Surfboard of the Year

While surfboards may not be the most profit making or volume product in store, it is fair to say they are the most important core product in our industry.  The reason is simple – you can’t go surfing without a surfboard.

There is a lot of choice out there for surfers and retailers with a huge variety of performance shortboards, longboards and mals, hybrids and SUPs on the market. This makes the Surfboard Of The Year category at the SBIA awards a very competitive category and as the “soul” product of our sport, it is also a very prestigious award.

In 2014 the award went to Haydenshapes’ Hypto Krypto, one of the most visible boards on the beach, in the surf media and in core board stores. Of course, surfboards are about performance and led by number one team rider Craig Anderson, the Hypto Krypto captured the imagination of a lot of surfers.

It doesn’t hurt to have one of the most progressive stylish surfers around on your boards, but the surfboards have to work for a lot of surfers to maintain successful sales.

“Anyone who rides the board, novice or experienced, can feel the design and construction working.”

Some of the reasons cited in last year’s judging for the Hypto Krypto winning the award are:

  • Hayden Cox is a very good shaper, designer and manufacturer.
  • The board works. It is versatile and performs in a variety of wave shapes and sizes.
  • The board in EPS Fibre Flex Epoxy construction met consumer demand for obtainable “Tech” and is easy to see and communicate the points of difference in construction to PU.
  • The board met and was well timed to meet consumer demand for shorter wider buoyant designs and again was easy to see and communicate the points of difference.
  • It was smartly marketed as premium surfboard at a time when much of the market was pitching down.
  • Anyone who rides the board, novice or experienced, can feel the design and construction working.
  • The model arrived with a spice of change and excitement validated by Ando – well-timed when the market was a bit messy and looking for some freshness and GSI backed it with stock and production.

The Surfboard of the Year category has been hotly contested again in this year’s awards with the finalists being made up of some of Australia’s leading surfboard manufacturers.  Stay tuned to see who wins this most coveted SBIA award.