Surf Photos

Surfing is a surface water sport in which the participant is carried along the face of a breaking wave, most commonly using a surfboard, although wave-riders may make use of kneeboards, body boards (aka boogie boards), kayaks, surf skis, and their own bodies. Surfing-related sports such as paddleboarding and sea kayaking do not require waves, and other derivative sports such as kitesurfing and windsurfing rely primarily on wind for power, yet all of these tools may as well be used to ride waves. Two major subdivisions within contemporary stand-up surfing are reflected by the differences in surfboard design and riding style of longboarding and shortboarding.

Everyone knows that the sport of surfing thrives from innovative surfers (if you asked a seasoned surfer 50 years ago if he thought kids would be pulling 360 airs off of 4 foot waves he probably would have laughed in your face).

At the REEF Board Build-off, San Diego ASR tradeshow, a board shaping contest and auction to benefit the SIMA Humanitarian Fund, surfers got the chance to remember just how important the shapers are to the future of surfing - and to themselves too.

Seven talented shapers came together to “create the best looking, ready-to-ride, surfboards ever imagined.”

Jed Noll took home the bragging rights with a 9’0 chrome-style longboard that resembled the Silver Surfer’s infamous flying surfboard. The silver paint job was done by Keith Pickrell and the crazy art was done by professional automotive painter Dan Scholz. In the auction, Noll’s board went for $5,800 and set a new record for the Board Build-Off which was previously held by Rich Pavel, whose board went for $3,700 in the 2006 Build-Off. All money went for the SIMA Humanitarian Fund.

$13,000 was raised during the Reef Board Build-off, which was part of a campaign that has already raised a total of $250,000! The donations were split between 13 deserving environmental and humanitarian charities.