Are you ready? What’s the image that comes to mind?

The person you thought of is small framed, thin, tan, blond scraggly hair; it looks like they just got out of the water. I’m thinking you’re thinking somebody like Anne Marie Chadwick from Blue Crush or Spicoli from Fast Times?

Spicoli and Chadwick

Well, guess what? Larger framed people with dark hair like to surf too. If you’ve ever tried to get up on a surfboard and it just straight out sunk then you know you’re riding the wrong surfboard. Surfing with the wrong board is like hammering a nail with a screwdriver. It’s like, yeah, it works, but why?

The Hip Hippo over at Kona Board House is just one of the specialized surfboard in our lineup that is engineered for a specific need. The Hip Hippo is designed to act as a normal midlength surfboard for larger framed people. Did you ever see that photo of Andre The Giant holding a can of beer? Let’s just say you’ve been surfing a longboard for a little while and you’d like to shave some length off your board but everything you’ve tried feels like you’re standing on the can in Andre’s hand, Kona is here to help.

The hand of Andre The Giant

First off, let’s take a look at the volume. The Hippo packs a lot of volume hidden in secret spots which is a good thing. You get a board that is the same length with great responsiveness and speed that is not going to sink under your feet. Our stock Hippos start at a length of 7’2″. A standard midlength board at this length has about 48 liters of volume. The hippo clocks in at over 60 liters!

This board is wider and thicker than your average board so some of this additional volume comes from these dimensions but we’ve also domed the deck. Additional float is also packed in under the chest area. So volume is built up along the center of the board and tapers nicely out to the rails. This technique helps a lot with paddling the board and keeps the rails sensitive for transitions.

The Hip Hippo

The rounded nose and additional width is carried throughout the length of the board. This larger sweet spot creates a good amount of surface area under your front foot. This allows the rider to shift their stance a decent amount without tipping.There’s great waterflow through the bottom contour to help with a mix of speed and stability. A single concave in the front of the board creates additional lift still keeping this board above the wave. The single turns into a double under your feet and around the fins to stabilize the board. The double concave turns to a vee out the diamond tail which creates a great hold on the wave while making rail to rail transitions easier.

All around I’d say this is a surfboard plus about 25% more surfboard. So if you’re surfing out there having some trouble connecting with the waves you want maybe you need something with a little more volume and check out the Hip Hippo.

Since 2015, The New Jersey Surfing Hall of Fame (NJSHOF) has been celebrating surf culture in New Jersey. Every two years four surfers, artists, photographers or videographers each from 5 of New Jersey’s shoreline districts are nominated. Of the 20 nominees submitted, 12 legends will be inducted into the New Jersey Surfing Hall of Fame. 12 “legends”. I am not making that up, that is directly from the Induction Information on the Hall of Fame website. Check out the site, click here.

For those of you who have been following along, you know Mike Sciarra’s history. From Wildwood, where he grew up next to the ocean surfing, he went to college in Florida and hung out with the greats of the mid-sixties in Cocoa Beach when surfboards suddenly went from long to short. From there he went on the University of Hawaii off the North Shore where he began shaping short boards in the late sixties. Upon graduation, he brought that knowledge back to Wildwood, New Jersey and founded Kona fifty years ago.

There is a lot of great talent being inducted this year. Kona is honored to be alongside such great influential people who have so greatly contributed to keeping our surfing story relevant for future generations. So cheers to my good friends from Cape May Joe Grattola and Lisa Roselli as well as Michael Baytoff, Denny Doyle, Scott Duerr, Steve Dwyer, Elle Keck, Matt Keenan, Danny Maragliano, Skip Miller, and Don Tarrant. When’s the party?

Join this crew on Friday, May 31st at the 2019 Induction Ceremony at Algonquin Arts in Manasquan, New Jersey. Follow this link for more info about the event on Facebook!

To up the ante, O’Neill, the original American surf brand created a little contest about nine years ago. According to the Official Wave of the Winter Rules, from November 1, 2018 to February 28, 2019, a surfer and a videographer must visit the North Shore of Hawaii. A successful ride at the surfers own risk with no jet ski assist must be captured on video and submitted to Surfline.
A panel of judges – Gerry Lopez, Pancho Sullivan, Shane Dorian, and Shawn Briley judged over 70 submissions based on Wave Size, Degree of Difficulty of Maneuvers, Style, and Overall “Heaviness” Factor.
That’s the good news. Here comes the awesome news. The contest is over. The judging has been completed. Now all you have to do is join us around the fire pit at Mudhen Brewing Company, check out the footage on the big screen and hang out with O’Neill team rider Brett Barley. O’Neill rep Gary Clayton is bringing over all the entries and maybe some other good stuff. Kona is going to hook it up and play the videos for you. We are raffling stuff off. We have mystery grab bags. It’s going to be a party. The work is done. All you have to do is show up and drink beer, and maybe decide which surfer you think had the Overall “Heaviness” Factor.

