Press Release:
Iconic Shaper/Designer Rusty Preisendorfer to “Talk Story” at
Huntington Surf and Sport on Saturday
Rusty Preisendorfer has been mowing foam now in his sixth decade.
Like many of the world’s greatest shaper/designers, Rusty began building himself boards in the backyard before landing a job shaping for legendary San Diego surfboard brand Gordon & Smith in the early Seventies.
This lead him to team up with Canyon Surfboards and John Durward in the latter part of the Seventies where he began shaping boards for some of the “Bustin’ Down the Door” generation including the former ASP World Champions Shaun Tomson and Peter “PT” Townend.
In the early Eighties he befriended a young rising Australian Mark “Occhy” Occhilupo who was competing in San Diego in front of the Canyon Surfboards Surf Shop in Ocean Beach, which lead to their relationship when Rusty left Canyon to start Rusty Surfboards in 1985.
Their collaboration developed a new style of surfboard that helped “Occhy” win back-to-back OP Pro’s in ’85 and ’86 and by the end of the Eighties it seemed like everybody was now riding a Rusty.
Through the next few decades, Rusty made boards on and off for many the world’s best surfers and in 2008 was named ‘Shaper of the Year” by Surfing Magazine.
He continues to work at the highest level shaping and designing for Josh Kerr current ASP/WCT “Top Ten” in the world at number eight, who also just won the “Video Performance of the Year” at the recent Surfer Poll Awards on the North Shore from the “Kerrazy Kronicles”.
He’s also putting foam under the feet of Nate Yeomans. Damian Fahrenfort, Kalani Chapman, Jamie O’Brien and a multitude of today’s young rippers.
This weekend at Huntington Surf & Sport’s “Boardroom” from 10a.m. until noon, come “Talk Story” with him all about the journey and his continued love for mowing foam.
