US Blanks - Portfolio of Blanks Designers

Hawai’i

Portfolio of Blank Designers

2013 #brighterisbetter

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

While the industry, surfers, and board design is constantly morphing, Hawai’i remains unchanged. The same west swells march towards familiar reef at the end of every Autumn. For a few short months, the world descends and more foam is pressured, flexed and broken than anywhere else on earth. While most of the surf world views Hawai’i as the ultimate proving grounds, we look to it as the ultimate testing facility.

OBJECTIVE

To partner with top shapers and athletes to design the brightest, strongest and lightest foam blanks on the market.

HOMAGE

One cannot progress forward without a healthy reverence of the past.

Boards are simultaneously getting shorter and longer.

On the same swell that a 6’0” quad is being driven through 10’ Backdoor barrels, 11’ guns are being paddled up 40’ faces at Jaws.

New needs are emerging while old designs are celebrating a renaissance.

THE PRESENT

Consistency is key.

From foam pours to glue-ups, our goal is to refine and perfect every step of the production process. When a surfer asks a shaper to replicate a “magic board”, we want to provide them with the precise same raw material as the magic board. Athletes are more attuned than ever, shapers are more astute, and reliable foam is a necessity.

Tom Parrish outside his home shaping bay on Maui.

84SP

Designed by Charlie Smith & Tom Parrish

"The feedback's been good here on Maui for this blank. It's basically an 8 foot mini-tanker. You can shaped anything from 7'10" to about 8'2". It's perfect for older, bigger guys who want to surf like they used to on a shortboard."

Charlie Smith "We left the tail real neutral so you can add rocker. It's always better to add rocker than it is to take rocker away."

Tom Parrish

Eric Arakawa Surfboards, Waialua, Oahu

A fresh Arakawa being waxed for its maiden session at Backdoor.

" By far, my favorite thing about this business is the relationships. The surf industry has a lot of diversity in people; people from different backgrounds and different places in the world. The one thing that I love most is working with people who care about what they do and have a passion for their craft."

Eric Arakawa

64EA

Designed by Eric Arakawa

Reef McIntosh threads a Pipeline barrel on an 8'4" x 19" x 2 3/4" Eric Arakawa shaped from an 85A blank.

"There's been this huge renaissance in big wave, paddle-in surfing. Whereas a few years ago we were shaping a lot of tow-in boards, now there's more demand for bigger boards. The waves these guys are riding, you just can't paddle into on a regular 9'6" Waimea gun."

Eric Arakawa

" We've designed 10'9" and 11'9" gun blanks. These will be ideal big wave blanks but also good for tandem boards. Rather than adding a lot of rocker to the nose, and thereby losing length, we just added a little extra thickness so you could cut rocker in. Because polyurethane is pressure molded, the strength tends to be in the skin so we left about 6' in the center so we can take thickness off the bottom and allow the deck to maintain its strength. We're hoping to have these blanks available by the summer."

Pat Rawson

" This blank started the Clark Foam-Rawson era. The first, thicker version I made was in 1986 and we used it at Clark for nearly 25 years. This 85A is a more refined version, to accommodate boards as they got thinner. I always use it with my Hawai’i Rocker but the Natural Rocker is available for those who want the traditional Vee bottom in the tail. I’ve used this blank often and feel like I’ve had some real success with it in the 7’4” through 7’9” size gun range.”

Pat Rawson

Pat Rawson, Sunset Beach, Oahu

65A

Designed by Pat Rawson

Pipeline, Oahu

Charlie Smith, Maui

Matt Yerxa, Waialua, Oahu

"I wanted it to be really compatible with both hand-shapers and the machines. I wanted to make sure there was enough thickness in the nose and the tail. I also made the blank really flat. A lot of old longboard blanks used to have "roll" in them. Nowadays longboards have concave and all types of contours so the flatness has just made it really easy blank to work with."

Matt Yerxa

95M

Designed by Matt Yerxa

Retired foam. The Sugar Mill, Oahu

Fresh foam. Fiberglass Hawai'i, Wahiawa, Oahu

Fiberglass Hawai'i Distributor of US Blanks Wahiawa Store Wahiawa, Oahu

Honolulu, Oahu 1377 Colburn St. (808) 847-3951

Four Locations Wahiawa, Oahu Kahului, Maui 914 Palm Place 246 Papa Place (808) 621-5667 (808) 871-7955

Ventura, California 4350 Transport St. Ste 106 (805) 644-0009

FiberglassHawaii.com @fiberglasshawaii

/fiberglasshawaii

Pat Rawson designed the 99AX. This one is headed to Eric Arakawa's with a 3/8" Bass stringer.

Fiberglass Hawai'i Wahiawa was the original site of Clark Foam Hawai'i.

Grant Ramey and Andymar Renon at the Wahaiwa store.

Portfolio of Blank Designers Hawai’i 2013 #brighterisbetter #madeintheusa

For the complete blank catalog visit USBlanks.com/catalog

@USBlanks (310) 225-6774

/usblankssurf

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