Surf Technology
When we decided to make surfboards in 1996, we wanted stronger boards with no decrease … continue
FCD Surfboards
Behind the Great Pacific Iron Works store near Ventura Point is the small tin shed where Yvon Chouinard set up his blacksmith shop in 1966. The shed once housed Bob Cooper’s Australian Surf Shop and Morey-Pope’s shaping room. The location was ideal for everyone’s passion: surf and build the finest mountaineering gear in the winter, climb and sell the gear in the summer.
Chouinard Equipment Company went on to redesign and improve virtually every tool used in mountaineering, from carabiners to crampons. In 1973, the company branched out to make outdoor clothing under the Patagonia® label.
Almost 25 years later and after 4 years of shaping traditional polyurethane blanks, Fletcher, Yvon’s son, started Point Blanks to build better surfboards in a shack next door to the original Iron Works. Like father like son: Fletcher and Point Blanks proceeded to lay-up and destroy hundreds of fiberglass/ foam panels until they found a better, stronger and lighter way to build boards. And, with a group of freethinking surfers and shapers, designed higher-performance boards using the new technology.
From there, our surfboard business has grown, exploring new fiberglass composite technologies and expanding our circle of shapers and test riders. We’ve also got a new name, Fletcher Chouinard Designs (FCD). But we always come back to our desire to build a better surfboard.
Background Photo: by Scott Winer. Kohl Christensen locks into another one in a seemingly endless week of A-plus surf in Fiji.