Here's a little teaser.

So check it out. Get over to the Mudhen Brewing Company. Friday, May 3rd. the fun starts at 7:00 pm at 127 W Rio Grande Ave in Wildwood, New Jersey!

RSVP on the Facebook event right here.

We call this the Lemon Head because the wide, round nose creates a large sweet spot. This shape started as a Fish surfboard. Fish boards are traditionally fast and loose in small waves. We thought what do you have to do to give this shape more stability and control? First, we took the Fish and gave it a full, round nose. This definitely made the board more stable but the fish tail was still very loose so we thought what do we have to do to get some more bite out of this tail? Keeping the width of the tail – a big feature of the Fish – we inverted the channel of the split tail and gave it a bat tail! The Lemon Head is born. The wide platform nose is nice and stable and the center point on that bat tail gives you some great hold on the wave. That’s the first part but there’s quite a bit more that went into creating this shape. We are pretty proud of it and we think it’s worthwhile to break it down so you can get excited about it also.

Steve Lis' original Fish surfboard

The Lemon Head is great for smaller breaks. You want to surf this in two to six foot waves. If you don’t want to lug your longboard around yet still want to get out there and have some fun on a small day, this shortboard is a perfect alternative. This is a really cool looking shape. It’s an excellent introduction to shortboards that can be ridden by entry level or intermediate surfers.

The Lemon Head (with Josh for scale)

I mentioned that wide, round nose that provides added stability but it also has a nice amount of kick to it which is going to give you some nice lift on drop ins. The nose rocker is low, not as low as a nose rider but low enough to make paddling really easy. Also, traditional Fish surfboards have a pretty flat entry on the bottom. There’s a honking single concave running under the front of this that is going to push a lot of water fast.

The nose rocker curves quickly into a wide point pushed forward. This again adds stability to the front of the board. It’s great for shifting your weight to your front foot. Additional volume is packed into the dome there under your front foot. That volume tapers off into the rails. With this technique, the 60/40 rails are sensitive all the way through the board. You don’t get that hard edge and it helps dig the rails into the face of the wave and turn smoothly. Meanwhile that heavy concave under the nose transforms into a deep double concave under your feet creating a lot of drive forward.

That taper on the profile from the center of the board to the tip of the tail is probably the only line left that is close to the Fish. The bat tail keeps additional width on the rear of the board for stability. A little tail rocker, endless options for fins, the center point of that bat tail and a big vee waterflow that is pushing water from the double concave through the fins has got some fangs biting the face of that wave. Based on our research from our surf team, there seems to be two preferred fin set-ups. The combination of the single fin and the bat tail gives you that balance of stability and control. The waterflow blasting out of the double concave through a quad fin set-up also gives you a great balance of stability and control. Single fin is better for smaller surf. Quad fin is better for medium days.

The five finned bat tail.

So there is it, the Lemon Head. You’re going to want this under your feet on weak days where the surf is maybe knee to head high. That low rocker is going to get you into a lot of waves and make it real easy to paddle. The additional width and volume give this board plenty of stability. The waterflow and the fin set up balance that stability with a nice push forward down the line. This board is a lot of fun for all skill levels and we know once you pick this one off the tree, it’ll be your favorite.

It was not all that long ago when everybody surfed on a longboard; the only reason for that was because that was the only surfboard available. A longboard is a wide, long surfboard that is about 10 feet long constructed with a single fin. Enter a teenage Mike Sciarra living in Wildwood, New Jersey enjoying the surf with his longboard, faced with a choice of masonry work with his dad or attending college. Young Mike chooses education. His two possibilities are Ohio (no surfing) or Florida (surfing hot spot). Mike takes off for Cocoa Beach to attend University and enrolls in Oceanographer classes at Florida Tech in 1967. A lot of big names are surfing around here and a few go to Florida Tech including Mike Tabeling. Mike surfed often with Tabeling and they remained friends until his death last year. Oceanside O’Hare, and Surfboards Hawaii had shops in Cocoa Beach and sponsored some heavy hitters like Gary Propper, Claude Codgins, Jeff Crawford and Greg Loehr. In between classes, you could find Mike surfing the Canaveral Jetties, Indialantic or Shark Pit.

