I make custom surfboards (wood or foam; fiberglass or epoxy); fins; skate decks; nose & tail blocks; wood racks; wood board hangers; board straps; etc.

My shapes are all custom tailored to your needs.

I innovate templates from past and present cutting edge designs, as well as original templates and designs, fluid curves, and foils designed for speed, drive, flex, hold, release, trim, and glide!

My biggest influences are Skip Frye & Bill Thrailkill -- two masters of speed and trim in both small and large surf.

I got my start shaping boards out of necessity in the 80's. We didn't have surfshops to buy boards from where I grew up, so I salvaged old boards, broken boards, and became Grubby Clark's main surfboard blank customer in the Great Lakes Region.

I taught myself the trade through trial and error.

I have lived and surfed all over the world, and have owned and ridden a quiver of well-over 100 surfboards by various legendary shapers; all of which I studied, templated, and emulated early in my shaping career.

I know what works, and I apply my knowledge of air foils, hydrodynamics, and fluid dynamics to my own designs.

If you want a custom board made for you specifically, come by my shop or give me a call and we'll work something out.

Thanks for your support!

Sincerely,

David Vernon Falkenau

Artisan Surf Designs / Falkenau Surfboards & Fins
2658 State Street
Carlsbad, CA 92008
619-757-0100
info@artisansurfdesigns.com
http://www.artisansurfdesigns.blogspot.com

Quality, not quantity! Hand Shaped in the USA, NOT machined overseas!

Here are some pics of 3 boards I just shaped:

One is a 4'11" Tadpole with an acid fire resin smear blending into black pin lines, blue rails, and a blue bottom... set up as an FCS tri-fin for my son Gavin. It's his first surfboard... Lucky kid... I couldn't imagine getting a brand new custom surfboard made by my dad as my very first board!

The Center one is a 5'6" Fish that I shaped custom for Delco Hagan. He wanted a vintage looking fish with thicker rails and more volume starting with a beaked nose into a traditional fish template complimented by a pulled in rear-end that measures 9" pin to pin... and my own secret fin set up. This board was made to fly with style.

The longer one is a 7'2" Quad Section Connector, extremely thin and foiled out for maximum drive and performance. I don't mess around in my shaping bay... I put 20 years of my own research to the test whenever I come up with a design concept. My boards don't look like anything else out there when you get right up close to them. I have things going on in these boards that most shapers would scoff at on their first glance, until they understood why I did what I did, and then actually had the chance to ride the board and realize for themselves that I actually know what the heck I'm doing. Not bad for a kid from Mishawaka, Indiana, huh? Yeah, everybody laughed at me when I told them I was going to grow up and open up a surfshop with my own surfboard label. Now they can ride my equipment, knowing I was dedicated, and not just a day-dreamer. I used to get in trouble for reading Surfer Magazine in Algebra class, but little did Mr. Urbanski realize, my brain was working over time applying algebraic equations to geometric theory and quantum physics... man, I wanted to design a board that would send you off to another dimension!
I'm not saying my boards are the best. I'm not even saying they are better than this guys or that girls boards. All I'm saying is that my boards work, and they to what I designed them to do.

Try one out sometime, and you'll want one for yourself. Trust me. At a very young age I dedicated my life to studying and applying board design to take surfing into a realm surfers have never seen before! I got into it when I was young, and applied it right away. I wanted to still be young enough and in good enough shape to get out there and ride my boards, pushing them to the limit, refining my theory, and applying it to new designs.