[What The Blank???] The BoardRoom This Weekend!!! A Tribute To Legendary Shaper/Surfer Ben Aipa

[FOAM E-Z]

It's that time of year again and this time we are back at the Del Mar Fairgrounds for The Boardroom Show.  You can find the schedule events for each day and all the other details of the show by clicking this link.  Come by our booth for the usual shenanigans and free giveaways!  You can find us just adjacent to the Icons of Foam Shaping Bay and next to US Blanks.  Look forward to seeing you soon.

THE ICONS OF FOAM COMPETITION HONORING BEN AIPA

This year we are humbled and extremely stoked to honor legendary Hawaiian surfer, shaper, waterman Mr. Ben Aipa in the ICONS of FOAM TRIBUTE TO THE MASTERS SHAPING COMPETITION presented by US BLANKS. Watch this YouTube video from Fiberglass Hawaii on Ben Aipa.

- Six shapers will each receive 1.5 hours in the shaping bay as they attempt to replicate a classic Ben Aipa shape.
- The six shapers are selected: Ben Aipa will chose three of the shapers; two shapers will be chosen in a random draw*; and 2013 West Coast champion Matt Calvani will defend his title.
- Each shaper will bring in his own tools; we will provide the blank & the outline template.
- The shapers will only be able to measure and/or touch the board during their allotted 1.5 hours in the shaping bay — which is strictly timed.
- Ben Aipa then judges the anonymous blanks, along with his sons Duke and Akila.

ABOUT THE BOARDROOM SHOW

IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE SURFBOARD. The only thing that mattered. From ancient Polynesia to the ASP World Tour; from Waikiki to Maverick's; from The Endless Summer to Surfline; as the eras passed what we've worn or said or listened to or traveled to or read or watched are just sidebars on surfing's timeline. Because the history of our sport is the history of the surfboard. Nothing has defined the surfing experience more than that on which we ride the waves. Nothing defines the surfer more than his (or her) surfboard. So much more than a tool,the surfboard is the philosophical icon, a sacred craft, a culturally pervasive symbol of freedom, adventure and enduring youth.

This is why the surfboard builder was once the primary arbiter of surfing culture, from those early Hawaiian kahunas to the first wave of board manufactures in the early 1960s. Think back: Hobie, Hansen, Bing, Weber, Noll, Jacobs, Haut, et al. These labels the surfboards they produced and the way this product was marketed shaped surf culture, both literally and figuratively. It was all about the ride. What you wore came second.

Yet as the decade passed, the emphasis shifted away from the surfboard. The surf magazines became the main cultural hub, establishing ethical and aesthetic boundaries and ultimately marginalizing the role of the surfboard in their increasingly narrow portrayal of the sport.According to the surf mags throughout much of the 1980s and '90s there was only one way to surf: a mono-board culture.

At the same time the burgeoning surf wear industry began to eclipse all other commercial elements of the sport. Riding a swell of endorsement based marketing, these soft good companies became our cultural leaders, creating the imagery and feeding it to a media who, in turn, fed this predigested vision back to us: a mirror with no backing, that only reflected outward.

This is not to say there's been any sort of deliberate attempt to commoditize our passion; the surf media is not evil, they're just off track a bit. Our culture arises from riding surfboards on waves. It is all about the surfboard; has always been about the surfboard. Since 2007 THE BOARDROOM has reasserted and maintained this philosophy. To put the surfboard-and the modern day kahunas who craft and design them-back at the forefront of surf culture. At THE BOARDROOM we place surf culture, its influence, its importance, its responsibility, back in the hands of the artisans who shape our sacred craft and ultimately our future.

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Posted By FOAM E-Z to What The Blank??? at 5/15/2014 08:49:00 AM