Gary Propper, the top paid pro of 1966, from Cocoa Beach.
Image courtesy of East Coast Surfing Hall Of Fame

A surfing revolution had been brewing for a couple years. In 1964, two Australians George Greenough and Bob McTavish, a crazy knee boarder from Santa Barbara, California and an amateur shaper from Australia start experimenting with surfboard shapes. Maybe they realized the surfing industry was a little stagnant. Maybe they were crazy and thought it would be fun to try something new. Greenough and McTavish experimented for a couple years and came up with “Sam”. Armed with and longboard as their only template available, they make a thinner, shorter, sleeker surfboard with different bottom configurations named Sam. In 1966, Robert “Nat” Young takes Sam to the World Surfing Contest in San Diego and crushes it. The surfing world is stunned, but Sam is not quite ready for prime-time yet. Of course we know today, surfboards shapes perform differently in different surf conditions. The North Shore of Hawaii is the take it, make it, break it, remake it grounds for surfboard designs where Sam was unpredictable. The missing puzzle piece was Dick Brewer who has been shaping boards in Oahu since 1960. Brewer has a secret surfing weapon: a short tear drop pin tail called the mini-gun he has been perfecting.

 Nat Young and "Sam" in 1966.

In 1967, a wave that started in California and Hawaii breaks straight towards the East Coast and shakes the foundation of the surfing world. The longboarding dynasty was over and suddenly the pintail, concave, pointy nosed shortboards were the choice of the new generation.

Back in Florida, Mike has a bit of a revelation and looks for a place where he can transfer his college credits and tailor a degree that suits his needs better. Where else better for a stoked, young surfer in an industry in the midst of a major overhaul than Oahu? Mike transfers to the University of Hawaii in 1968 to study business and economics and act a scientist at the heart of surfing’s experimental laboratory on the North Shore.

Among the legendary and, dare I say godlike, surfers and shapers, we encounter Dick Brewer, Owl Chapman, Reno Abellira, Barry Kanaiaupuni, and Gerry Lopez, along with a whole host of no name surf worshippers who make boards to ride them in back yards all over Hawaii. Mike Sciarra and a bunch of buddies who all happened to take the long, strange trip from Florida to Hawaii start shaping shortboards at the start of the shortboard revolution among the prolific, prodigious, and prestigious.

After graduation and business degree in hand, Mike brought his board shaping skills back to his hometown of Wildwood, New Jersey and started Kona. Since Mike’s Hawaii days, a lot of surfboard shapes have been invented and perfected, but a lot of those friendships remain the same. Stay tuned for Part Two coming soon.

The 1960’s is when the term screen printing was popularized by pop artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg but the art of screen printing is a whole lot older than you might think. For the first screen print we have to go back. Wwwaaayyyy baaack. Screen printing is basically pushing ink with a rubber slab through a screen with a stencil on it. The part of the screen that is not blocked out allows the design to transfer to pretty much whatever flat surface you want.

Andy Warhol screenprinting pop art at The Factory. 

Over the years, I mean, decades – I mean, centuries! The process of getting the design on the screen has been updated. Pushing ink through a mesh fabric hasn’t changed much since the Song Dynasty around 960AD in China. Screen printing was first created by stretching silk over a wooden frame. The silk is a fine mesh that will allow ink to push through. Next, an image is hand drawn. Think, a line drawing – in one color. For every printed color in screen printing, an additional screen needs to be prepared and registered for alignment. The negative image of the drawing is hand painted on the screen with a waterproof masking medium that stops the ink from transferring through the silk.

In the early 1900’s, about 1,000 years later, the first screen printing machine was patented and printers began using chemicals that were light sensitive to create printing screens. So there you have it. The screen printing machine, a photo realistic way to get your design on the screen and inks and this whole thing was a done deal over 100 years ago.

Now computers cut out a lot of time creating designs. It will take a full color image and separate the design into the four color layers easily. Cyan, Magento, Yellow and Black layers are what it takes to produce a full color image. Most modern graphics programs will create these channels with the click of a mouse.

Here at Kona Surf Company, we always use eco-friendly inks and cleaners that are needed for creating photo realistic images for our clothing.

One pass on the screen.

Kona has tried and tested many methods of printing t-shirts. At first, Chris was pressing custom decals on shirts with a heat press. The decal is cool, but they never quite live up to expectations. Decals don’t wear or wash well. Chris wanted something timeless. Kona tried a t-shirt printer also, literally, like a laser printer that would print a t-shirt. This method is popular right now with a lot of print-on-demand places that need to do quick, in-and-out prints or one-offs. Printing a t-shirt just does not have the same classic quality of a true silk screen. The quality and clarity of the real deal comes through when you take the time to do a job right using the right tools.

