Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Another surfer-turned-manufacturer

Asymmetry in 1999, finless boards now

Ekstrom is not what is known as a production shaper.
Ekstrom is not what is known as a production shaper.

Carl Ekstrom began surfing in 1948, four years after his brother, Woody, had mastered the sport at Windansea, from where the family was nearly forced to move after their rent was raised from $12 to $17 a month. Carl and Woody’s dad tightened the family belt, worked a few more hours, while the boys surfed at Windansea.

Beginning in 1943, Woody had ranked among the first to surf Windansea and was one of its top riders on the heavy wooden planks he sometimes made himself. When then-seven-year-old Carl began, he nearly drowned in the powerful shorebreak. Carl persisted and eventually earned a place next to his brother as a top surfer in the region.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Along with another local surfer named Al Nelson, Carl launched Nelson/Ekstrom Surfboards, a brand that became popular locally. By 1964, Carl had gone on his own and along with his first wife, Ann, started Ekstrom Surfboards on Playa De La Plata in La Jolla Shores. Carl invented an asymmetrical surfboard. “I realized that I liked one board better for going right and the other for going left.” In 1964 that he began to combine both boards into one.

When Ekstrom closed his surf shop and quit making surfboards in the late ‘70s, he and his design were forgotten. In 1999 Ekstrom returned to the shaping room and built a few boards for friends, among them one of California’s premier surfers, Richard Kenvin. Kenvin spread the word about the asymmetry. Next to catch on to the Ekstrom boards was up-and-coming star, Ryan Burch. The boards were refined and other shapers began to take notice and adapt asymmetry to their boards.

Ekstrom is not what is known as a production shaper, but makes his surfboards one at a time in his garage-converted surf shop in the midst of a eucalyptus grove in Rancho Santa Fe. Currently he is working on finless surfboards with experimental rails. Kenvin and Burch are his test pilots.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Next Article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Ekstrom is not what is known as a production shaper.
Ekstrom is not what is known as a production shaper.

Carl Ekstrom began surfing in 1948, four years after his brother, Woody, had mastered the sport at Windansea, from where the family was nearly forced to move after their rent was raised from $12 to $17 a month. Carl and Woody’s dad tightened the family belt, worked a few more hours, while the boys surfed at Windansea.

Beginning in 1943, Woody had ranked among the first to surf Windansea and was one of its top riders on the heavy wooden planks he sometimes made himself. When then-seven-year-old Carl began, he nearly drowned in the powerful shorebreak. Carl persisted and eventually earned a place next to his brother as a top surfer in the region.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Along with another local surfer named Al Nelson, Carl launched Nelson/Ekstrom Surfboards, a brand that became popular locally. By 1964, Carl had gone on his own and along with his first wife, Ann, started Ekstrom Surfboards on Playa De La Plata in La Jolla Shores. Carl invented an asymmetrical surfboard. “I realized that I liked one board better for going right and the other for going left.” In 1964 that he began to combine both boards into one.

When Ekstrom closed his surf shop and quit making surfboards in the late ‘70s, he and his design were forgotten. In 1999 Ekstrom returned to the shaping room and built a few boards for friends, among them one of California’s premier surfers, Richard Kenvin. Kenvin spread the word about the asymmetry. Next to catch on to the Ekstrom boards was up-and-coming star, Ryan Burch. The boards were refined and other shapers began to take notice and adapt asymmetry to their boards.

Ekstrom is not what is known as a production shaper, but makes his surfboards one at a time in his garage-converted surf shop in the midst of a eucalyptus grove in Rancho Santa Fe. Currently he is working on finless surfboards with experimental rails. Kenvin and Burch are his test pilots.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?
Next Article

SDSU pres gets highest pay raise in state over last 15 years

Union-Tribune still stiffing downtown San Diego landlord?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.