Takayama Surfboards

Surfboards By Donald Takayama

Surfboards By Donald Takayama has a rich surfing heritage that can be traced back to the 1960’s. Donald was discovered by Dale Velzy while surfing at Makaha beach, Velzy recognized that none of the young surfers went to school and so he told Donald that if he ever got to the mainland USA, there would be a job waiting for him. Takayama duly took Velzy up on his offer and worked for Velzy-Jacobs Surfboards and lived above Velzy's surf shop.

Takayama shaped at Surfboards Hawaii in the late 1960s, and founded Hawaiian Pro Designs in the late 1970s. He shaped shorter surfboards in the 1960s and could often be seen riding his 5'10" around Encinitas in California. As the short board era progressed, Takayama refocused on longer surfboards and that’s when his modern notoriety really began, he created signature longboard models for various established and up and coming surfers.

The rest as they say is history his Hawaiian Pro Designs brand went from strength to strength and some of the most iconic names in surfboard models emerged. Surfboard names like the Scorpion, The Egg, and In The Pink are now rested in folk lore as benchmarks against which all other surfboard models are measured and compared. In later years Takayama's collaboration with Surftech to produce his boards in their epoxy construction lead to a whole new lease of life for his brand and models. Through the 1990s this business exploded and his surfboards were appreciated by a whole new audience. Sadly Donald Takayama passed away in 2012 but through his wife and previous business relationships his name lives on as an icon of surfing. The team here at Boardshop are absolutely stoked to be a part of the ongoing story of Takayama surfboards.

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