Austin Surfboards...what's the word?

Austin does amazing resin work and has boards are flawless. He makes really sweet old school longboards. Plus he is a super nice guy, give him a call...he might even have a demo for you to try out.

 

he is a really nice dude and his product is great the only down side is his boards are super pricey you could go and extra 300 yards down the road and buy 3 wrv boards for the cost of one Austin board

 

this is b/c his boards are works of art...

not to say that the hand-shaped wrv's aren't, but austin really puts his heart & soul into the boards he makes. the craftsmanship alone make them worth the price...the resin work, the pinlining, the rockers & foils...functional art.

besides, i think most people tend to think of wrv as a high-performance shortboard company. austin is more of a log & retro shaper. i don't recall ever seeing a high performance shorty from him.

 

I have personally never ridden one of his boards, but the look incredible. Now yes his boards are more than maybe WRV, but they are for a reason. You are not paying for the name with Austin, you are paying for the craftsmanship. The amount of work that goes into creating a board of his is insane. His resin work is abolutley astonishing. He obviously isnt shaping for the money, but because he likes to do it. But if you are looking for a quality made surfboard Austin would be on my list for a good East Coast Longboard, but thats just my thoughts on the matter.

 

My old man swears by the Austin longboard shapes (I think he owns 2 of them and an retro egg shape). Good craftsmanship is easy to spot and I have ridden the soul glide model longboard on a small day and had a good time. However longboards and retro aren't really my thing and I don' believe Austin does performance or fat guy (me) shortboards. Maybe he should consider branching out seeing as how TRUE VB custom shapers these days are few and far between.

 

Austin made his name on the old style longboard shapes and resin work. He has since branched out into various other forms from paipos to fish and various short board designs. Austin uses good materials. He has also branched out into the wooden board world making some alaia and such, including handboards. Beautiful stringers, nose and tail blocks on his foam/fiberglass boards. He does very little EPS/epoxy work. Bottom line is he is a shaper and craftsman. If you know what you want he will shape it and not impose his own ideas. He also does some great board restorations and ding repair work.

 

Austin and his Pop Troy are awesome. I have a 10' Soul Glide from him. I'll post some pics soon if your interested. They do great work and are very down to earth. His boards are tough and will last. They are usually glassed fairly heavy and have great attention to detail. Yes they are a little more than a WRV but you get what you pay for. I'll be down at his shop in a few weeks for his surfboard swap.

 

Here is my 10' Austin Soul Glide. Volan glass, deck patch, all resin work on the argyle deck patch. True Ames Heritage fin.

 

Ok this is not my board but its another example of the work Austin does. Its a new model he has just come up with. For more pics of some of his boards check out his website or the Longboard.net forums. There are quit a few of us over there that have his boards.

 

austin's artwork & craftsmanship is incredible. if i rode longboards more, i'd deff. have at least 1 in my quiver.

 

I read alot of good stuff on the longboards.net forum . I havent joined yet cause I havent gotten around to putting 5 bucks into my paypal account to pay for a lifetime membership

Austin does some amazing work and he definalty keeps the classic longboards style going here on the eastcoast