Head Shaper:

A.J. Finan

Behind the Brand: Established 20 years ago, and based on Melbourne Beach, Florida, Cannibal Surfboards’ head shaper A.J. Finan has been using a vacuum-bagging process to bond aerospace materials to a hand-shaped core. “All standard boards, epoxy or polyester, are built with one layer of lightweight, inexpensive fiberglass on the bottom and two similar layers of fiberglass on the top,” he says. “Then we use a quasi-Isotropic, multi-vector orientation of cloth, with many layers, that greatly increases overall strength and provides more uniform flex. Combined with lower resin-to-cloth ratios, we can build a composite board that is far lighter and stronger than what’s available with standard hand lay-up. Optimizing resin ratios also reduces the chance of fracturing due to everyday wear and tear on the surfboard, because the cloth does the work, as opposed to the resin matrix, which is inherently fragile. We only use aerospace fibers to build the vacuum-bagged substrate over our high-quality, steam-pressed EPS foam, which creates a shell that has over 1,000 pounds of breaking strength per square inch on the deck of the surfboard. A standard board only has 120 to 170 pounds. This is all before the resin matrix is infused, which vastly strengthens the vacuum-bagged board. There is no way to build a stronger composite than vacuum-bagging this particular material. Thus, by using the strongest and lightest materials available we can achieve a far better product. CoreVac boards also have a superior flex to that of any standard surfboard. They’re stiffer under the front foot and push less water than normal, overly flexi boards that don’t distribute the load of the rider’s front foot over the entire deck. This creates noticeable acceleration from the initial drop through turns and even over flat sections, where standard boards tend bend in the middle. The CoreVac board will flex more aptly in the nose and tail sections like a bow, or the body of a fish or bird, providing a more comfortable ride than the standard board.”

About Cannibal's Most Popular Models: “The Conduit and the Covert have been filling in for that everyday performance board,” says Finan. “Both work so well that you see some of the team riders incorporating them into their contest boards, even in sizable surf.”

Shop Talk: “Trueness is the most important quality to have in your surfboard. If the original board isn’t true, then how the hell can you repeat or adjust the next shape? To move forward in any type of design, you have to maintain certain constraints or the experiment is a failure and you have learned nothing.”

How do you think surfboards and shaping/glassing boards will change in the next decade? “Forty years of building the same type of poly crap has to go. The blanks are inconsistent and the glass we used to build poly boards is as inferior as it comes. When the consistency of the foam was gone, we changed over to a more stable core and then tripled the fiber content on our surfboards.”

When a new customer comes to you for a custom shape, what kind of questions do you ask to ensure you’ll make them what they’re looking for?  “I get a sense of the overall product. You can’t just take three arbitrary dimensions and nail a shape. You need to know what type of board they’re coming from and what they want to achieve.”