Hap Jacobs
Hap Jacobs
www.hapjacobssurf.com
Hap opened Jacobs surfboards in Hermosa Beach on Pacific Coast Highway in 1959, and came up with the Diamond logo: Surfboards by Jacobs. Business was good and then it was great and then it was ridiculous. "We were there at the beginning during I guess what they call the Golden Years of Surfing between the 60s and 70s," Jacobs said. "As I look back on those days there was a lot of stuff I could have done.
It got busier and busier and busier until we had five shapers and people in the front room. Lance Carson and Robert August and Rick Irons all worked in the front room until they wanted to learn to shape. There were a lot of people who shaped for us and at our peak we were up to 125 boards a week. It was pretty mind-boggling."
For SurfTech Hap is happy to put that Diamond label on a 9' 2" performance tri fin, a 9' 6" and a 10' noserider single fin. "Some people like these SurfTechs and some don't. For people who came up on shortboards or guys who ride super-light longboards, the SurfTechs are really popular. I like them because they are good for surfing families who don't get in the water as much as they would like, and they can take one of these Surftechs down to Sano and get some waves. One of the board-rental places by the Waikiki Sheraton has them for beginners. And then guys like Lance Hookano rip on these boards. So maybe they aren't for everyone, but they're an option that the world is catching onto."
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