Surftech Surfboards
| Surftech Surfboards | |
|---|---|
| |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Location | Santa Cruz, California |
| Shaper | Randy French |
| Category | Longboards, Shortboards |
| Website | http://www.surftech.com |
Surftech Surfboards are manufactured by a unique surfboard company specializing in epoxy surfboards. Epoxy surfboards are surfboards built with a polystyrene core and an epoxy resin skin. Surftech has gone the extra mile with their unique fused and expanded polystyrene core, which took many years to develop.
Surftech SurfboardsSurfboard shaper Randy French started Surftech Surfboards in 1989 and is at the cutting edge of new surfboard shaping technologies and advancements, including the revolutionary Tuflite surfboards.
Before designing surfboards, he designed sailboards which allowed him to experiment with different materials and composite board construction to make his boards lighter and stronger. As windsurfing became less popular, Randy decided to quit the sailboard design business and focus on surfboards.
After building his first Surftech surfboard prototype with Rusty Preisendorfer, he formed a partnership with an international manufacturing company.
Excited by the potential, other shapers including Dale Velzy, Mickey Munoz, Reynolds Yater, Donald Takayama, and Robert August soon joined up with Surftech.
With longboard production well under way, Surftech turned their attention to shortboards. Soon shortboard shapers like Glen Minami, John Carper, Phil Byrne, and Al Merrick wanted a chance to work with Surftech’s exciting new technology.
Surftech Surfboards Randy FrenchWith such talented shapers on board, Surftech was able to get feedback from the world’s top surfers, proving that they had been successful in creating a surfboard lighter and stronger than any other board.
Reaching his goals didn’t stop Randy from pushing himself even higher. After four years of research and development, Surftech was ready to announce their newest technology TL2.
TL2 uses a unique “sandwich” core that gives the board more speed and greater power on turns. This core starts with a waterproof fused cell called the Techlite Blank.
Each Techlite Blank is formed from a high tolerance mold exactly like the master shaped by an expert shaper. It is then wrapped in fiberglass, epoxy, and Acrylite and vacuum bagged.
The Acrylite is unique to Surftech Surfboards making the board both strong and flexible at the same time. The core is inspected and given a clear epoxy glass job. Finally, it is sanded and hand tuned to perfection.
Randy French has now made Surftech TL2 surfboards the market’s lightest, strongest, and most innovative surfboards available.
History of Surftech Surfboards
Unlike many other surfboard brands that are more well-known by a shaper’s name or brand name, Surftech Surfboards is well-known for its technological names.
Prior to the formation of Surftech, Randy French’s experience with shaping surfboards and windsurf boards would help him launch his new business. He would eventually use his windsurf board shaping knowledge on composite board construction to innovate on new surfboard materials.
Randy has partnered up with famous surfboard shapers including Rusty Preisendorfer, Dale Velzy, Robert August, Geoff Rashe, and many more.
Throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, Surftech would include these top technology that is widely used by other surfboard brands:
- Surftech
- TufLite
- UltraFlex
- SoftTops
- Blacktip
If you are a beginner surfer, you may remember the SoftTops. That’s right, those came from SurfTech Surfboards.
Overview of Surftech Surfboards
Overall, Surftech Surfboard’s are the technology that was listed above.
Otherwise, the following surfboard brands and shapers currently utilize some form of Surftech technology in their boards:
- Arrow
- Blacktip
- Channel Islands
- Hawaiian Pro Designs
- Joel Tudor
- McTavish
- Robert August
- Roxy
- Rusty
- Simon Anderson
- Softops
- Stretch
- Strive
- Surftech
- Velzy
- Xanadu
- Yater
Check out the PDF version of surfboards using Surftech technology.
Surftech TL2 Shortboards
Surftech offers a wide range of surfboard models designed using the TL2 technology. See http://allaboutsurfboards.com/surftech-surfboards/surftech-tl2-surfboards/