Head Shaper:

Cole Simler

Behind the Brand: After moving north to Central Cal from his hometown of San Clemente, Cole Simler started Cole Surfboards in 1987. “I was going to school, and having a hard time getting good boards built quickly,” he says. “I had always loved surfing and surfboards so I just started building a few for myself and my friends. One thing led to another, and things just kind of snowballed.” By the time he finished school, Simler had enough business to begin making boards full-time, and in 1999 relocated back to San Clemente. He immediately hooked up with his old crew and began building boards for many top local and international pros including Matt Archbold, Nathan Fletcher, Bruce and Andy Irons, Chris Ward, and a host of others. Cole also began to work closely on various board designs with Nathan Fletcher, playing with, most notably, quads. They found a winning formula in the Firefly bat-tail quad which Fletcher test rode, proving the design in all sizes of surf. Their work on the quad has been credited with being a large part of the resurgence of the high-performance four-fin model in recent years.

About Cole's Most Popular Models: “I have been doing a lot of quads, of course, and also a lot of five-fin convertibles. The convertibles allow customers to experiment with a lot of different fins combinations, and to really feel the different characteristics of the various quad- and tri-combos. We’ve also been doing our Trunkboard with a five-fin setup (four bonzer-style side-runners, plus a single box) and our team guys have been really stoked on the combination of that fin configuration and the board’s full-length bottom concave.”

Shop Talk: “I think one of the places where there is the most room for advancement is in fin design and fin placement. To me, there are so many possibilities. We have really just barely scratched the surface.”

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? “One of the most important things is getting the customer a board with the correct volume. For instance, a 6'1" board can be 2 1/4" in the center with a super tapered rail and barely float a 140-pound guy, or it can be 2 1/4" with a super-full rail and float a guy that weighs close to 200 pounds. So I use a set of over 30 rail templates ranging from small to large, in about 1/16" increments. I use these rail templates to help get customers the rail volume they are looking for, and this has been a phenomenal tool for getting the customer the right balance between floatation and responsiveness. Also, I write the rail template on each board, so I can get them the same volume rail every time, or make slight rail volume adjustments to each board. It has now gotten to the point where a lot of my customers and team riders know the code of the rail template they like, so they write it on the order form along with all the other dimensions.”

Which trend would you like to see continue with regard to boards or design? “I love the fact that Kelly has been riding such a variety of boards. It has done so much to break down the resistance of the pros and surfers in general to riding anything but the standard thruster. Also, at the Lowers event, Dane was riding a little stubby board, and in my opinion, surfing way quicker and better than almost everyone. It seems like the kids see that and think, “I need to try something like that.” Those are the kind of things that I think are going to help push design forward.”