Rusty Preisendorfer

The Details So, your board didn’t come out exactly like the dims you requested? Let’s start with stock dims. Who do you think designed the board and dims? Stock dims are a guideline. Not gospel. You don’t think I can improve a design? Overtime a design gets retuned and the dims will change. While they are listed in hundredths of an inch, there is no way you, or anyone else for that matter, can feel a few hundredths of an inch. Width Example: On the site it says the width is 19.03 I will usually round it off. 19.0 No one is going to feel 3 hundredths of an inch. I would be very surprised if anyone could feel 1/8th .125 of an inch. Not on the nose. Not on the tail. Definitely not outline width. ¼ of an inch, possibly. Thickness An advanced surfer would feel an eighth of an inch. .125 which, on a short board is roughly 1.5 liters. .07 of an inch on a shortboard is app 1.0 liter .04 of an inch is a half a liter. Do you think you can really feel 4 hundredths of an inch? Keep in mind, Pros usually get the same board over and over again. So, it is possible that they feel 3/32 difference in thickness. Maybe. Volume: This is latest dim that has taken over everyone’s attention. 20 years ago, we had no idea what volume was. Width, thickness, foil, rails, that was it. And if you were working with a good shaper, you probably had a solid batting avg on the good boards. Today people are obsessed with volume. I guarantee you that no one except a very very good surfer who, gets lots of repeats, can feel a half a liter, and then probably not. A liter, most definitely. But again, that’s if you are a very advanced surfer getting the same board over and over again. You have no idea about rocker. So critical. Bottom contours? Width. Not just the widest point. Every 3 inches…how about that! Foil balance? Even, forward, rear, how much? Fins. Size. Rake? Made of what? Plastic…really? Fin position. From the rail, towards the nose, outward cant? Glassing. What weight cloth, where? Width of laps? Edges? And on and on. Fact, I have shaped for over 50 years. Trust me.

Your Board Isn’t Right? Early on, the boards I ordered were rarely what I expected. Almost every single one was different. Was I bummed? Hell no. I was stoked just to have a new board. Couldn’t wait to wax it up and get it in the water. My first new board? Summer of ’66. My parents bought it for me. 8’10 Twin Pin. The best surfers in La Jolla were riding them. I was new to surfing but hit the water daily. Bear Mirandon shaped it. Big guy—bigger than me, and I was 6’4, 190 at the time. He understood what a larger surfer needed. A solid surfer, a visionary shaper—the link between Bob Simmons and Steve Lis. When Steve Lis walked into the Mirandon Brothers shop, he tripped out on their Twin Pins. That was his inspiration. My next board? I had to earn it. Bagging groceries. Two bucks an hour. Gas was 20 cents a gallon. New boards? $200. Glass-on fins. Gloss and polish. Today, gas is $5 a gallon—25x more. New boards? $900, give or take. So please, don’t complain that your logo is a little high. Or that your color isn’t perfect. Or that the concave isn’t deep enough. And no, you don’t deserve a discount. 1967—I worked all summer. Put down a deposit in June. Got my board in September. A 7’6 Twin Pin. Nothing like the 8’10. I gave it a shot. Struggled for months before realizing—it was a pig. For years, I ordered from different shapers, even after I started shaping. Some boards were close. Many were not. Still, I was always stoked to get a new board. Color? Forget it. Order blue and black, get orange and red. We have customers who buy multiple boards a year. They trust me. They come back. They send their friends. Surfboards are handmade. 8+ hours of skilled labor in each one. No board is ever perfect. Not design flaws—cosmetic ones. So unless it’s a serious structural issue… Wax it up. Give it a shot. You might be surprised. —Rusty

Zach Bogetti loving his Slayer 2. The Slayer 2 is an update to the original Slayer. The Slayer, designed almost 20 years ago, is a "step down" board designed for for slabby hollow waves. It runs a few inches shorter than your regular everyday board. Wide point foward, creating a longer rear railine. Lower entry to help get in easier. A very popular design. The Slayer 2 is a happy medium being the Slayer and your everyday step-up board.Wide point pulled back to an inch or so in front of center. A little more entry rocker to accommodate the extra length. Call the factory for a custom consultation!

Craig Butcher and yours truly. Craig is from Durban. Ex-pro R. Euro distributor. Still rips. 1st photo is a Billabong commemorative Occy '84 board. Last spring we worked on a new model called the "So Fun!" Stringerless EPS with carbon -kevlar rails. A plus volume everyday board with good range. Available in the next month. Feedback is solid!

Jojo Roper Known him since he was a little Grom. His father Joe crashed my bachelor party. Been making Jojo’s boards for quite a while. Joe was a bit of a Hellman. Jojo has taken it to another level and beyond. We have built quite a few boards together. 100s? Brings me some blanks. I design them and Hoy usually finishes them. Jojo picks them up and takes them back to Joe Roper’s Custom Surfboard and SUP Repair. Tom Curtiss, Airbrush Genius, sprays incredibly intricate designs on pretty much every single board. Jojo does the rest. This is a Tow Board I shaped a little over a year ago. 5’11 17.12 2.12 22.3L PU Quad Happy New Year Jojo…and to many more!!!

