Boards & Waves Expo brings
surfboard buzz to Florida 0
Over 1,000 surfers showed up this weekend for the Boards & Waves Expo to see the latest innovations in surfboards and fins, watch shaping demos and attend educational seminars. A first for Brevard County, the Expo was designed to educate surfers about surfboard shapes, design and performance.
Ten local surfboard shapers including Ricky Carroll, Chris Birch, Tom Neilson, Larry Mayo, & more were “talking story” both days about their boards while three exhibitors featured Hawaiian wood ala’ias. New products from Surf King, RepelShark, Surf Perch, Doc Martin’s Sunblock, Skatezz, and Phix Doctor were featured at the Expo along with ten surf and beach-inspired artists in the special “Artist Alley” section of the show.StandUpPaddle boards, homemade surfboard contest, recycled surfboard art program, live music by Gabe Gomez and Bootleg, and surfboard painting by Drew Brophy and Mark Longenecker added new twists to this year’s Expo. An extra bonus was the screening of Bruce Walker’s The Payoff on a giant video screen at the Saturday night party sponsored by Primo Beer.
“The reaction from the attendees, exhibitors, and the community has been very positive from the very beginning. I already have ideas for a bigger and better Expo next year, as well as many requests to bring it to the beach,” said Dave Seehafer, organizer of the Expo and surf industry consultant. Dave attributes much of the support to the locale, since the Space Coast is the East Coast surfing capitol as well as the home of 9-time world champion Kelly Slater.
A portion of the proceeds benefited the Surfrider Foundation and the Cocoa Beach High Surf Team. Sponsors included International Palms Resort, Melbourne International Airport, Surfers Village, R&D Inc/Ricky Carroll Surfboards, Primo Beer, DNA Energy Drink, and Verizon Wireless.
For more information and a list of exhibitors and sponsors that participated in the 2010 Boards & Waves Expo, go to the Expo website, boardsandwaves.com, or contact Dave Seehafer at 949-466-4110, email info@boardsandwaves.com.
subscribe to comments RSS
Comments are closed