Four screens - one shirt

When working in our screen printing facility, we always use high quality materials. With a full 100% cotton shirt, you’re going to get nice, even colors that are going to hold fast in the shirt. For darker shirts, we add a special mixture called Discharges that bleach the shirt. Colors really pop using discharge ink on a dark shirt. There’s a method to our madness, but in the end, we love creating high quality, printed shirts for our supporters.

Finished hoodie with some essential screen printing tools.

Call us crazy! Of all the ways to deliver a design to a t-shirt, screen printing is the most time consuming thing we do here, but we love the process! The end result is a classic, high quality shirt with a crisp, colorful design we can be proud of and is going to stand up to a good amount of wash and wear.

Mike Sciarra shaping surfboards in the Summer of '69.

Moving on up and out of the garage, Mike moved from a small storefront to an empty car dealership with the help of his friend Tony Chrietzberg working the front of the shop. He couldn’t keep his custom boards in stock because there was nothing like his product available and local surfers were eatin em up. Surfing, of course, is a summer sport and now Mike has a business he needs to support all year. Based on the decent response to Mike’s unique custom surfboards, Mike decides to look at what is going on locally and add trending products that would be unique to locals to keep the business open year round. Also, Mike’s longtime sweetheart, Dee comes on board to work the finances and manage the up and coming ladies sporting styles. From there, Kona becomes a hybrid, a mish-mash, a mixed bag of surfing and other sporting goods. Maybe you remember the late seventies when it seemed like everybody needed a ten-speed bicycle. Kona creates a bicycle shop and a repair shop! Remember those Nike waffle trainers? Mike brought them to Wildwood along with tennis rackets, hockey sticks, baseball bats and other products that no one carried locally.

Then comes the internet. The internet is amazing in concept. Businesses now have the ability to reach millions of people, but customer loyalty is thrown out the window. Everyone online is just looking for the best price. Being in a seaside resort town, here’s a double whammy: the cost of affordable housing goes through the roof and families begin to move off the island. This lowers a lot of the demand for the sporting goods locally which brings Kona to a challenging crossroads.

Along comes Chris Sciarra, Mike’s son, in the early 2000’s to rethink the future of Kona Surf Company. Mike and Chris put their heads together and decide to go back to the roots of Kona. Chris’ idea is to get back to what has always made the place a success; offering a unique product with a passion for surfing.

They start phasing out sporting goods. Chris picks up a heat press from a local guy and starts creating a Kona clothing line with a decal of the classic sun image. Remember, this is Wildwood, New Jersey. It gets hot here! Kona hasn’t really set up a workshop for creating merchandise yet. As Mike started by shaping boards in a garage, Chris is now operating an oversized iron in a humid back store room handling hot fabric. That was a fun summer, but it was worth it because those experiments paved the way for screen printing and embroidering custom high quality merchandise in house.

The Kona Board House today.

Now Kona has a unique brand to promote; a surfing inspired line of clothing. In case you were wondering, that was a test, but don’t worry! There won’t be one about this later! The test was to see how their unique brand sold in the store and online. The line sold great and it’s still going strong. Next up, the surfboards!

Still shaping after all these years.

At this point, let’s just say that Mike’s been shaping surfboards for about six years longer than that movie about a galaxy far, far away was released at the drive-in theater. Over the years, Mike has shaped a lot of different boards and perfected a lot of signature models. To shape a surfboard by hand takes a deceptively long time. Not to mention, the debris you’re inhaling and the toll it takes on your knuckles. It was Mike and Chris’ goal to figure out a way to make this shaping process more streamlined. After a ton of research they settled on saving up enough money to bring Miki Langenbach to Wildwood from Gold Coast, Australia and set up “The Holy Grail of Surfboard Machines”. Miki helped Mike and Chris dial in the measurements for Mike’s classic boards. Now they are cranking out their own Kona surfboards in-house as well as custom boards for local surfers. You can come in and purchase one of Mike’s classic shapes that are available as stock boards. With this new CNC machine, every measurement on a custom surfboard can be tweaked by changing a few numbers in the computer. The machine does about 90% of the work, and the rest is finished and glassed by hand. As every diehard shaper knows, a pair of hands are still vital to the finished product.

Set the controls for the heart of the surfboard.

Kona started as a grass roots surfboard shaping business and has come full circle. Kona is back to offering our original designs exclusively. I guess what we’ve learned through this process is don’t give up and stay true to yourself. So what’s in store next for Kona? Stay tuned!