Long ago there was a man by the name of Al Merrick who loved surfboarding. Over time he started designing some of the most innovative boards surfing has ever seen. Nowadays he has a full line of channel islands surfboards, which are considered as popular as they come. In fact, most of the world's top surfers utilize Merrick's boards.
Born in New Jersey, Al Merrick moved with his parents to Florida, and eventually to California. He started surfing by the age of ten and utilized his years of experience to build the channel islands surfboards.
During his high school days he was sponsored by Surfboards Hawaii and actually helped shape the noserider surfboard. After graduating he attended Palomar College, but only for a short period of time. He realized that shaping surfboards is what he wanted to do.
He was also a big fan of another surfboard shaper (John Price), which pushed Al Merrick to shape surfboards full time. Plus the shift from longboards to shortboards motivated him even more. Over time he created Channel Islands Surfboards and brought something new to surfers around the world.
Then again, when George Greenough and Bob McTavish tested revolutionary surfboards for months it fueled his passion tremendously. This was around the time he relocated to the Santa Barbara, California area and dedicated the rest of his life to shaping surfboards.
The funny thing was he wasn't well known at this time. In fact, even when Shaun Tomson used an Al Merrick surfboard to win the 1977 world title of surfing he still didn't become popular. It wasn't until he teamed up with surfer Tom Curren in 1982 that everything started to changed. This was the same year channel islands surfboards were launched.
Shortly thereafter, Curren became one of the biggest surfing icons ever. This brought tons of popularity to Al Merrick and his channel islands surfboards as well. Everyone wanted to copy Curren's style, which included purchasing the same type of surfboard he used.
Over the years he has helped some of the world's best surfers like; Taylor Knox, Kelly Slater and Lisa Anderson. There are several others as well, and if the truth be told, everyone who was anyone seemed to dawn a board that was shaped by Al Merrick.
Some 45 years later the channel islands surfboards are still going strong. Even though Al Merrick himself isn't doing everything himself, his son has taken over the reigns of the company. This just lets us know that the next generation will have plenty of new innovations, especially since the designs are done by computer. In the end, the future looks bright for channel islands surfboards.
 |
| Stand up surfboard 10ft |
没有评论:
发表评论