STUART + RYAN

Born to a surfer and ocean yacht racing legend Stu was destined for the sea. Schoolwork took second place, surfing and competition centre stage. A love of building anything saw Stu construct his first board at just 12 years old, a surfer/shaper he was going to be. And it’s a roll he enthusiastically fills to this day. The mid 70’s to early 80’s saw Stu, one of the very few competing on his own equipment, perform exceptionally through the junior ranks and into the opens during professional surfings early days. However it was the building of surfboards and the intricacies of hydrodynamics that had Stu well and truly hooked. Shaping for some of Australia’s biggest labels as well as his own brand through a career thats spanned 47 years and over 25,000 hand shapes. Stu’s love of ocean sailing, quest for knowledge and versatility has seen him branch out over the years and work in the design and construction of performance ocean going multi-hull sailing yachts. It was two decades ago in this world of cutting edge sailing technology that Stu first hit upon the idea of modifying and transferring some state of the art methods and thinking across to the construction of surf and paddle craft. It remained an idea for a decade more till Stu employed it in the construction of his own design ocean racing SUPS that changed the game. Economics killed these record breaking craft but the possibilities of the technology lived on till Stu finally applied it to performance surfboards around two years ago. Subsequent hugely successful R & D saw the birth of EXO FLEX TECHNOLOGY. Crucial to the design and surfboard development is Stu’s son Ryan. Hugely important to Stu’s design and surfboard work is his son Ryan who himself enjoyed a stellar competitive surfing career riding his dads boards exclusively, Ryan excelled as a leader in the Australiasian pro junior series, the toughest in the planet, captained the Australian team to the World Junior Titles and followed up with many massive performances on the World Qualifying Series. Always taking a keen and proactive interest in the design and construction of his equipment saw Ryan working closely with Stu over a decade and a half of intense top level competition in all conditions on the world stage. Retirement from competition gave Ryan even more time with his dad Stu to develop and re-work the modern surfboard whilst pushing the performance envelope. This close association between father/son, shaper/test-pilot has proved a vital element in the development of our craft and the revolutionary EXO FLEX TECHNOLOGY.