CORE SHOP

Our journey starts in the Core Shop where we use renewable FSC Certified lumber of various species to assemble each core with different thicknesses and patterns to better accentuate the boards performance personality.

• FSC CERTIFIED RENEWABLE ECO WOODS
• MULTIPLE CORE “RECIPES” TO ACCENTUATE BOARD PERFORMANCE
• SAWDUST IS COLLECTED AND RECYCLED INTO SOIL

PRINT SHOP

Now we head to the Print Shop where our proprietary eco-sublimation process puts the “zero hazardous waste” in our ZERO HAZARDOUS WASTE manufacturing. This revolutionary process not only keeps toxic silk screen run off out of our water supply but it also creates incredibly brilliant, vibrant renderings exactly how the artist intended for them to be seen.

• ECO-SUBLIMATED PRINTING PROCESS
• WATER BASED SUBLIMATION
• ZERO HAZARDOUS WASTE
• NO TOXIC SILK SCREEN RUN OFF!
• AMAZING DETAIL AND COLOR AS THE ARTIST INTENDS

PARTS

Now it’s time to assemble the parts both stock and unique to each Lib Tech dream board. Magne-Traction® edges are added to the base material here and UHMW tips and tails of various makes are added to the wood core before the whole kit heads to lay up.

• MAGNE-TRACTION® EDGES APPLIED
• UNIQUE TIP AND TAIL ELEMENTS APPLIED

LAY UP

You have all the materials you need for a Lib Tech dream board so now it’s time to mix and bake in Lay Up! The steady hand of the Lib Tech crafter lays down the performance fibers unique to each board and then applies the perfect level of our low VOC resin. From here the board goes into the oven aka a high temperature / pressure snowboard press before heading off to Finishing.

• ALL THE MATERIALS ARE PUT TOGETHER
• PERFORMANCE FIBERS INCLUDING BI-AXIAL, TRI-AXIAL, BASALT AND CARBON
• LOW VOC RESIN IS ENVIRONMENTALLY NICER AND DOESN’T SMELL BAD

FINISHING

Our dream board is almost slope ready but not until the final couple steps of excruciating detail and master crafting seal the deal. In Finishing excess material needs to be trimmed off along the edges and the boards tip and tail shape is also created with no metal guilds, just skilled crafters. Our water cleansed finishing system pulls dust and particles out of the air for the cleanest of finishes.

• SKILLED CRAFTERS CUT OFF EXCESS MATERIAL
• EDGES ARE TUNED CLEAN AND SHARP WITH A GRINDER
• NOSE AND TAIL SHAPES SKILLFULLY CUT
• WATER CLEANSED FINISHING SYSTEM KEEPS AIR AND BOARDS CLEAN

QUALITY CONTROL

Trav’s new dream board is all but ready to rip it just needs to be reviewed by our team of Quality Control experts looking for blemishes in every aspect of the board. And if they find a small cosmetic blemish it get’s designated a “b-grade beauty” an will be available to shops and costumers at a discount. In QC board info stickers are applied and a Mervin Mfg. sticker signed by the crafter who finished the board also get’s added.

• BOARDS ARE THOROUGHLY INSPECTED FOR ANY WARPS / BLEMISHES
• BOARDS WITH COSMETIC BLEMISHES ARE DEEMED “B-GRADE BEAUTIES”
• THE CRAFTER WHO FINISHED THE BOARD ADDS A SIGNED STICKER OF APPROVAL

The post Building A Lib Tech Dream Board With Travis Rice appeared first on Lib Tech Blog.

Here at Lib Tech, we naturally head east to Lakeside Surf in Chelan, WA for testing when the ocean goes flat. This time when the pool jets stopped pumping inland the Lakeside Surf Team headed our way into the Jet stream to experience nature’s finest wave pool, the Pacific Ocean. First stop was the Lib Tech surf factory to pick up some “dang difficult to ding” Lib Tech surfboards and get a tour from Co-founder Pete Saari. Next, after a quick stop to NXNW SURF Shop in Port Angeles for some wetsuits, they headed North By Northwest to the most northwest tip of the lower 48 United States, Neah Bay Washington. Smack dab into the Jet stream they went with hard to get out walls of whitewater and overhead dredging barrels on the outside. Despite the challenging conditions, the Lakeside Surf Team braved the elements and had a blast on the (north) West End.

The post Lakeside x NXNW appeared first on Lib Tech Blog.

T’was a journey north into the Canadian Rockies to beautiful Sunshine Village, Banff for Snowboy Production’s 11th Holy Bowly event. T’was a journey for the world’s most perfectly sculpted transitions, a journey for camaraderie, a journey for poutine and slush (that ended up being powder)… but mostly it was a journey for points, lots of points and eternal glory. This is the Holy Bowly Scavenger Hunt…

The post Holy Bowly Scavenger Hunt appeared first on Lib Tech Blog.

STAB inspired “Lightning in a bottle” pocket rocket shaping genius!

A collaborative tri-fin project by Matt Biolos and artistic, innovative South African hand shaper, Donald Brink, now based out of San Clemente. Motivation for the project was Stab’s Electric Acid Surfboard test where the original asym shape was given a 5’3” size restriction and intended for use by Mick Fanning in the wide variety of waves on hand in the Maldives. The boys, knowing Mick’s power, skills and refined board knowledge, created a craft that would hit his volume sweet spot while packing in maximum motor, and would rail through proper arcs, fit into tight pockets and utilize both flat faces and power sections… they won!

We asked Matt and Donald to create a more user friendly symmetric version designed to work with board building process and they went to work… thanks guys!

For the Lib Micks Tape our shaping savants went up to 5’4” as the base size and added a 5’6”, 5’8”, 5’10” and 6’ to open up the doors to everyday surfers who might want a bit more volume and paddle power but still want that mix of spontaneous freedom and power on rail that the board was created to manifest. Designed to be ridden finned up as thruster and effective much shorter than your standard shortboard (even your fish) choose a volume you can be comfortable with and push yourself to fit into new parts of the wave like Mick did!

To bring this Micks Tape to life visually Donald and Matt combined efforts on the visuals with 80s mixed tape patterns in CMYK colors and tonal greys and custom fonts.

Real World Experience

Our Lib symmetric Mick’s Tape absolutely rips in the pocket and anywhere else you can think of for pros like Ian Crane and is actually two boards one shape depending on your interpretation… A compact pocket rocket thruster that doubles as fishy twin plus trailer groveler in longer lengths for us regular rippers… happy accidents… crazy fun!

Compact “Pocket Rocket” Thruster

Surfed in shorter sizes / lower volumes (as small as you can paddle) and set up as thruster as designed it is an amazing high performance mind expanding pocket rocket thruster and loves quality waves. “When in doubt thruster out” — Donald Brink

“Fish Take” Twin Plus Trailer

As Donald, Matt and our squad have experimented with surfing larger sizes/volumes of the Micks Tape in small to medium sized surf it has proven to be a magically fast loose performance groveler. Set up as twin plus trailer the full nose, speedy straight rail line and wider swallow tail create an amazing high performance fish like feel that gets up to speed quickly, glides through flats and flies through the corners in smaller or softer surf.

Handcrafted in the USA near Canada in our unique “dang difficult to ding” environmentally nicer construction the Mick’s Tape is guaranteed to elevate your surfing and relax your lifestyle.

The post Mick X STAB X Biolos X Brink appeared first on Lib Tech Blog.

We have been honored to work with our longtime friend and surfer/snowboarder shaper Alex Lopez. Alex shapes his boards by hand with his favorite Skil planer and combines a magical set of templates with his modern perspective on good surfing and shapes. Based out of Oceanside he has been inspired by some of San Diego’s finest shapers including legendary philosophical Rich Pavel and functional futurist Ryan Burch. When he’s not at home Alex travels the world with his tools and templates shaping and surfing with his talented surfer test pilot partner Leah Dawson… depending on the time of year you can find him building boards out of Japan, Hawaii, France and Bali. You can order custom boards from Alex at alexlopezsurfboards.com.

For our Alex collection we started with his favorite mid-size the 7′ 4” Terrapin. A modern classic wide point forward beak nosed, down rail, mid-size single fin intended for what Alex calls “smooth surfing”. The Terrapin has proven to be incredibly versatile and fun excelling in clean larger surf, medium sized everyday surf and performing as an amazing “session saving” longboard substitute in smaller lower energy surf. Rare are the days when the beloved Terry is not in the van and it’s a great one to pack on a long distance trip where you will run into a wide range of conditions.

The second board Alex shaped for us is his vision of a performance shortboard the 6′ 8” LT “shy performance” Long Twin. Perfected during the lockdown the LT features a streamlined template, a pulled in swallow tail, plenty of rocker, foam under your chest for paddle /glide and is designed for days when the waves have good shape and some push. The LT walks the line between a short board and a twin step up. The performance rockered narrow swallow tail twin hangs on steep energized walls, races through extended high lines and wraps through speedy redirections. We have pushed it into larger clean surf with great results and had plenty of good times at our local alternately dumpy/ flat-faced beachies. The LT really hits its stride in a good overhead running point wave… don’t we all.