First…what or where, is the entry…rocker on a surfboard? If you look closely at most photos or videos and see how much of the nose is out of the, on average, it is usually about the front 18 inches, give or take a little. Sure, on a very steep, late takeoff, almost all of the nose is in the water. A 6-foot, 72-inch board, 25% or one quarter, is usually what you will see. Sometimes almost a third, or about 33 inches. I overheard a conversation, that involved, and he shall remain nameless, a very experienced industry person, with over 20 years of sales management and repping. He was having a discussion with an account in Nor Cal, trying to explain The Rapid Entry concept. When he was finished, I asked him where he thought the entry rocker was on a board? “Oh, it’s in the back third of the board, between the feet, a little closer to the back foot.” You mean the “Sweet Spot?” “No, the Entry.” It was then I realized that there were probably a lot of surfers that had the wrong idea, or misconception about the” Entry part of the Rocker.” This is a concept I started working on a couple of years ago. I usually put the deepest part of the concave between the feet. “The Sweet Spot.” “The Zone.” I experimented with making the concave deeper in the center. Then started moving it forward. I thought what if… So, I moved the deepest part of the concave into the entry area. Under the chest. Added more tail rocker. The What? was the first Model. Very deep in the entry. -.35 -.25 in the center -.15 in the Zone. Feedback was unanimous. Paddled faster. Got into waves quicker. Held on turns yet still had a tight arc. I blended it a little more. Gradual. -.35 -.30 -.25 Better results. I have since done various depths on different existing models. The SD RT RE has been highly rated by our team and customers who have either tried or purchased one. The deepest part of the concave, in the entry, is .22 +- “Best board ever!” By having the deepest part of the concave in the entry, it feeds and keeps the water under the board early on and generates more lift and speed and drive. I believe this is a big breakthrough and it’s going to be a game changer. Rusty

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Zoe Poole NSMF RE 7’2 21.5 2.75 49.0 EPS QUAD Zoe picked up her custom Rdot today. I love making custom boards. Get to know the customer. Listen to them. Then let them know what I think would help their surfing progress. Have more fun. Usually they “listen to their shaper.” Nothing makes me feel better than to get an upbeat text or an email from them after they have gotten to know their new board. “Trust your Shaper!”

The Deuce Modern Twin Fin Rusty collab with Noel Salas /watch?v=eodkfXDkwnE Noel, Wow!!! The Deuce Two years of focus and determination! Official release: Monday, September 11th. Noel, I so appreciate the chance to work so closely with you on a project like this!!! Rusty My daughter, Avalon, created The Deuce logo! Avie also did the twin-fin logo. A little history about my experiences with Twin Fins: My first custom board was a Surfboards La Jolla 8’10 Twin Pin shaped by Bear Mirandon and glassed by Nick Mirandon. 1967! 56 years ago. Got a second one, 7’10, in the summer of 1968. The first board I shaped was a joint effort with Dan Evans A Twin Fin Fall of 1969 Built Shaun Tomson Models at Canyon starting in 1979. Shaun was one of the last pros to ride Twins in competition. A lot of what I learned from Shaun still applies. I rode some of Shaun’s designs in the early 80’s. I shaped Asym Twins for Henry Hester in the mid 80’s Josh Kerr 2016 /surfing-magazine-archive/say-hello-rustys-new-twin-fin Surfing Video Say Hello To Rusty's New Twin Fin Kill the middle fin and get loose with Rusty Surfboard's newest creation. • Dayton Silva • Nov 3, 2016 Kill the middle fin! And get loose with Rusty's newest model, a modern look at the ever-classic twin fin. Apparently, the model you see here was inspired by requests from CT'er Josh Kerr and based directly off of Rusty's archived folders from the 80s. The clean outline features a single hard-wing swallow, with double concave to compliment, and the rails take after a more high-performance ideology. With easy feels, smooth transitions, and a refreshing sense of simplicity, this could be just the spark your quiver was looking for.

The UCSD John Moores Cancer Center Longboard Luau 2023 The 30th anniversary. I was on the founding committee. Along with: Tyler Callaway Debbie Beacham John Otterson Sam Armstrong Shawn Styles A couple of others Originally a Legends event held at Scripps, south side of the pier. Over the years the event has raised millions and millions of dollars all donated to Cancer research. The event is tomorrow, August 27th, morning right in front of the Scripps Pier parking lot. This board: Utility 9’6 23.0 3.3 84.5 Jeff Holtby US Blanks Rusty design and program Hoy Runnels finish Russell Imlay lamination Tom Curtiss color Mike Lovell fins Joe Roper's amazing glassing John Wilkerson for gettin' it done John Durant the beautiful photos I have lost a few family members and too many friends to Cancer. Cancer Sucks

Letty and his new model “Disco Stick” Letty was back in town this week. On his way to Costa Rica with Zeke for another episode of STAB. We’ve been working on his new model the “Disco Stick.” Deepest part of the single concave is right in front of the fins. .32 inches deep. I designed him 5 variations. Thank you Jojo Roper for bustin’ these boards out in two days! Good luck Letty and Zeke! The name hasn’t been finalized. Or the logo. Any suggestions?

Hard to believe. Me 21 years old. Lazy summer day at my favorite spot…Blacks! Mark Keller photo Time Flies…embrace every minute!