About: Marc Andreini is a designer and shaper of custom surfboards for over 40 years. Specializing in boards for all wave types, locations, and the special people who surf there.
As interviewd in Surfer Magazine, “Andreini’s been in the stick-crafting business for the past 50 years, most recently leading the charge with George Greenough’s infamous “edge boards.”
Lately your name has become synonymous with the edge boards you’re known for shaping. When and why did you become interested in those designs? It was an accident actually. I wrote a book [The Gift, which will be released at the Boardroom] that explains the whole edge board thing in detail. I go through the evolution of surfboards, from the ancient Hawaiians to modern and along the way I talk about the primary architects of board making. By ’71 it was fairly well known that he [George Greenough] stopped riding his spoons and started riding these edge boards. I’d seen him and wanted to make one in the worst way but I was always really busy.
When I started writing this book, I called up Greenough to get his blessing. I told him I wanted to make one and he said, “I’ll send you all my templates.” So that’s how it started. From that point on I started collaborating with him. I’d send him photos of my boards and he’d tell me what to tweak. Once I started riding them I fell in love. I’ve been applying the design to every type of surfboard with the end goal to apply it to big-wave boards. They’re a blast. I prefer them over my regular boards because they ride well in a variety of waves and they love crappy surf.
Why is that? The design is like the bottom of a boat which is designed for rough seas. It just goes right over the top of it. The rails are round and lifted way up high to manage all the chop and the wind. It’s got concave channels to the bottom like a Boston Whaler so it just floats right over the top of all the lump so you get a lot a lot of speed and a real soft, smooth ride. And they have an overdrive gear in them that kicks in whenever you get in a really juicy section.
For those who don’t know much about the edge boards—who would you recommend the edge boards to and why? If you like to ride B spots, you’ve got to have an edge board. You get a lot more out of marginal surf on one. A really finely tuned board— like a Kelly Slater glass slipper form the 90s—they only work in perfect surf. There aren’t manly designs that can deliver maximum performance no matter how crappy the conditions get. And they work on any design–shortboards, gliders, longboards. The beauty is whatever you can paddle into, it’ll ride it well without any limitations.
