A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Surfboard shaper and manufacturer from Santa Cruz, California; founder in 1992 of Surftech, a company specializing in fully replicable molded/composite-laminate boards.

French was born (1952) and raised in San Diego, California, began surfing at age 10, not long after moving with his family to Santa Cruz, and in the late '60s started making boards for himself and a few friends. In 1978, he launched SeaTrend, originally to produce the AquaToy, a molded Styrofoam beginner board that went nowhere in the marketplace. SeaTrend became a production center for a number of Santa Cruz boardmakers, then in 1984 branched into sailboard construction. The surfing industry had dabbled with molded boards over the previous twenty-five years, but stuck almost exclusively with a board-making process developed in the late '50s: hand-shaped polyurethane foam wrapped in a layer of resin-saturated fiberglass. Not so with sailboard manufacturers, who profited greatly from molding technology and new materials. 

French sold SeaTrend in 1988 and four years later founded Surftech, with the idea that the latest molding systems—which could now make a board both lighter and stronger than the traditional foam-and-resin process—would lead to commercial success. He enlisted the help of top board-shapers such as Dale Velzy, Donald Takayama, Renolds Yater, and Glenn Minami, slowly built a line of both longboards and shortboards, moved his production facilities to Thailand (a first for the surfboard industry), and, by the turn of the decade, had established Surftech as one of the industry's strongest and richest companies, earning French a spot at #15 on 

magazine's 2002 list of the "25 Most Powerful People in Surfing." 

Meanwhile, fairly or not, French has been lambasted by some in the boardmaking industry for using Third World production facilities and for producing boards that will almost certainly bring about a decline in business for the local corner-store shaper.

French, Randy

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing