surfboards
We make custom hand-shaped surfboards for any and all types of surfers and waves. Our Shaper, Jason Kline, has spent half his lifetime dedicated to become a Master Shaper able to shape all categories of surfboards; Shortboards, Longboards, Retros, Fish, Guns, Grom Boards, Wake Surfboards, etc. Being a custom surfboard shaper means that since 1999, he's been making all kinds of boards for hundreds of different customers, making the need for many different models. The models that worked well and are ordered consistently are displayed on this website. If you're looking for a custom board that is backed with a satisfaction guarantee, go to our contacts page and call Jason's direct line and speak to the shaper youself!
art
Every surfboard on this website can be ordered plain white and is base-priced as such. But we hope that you will choose an art style that makes your surfboard special to you. You will see most board models on this website with some sort of airbrush or resin tint. These are not standard sprays or tints for each model. You can order your next board with any art style you choose and is just another way to make your next board to truly one of a kind.
travel
Jason grew up going back and forth between California and the Third World. Once a driver's license was attained at 16, strike missions to Baja with good friends soon followed.. The bug to travel to lesser developed countries where adventure can still be had, and crowds avoided, only got stronger. He encourages everyone to broaden their understanding of the world and the different cultures and places that exist by putting yourself out there and travel to the places less traveled. Surf trips with Jason and his band of friends/riders to date have gone to Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Baja, Ecuador, Mainland Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Chile, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, El Salvador, Peru and Indonesia. We hope that just by browsing through this website, you'll catch that bug too! Go on - work hard, save up, buy that plane ticket, and go on an adventure!
meet
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The history behind third world surf co.
To understand why this surfboard shaping company is named the Third World Surf Co. (aside from the traveling aspect), you first are going to need to know a little more history about Jason Kline... below he's put together a summary bio timeline of his life to date to bring you up to speed, enjoy!
After separating, my mom moved to the Caribbean when I was 3 and my younger sister and I shared growing up down there with Palos Verdes (Los Angeles), where my father still lives today. Starting in the little island of St Thomas, we moved from house to house, and later moved to Puerto Rico when I was 8. There, we lived in San Juan and later moved to Rincon, located on the west side of the island. This was a little surfer enclave town back then and we settled into life there. Our adventures and tribulations living in the Caribbean were well documented by my older brother who would write back to our relatives and friends in the States. He had a name for that correspondence - it was called the Third World Newsletter.
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At that time I was boogie boarding the beachbreaks there and snorkeling every day. My mother moved back to California in 1994, I was 14 years old then, but to this day those years formed who I am today. Later I learned how to surf when 16 at Rat Beach with my high school friends there - Max, Joe and Nick. Max. Max and I shaped our first boards then after stripping down old longboards bought from Garage sales in Hermosa Beach. In the two years after getting our drivers liscense, we went on 8 surf trips to Baja where we developed a craving to explore for waves and camp in the Third World. Getting out of the hampster cage I like to say..
In 1998 I began my long college trudge, starting in Architecture school at Tulane University in New Orleans. Shortly after in 1999 I came running back to California where I got my first degree and work card at the Marine Diving Technologies Center at Santa Barbara City College. It was then that I got a job shaping surfboards for Monte Wayne in Goleta. We [slowly] learned how to shape, glass and airbrush in his sheet metal shop on AeroCamino next to the airport. It was not easy back then. Before Sacred Craft, YouTube and UV resin, shaping and glassing was like a black art - no one showed you anything.. It wasn't until the outsourcing of shaping to Asia that everyone felt the pressure to hold on to this sacred craft and decided to share it before it was lost.
In 2001 I graduated from Marine Tech and booked a one-way flight to Tonga. There I found work aboard sailboats and traversed the South Pacific for 6 months from Tonga to Fiji, to Western Samoa, back to Fiji and then down to New Zealand, mostly on a 35 foot Warram Catamaran. The skipper was 23 years old, first mate 21, both surfers from New Zealand. This was a life-changing experience for me and what made my mind to start my own board riding company to shape surfboards and promote traveling to the Third World to everyone I knew. Down there the Hook is for the Luck, and so, my logo was born. When I returned I started making custom, hand-shaped surfboards with my own label - Third World Surf Co.
Since I was 19 years old and until I was 26, my years were spent going to Marine Diving Tech and Engineering school, all the while shaping surfboards, and framing/remodeling houses in Northern California where my mother lived. I'd save my money, make a batch of orders, then drive them down to Sayulita in Mainland Mexico to sell them to my team of riders there. Check out the blog entries of the Sunset Deliveries for more info on those times.
In 2003 I moved to Los Osos and studied Civil Engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, later getting my degree in 2006 and my professional license in 2009. While engineering obviously pays better, shaping, painting, traveling and surfing are what I live for. I now am blessed enough to call Santa Barbara my home and have a beautiful family, home and shaping room here.
I'm also lucky enough to still be shaping and painting/glassing boards and hope to for many more years to come. I hope this abbreviated bio helped give you an understanding of how Third World Surf Co. came to be. Now you can check out the surfboards and blog posts to see what's blossomed from the beginning many years ago! If there's a particular surfboard you're looking for, I hope you'll give me a call so you can be included in this amazing world we've been creating for ourselves.
Saludos y Provecha!
Jason Kline
I'm also lucky enough to still be shaping and painting/glassing boards and hope to for many more years to come. I hope this abbreviated bio helped give you an understanding of how Third World Surf Co. came to be. Now you can check out the surfboards and blog posts to see what's blossomed from the beginning many years ago! If there's a particular surfboard you're looking for, I hope you'll give me a call so you can be included in this amazing world we've been creating for ourselves.
Saludos y Provecha!
Jason Kline