The third board in our collection is still cooking but we are very close to dropping the 6′ 10” Terratwin, which is an exciting twin version of the original smooth surfing widepoint forward Terry. The slightly shorter size makes it a duck-dive friendly mid-size in bigger surf or short period swell beat down beachie sessions. The twin fin set up keeps it loose through the turns and allows it to hang high on the face of steeper waves. A beautiful beaked nose and soft smooth user friendly rails make the Terratwin a very easy surfing forgiving board that allows you to push your mid-size surfing into high performance places. Our crew has fallen in love with the this one during our test sessions… you will too… stay tuned for release date and let us know what you want to us work with Alex on next!

There is something special and synergistic about Alex’s modern classic shapes in our rugged environmentally friendly construction. Boards like the Terrapin and Terratwin have a 70’s asthetic where style mattered most and leashes didn’t exist but they offer modern performance and leash plugs so you don’t hurt anyone on a busy day. If you do lose one on the rocks or bang it loading it in the truck no worries… The 6′ 8” Long Twin in our construction is ready to take on powerful grinding / slabby surf around the world and come home in one piece. Relax and take a few risks, it’s a Lib Tech.

The post Alex Lopez X Lib Tech appeared first on Lib Tech Blog.

A pack of Lib Rippers descend on Snowboy Productions’ Holy Bowly 2023 at Sunshine Village on the best Bowly board the Lib Tech Dynamo. All the Dynamo performance with a custom Quincy Quigg 10 year Holy Bowly graphic commissioned by Snowboy’s Krush Kulesza. Catch the vibe with Matteo Soltane, Austen Sweetin, Brandon Reis, Devin Tubbs, William Mathisen and Kai Huggin’s dynamic creative freestyle flow.

Filmed by: Sean Lucey, Tim Stanford and Al Grogan
Edit by: Sean Lucey

Tim Zimmerman Holy Bowly Dynamo Gallery

The post DYNAMOS at Holy Bowly 10 appeared first on Lib Tech Blog.

The Radical Ripping Rad Ripper!

The latest model in Matt Biolos’ “Post Modern Retro” collection, the Rad Ripper, draws its inspiration from 80s performance shortboards and is scaled for small, to medium everyday suring. Super-fast, forgiving, user friendly, retro fun with modern updates and improvements for the masses!

RAD RIPPER

Modernized 80s retro squash tail fun performance 

• Flat, stable deck, with steep, low apex, tucked soft rails.
• Built in our lightest weight Techno Pop construction.
• Slight vee in nose (to free up the low rocker) into a shallow single concave, into a deep double concave vee, for both speed and control.
• Wide, stable squash tail, glides across anything, and holds speed through turns, even in small summer slop.
• Forward thickness flow, with wedged “beak” nose, for drive and paddle-ability.
• Also available Futures compatible.

The Rad Ripper basically has an engine on the back of it and is ready for everything that puts a smile on your face from ripping through power carves, whipping through threes, gliding through extended floaters, to blasting airs and winning Stab High like Rasta Robb! Built in our lightest weight Techno-Pop construction, it has a nice 80s feel and will take the beatings you give it when it becomes your favorite board.

The post Matt Biolos + Cole Houshmand On The Rad Ripper appeared first on Lib Tech Blog.

Miracle March is pumping at Mt. Baker and Austen Sweetin along with a crew of Lib Rippers hit it perfect. Watch Austen, Phil, Kai, Brayden, Zöe and Matteo in Boardslide Worldwide’s “2 Feet at 8 Seconds”!

Boards ridden in “2 Feet 8 Seconds”

The post 2 Feet at 8 Seconds! appeared first on Lib Tech Blog.

Travis Rice just released his self-directed video part with Red Bull Snow. This 14-Minute barn burner puts all Trav’s jaw dropping action together in one audio / visual feast.

“The inspiration behind this edit is the last song — the ‘Like An Old Dog’ track which is just ‘OLDDOG, EMPTY HEAD’.The ‘Old Dog’ bit speaks to wisdom and experience. The ‘Empty Head’ bit speaks to flow state riding and intuitive route finding”, says Travis. “These are the two attributes you need to ride lines like this consistently and safely.”

The post “A Good Winter” Travis Rice – Director’s Cut appeared first on Lib Tech Blog.