2+1 fin arrangement with a harder edge to allow board noseriding and turning
• Stephen Slater Model: tri-fin set up with rounded pintail designed for Stephen Slater to match a full range of surfing, from nose riding to straight up snaps

Retro Longboards:

• Model T: the broad nose and wide tail of this versatile retro longboard make it perfect for shoulder to ankle high waves
• NR2: retro version of the DT2 with a similar design to the model T, but with a more narrow tail allowing for tighter turns
• Classic Noserider: the volan cloth and single fin bring back the mid-60s style longboard
• Double ender: made to ride any size wave but its nose and tail are built to ride overhead waves

Funboards:

• Scorpion: this mini-noserider is a fast mid-length board with controlled maneuverability
• Flo egg: progressive short board with volan cloth, a single fin, and a long full rail that enable tighter pocket turns
• Retro single fin: single fin short bard designed to handle barrels with confidence
• NR3: shorter version of the NR2 with a tri-fin setup

Neal Norris, of Valley Isle Surfboards in Maui, has been shaping custom surfboards since 1969. Throughout the years, he has been designing functional and innovative surfboards custom built for each individual surfer. No surfboard is made the same and a surfer’s height, weight, and experience are all factors which contribute to subtle differences in each of his boards. All surfboards produced by Norris are hand shaped of the highest quality fiberglass resin and materials.

Valley Isle Surfboards offers the following surfboard designs:

Shortboards - These boards are designed for small to moderate surf with a curvey outline for maximum maneuverability.

Big Boy Boards - These boards are enlarged shortboards for surfers who weigh between 180-200 lbs which make surfing fun for bigger and heavier surfers.

Funboards - These designs consist of hybrids and mini tankers and offer the paddling power of a longboard with the responsiveness of a shortboard.

Big Wave Boards - These surfboards are built with gun outlines and stronger “S” cloth fiberglass and suited for large hollow surf.

Longboards - Valley Isle specializes in modern high performance longboards that are quick and manueverable. These boards narrow the gap between modern day shortboards and the heavy “log type” longboards of the past.

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.

Innovative shaper Dave Parmenter, from California, was an up and coming pro surfer in the 1980’s. He had ridden Rusty Preisendorfer’s surfboards as a pro which eventually led him to Australia as a shaper under the Rusty label. After having notable shaping success in Australia, Dave moved to Makaha, Hawaii in the 1990’s and created his own surfboard label, Aleutian Juice.

In his spare time, Dave Parmenter also contributes surfboard design articles and features to Surfer Magazine and Surfline. Aside from his writing, he has become one of the leading stand up paddle board shapers around though he shapes a wide variety of surf craft including high performance shortboards, retro designs, funboards, beach boy boards, and longboards.

Billy Hamilton grew up in California and surfed the entire coastline growing up in the 60’s. He competed in California surf contest and found his way competing in Hawaii and developed an attraction for the North Shore. He found his way back to Hawaii in 1966 and married his wife Joann (her son Laird is the top and most respected big wave rider). They later moved to Kauai and Billy eventually shaped for Surfboards Hawaii, Country Surfboards, Chuck Dent, and Lightning Bolt.

Aside from shaping, Billy Hamilton is known for his graceful surfing style and appearance in ‘Big Wednesday’. He has been shaping under his own label since the 1990’s and has several classic epoxy longboards offered through Surftech.

Dick Brewer came to Hawaii in 1959 after having been raised in the Los Angeles area. He learned to surf Hawaii’s powerful North Shore waves and established himself as a big wave rider charging macking Sunset Beach and Waimea Bay. He began shaping surfboards shortly after and later shaped for big surfing companies like Bing, Hobie (he created the Hobie Dick Brewer Gun), and Gordan & Smith Surfboards. After a falling out with G&S, Brewer created Dick Brewer Surfboards.

Dick Brewer would go on to work and design boards with Gerry Lopez on the island of Kauai. Years later, he began working with Laird Hamilton, Derrick Doerner, and Buzzy Kerbox to develop tow boards for Maui’s giant north shore waves. Through Brewer’s progress designs, tow surfing was taken to a whole new level. Most recently, Bruce Irons won the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational on the infamous borrowed yellow Brewer gun.

Brewer Surfboards has also collaborated with Surftech to provide surfers with epoxy versions of his timeless quivers.

Hawaii shaper Mike Woo has been shaping for over 16 years and has shaped over 12,000 boards. His design philosophy is to work with an individual to make a surfboard that suits the riders weight, height, surfing level, age, and style. You can find Mike Woo shapes at select Hawaii surf shops and he currently shapes surfboards both here in Hawaii and Japan.To add more information about Mike Woo, feel free to contact us.

Hawaii shaper Jason Kashiwai develops high quality boards with the best craftsmanship. His shapes have been tested all over the world with his various team riders. You’ll find J. Kashiwai Surfboards in select Hawaii surf shops and a variety of shortboards as well as signature team rider shapes. The Kashiwai team consists of Jun Jo, Mike Dodd, Jason Shibata, and a number of Japanese pros.

Pat Rawson of Rawson Surfboards was born in Santa Monica, California, and has been shaping surfboards on Oahu’s North Shore since 1972. While shaping the majority of his boards out of Sunset Beach, Hawaii, Rawson has been designing innovative custom surfboards which can be found in 26 countries around the world including Central America, South America, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

Rawson began shaping surfboards in 1966 and worked for a variety of California shapers including Rick Surfboards, Wilken Surfboards, Blue Cheer Surfboards, Tom Overline Surfboards, and Doug Haut Surfboards. He later moved to the North Shore of Oahu in the 1970’s and worked for Lightning Bolt Surfboards, George Downing - Wave Crest Hawaii, and Local Motion.

The consistency in Rawson Surfboards comes from CADD software that he’s custom programmed himself which provide surfers with a consistent signature design over and over again.

His team riders have included such notables such as “Buttons” Kaluhiokalani, Mark Liddell, Larry Bertelmann, Mike and Derek Ho, Mark Richards, Tom Carroll, Gary Elkerton, Reno Abelleira, Ben Aipa, “Beaver” Steve Massefellar, and Brian Kellner. His son Ryan has also made a name for himself charging some of the World’s largest waves at the big wave spot Peahi, aka Jaws.