Mark Nelson founded Carve Sports, Inc. / VERITAS SURFCRAFT in 2014.  Since that time, Mark and his team have partnered with Yu Sumitomo of Thunderbolt Technologies, and elite longboard surfers including CJ Nelson, Harley Ingleby, Ben Skinner, Taylor Jensen and Kai Sallas.  Together with their shapers, this team has created exceptional lineups of high performance and classic longboards and fun shapes and established distribution of their boards in most major surf markets around the world.  Brands include CJ Nelson Designs, Harley Ingleby Series by Tolhurst Surfboards, SkinDog Surfboards, Flying Diamonds Fins, Taylor Jensen Series and Kai Sallas Longboard...

Introducing Ben “Skindog” Skinner Once in awhile, top-level athletes and influencers sneak under the radar, whether due to their geographical location, a lack of desire for self-promotion, or any number of other factors. But it is only a matter of time until talent and style catch up with them, and eventually, the world knows who they are. Ben “Skindog” Skinner is one such athlete. A surfer and shaper from Cornwall, England, Skinner originally grew up on the island of Jersey, located between England and France. Not a lot of people know where that is, so surfers from the island don’t...

Taylor Jensen - TJ Pro Model in Thunderbolt Technology Taylor Jensen has won three longboard world championships, with back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, and a third in 2017. Throughout his career, he has competed on his signature model, the TJ Pro shaped by Dan Mann, which is available in Firewire Timbertek, and will be available in Thunderbolt Black (carbon fiber) and Red (Xeon fiberglass) starting in April. To get us hyped up for the release of this high-performance longboard in Thunderbolt, we invited Taylor Jensen himself to come into the shop and talk us through the dimensions and design....

When Kai Sallas decided to start his own production line of longboards, he knew he wanted them to be as advanced as possible. As a respected high-performance longboarder with an ISA world title to his name and numerous top-three finishes on the WSL Longboard World Tour, Kai knows a thing or two about progressive surfing and progressive surfboards, and when he borrowed one of Harley Ingleby’s Thunderbolt boards, he immediately fell in love with the construction. Kai’s surfing is heavy-footed and aggressive. He weighs around 200 pounds and surfs with raw power, so he needed boards that could hold up...

  2x World Champion Born in Coffs Harbour in 1983, Harley Ingleby started surfing as soon as he could walk. His surf-mad father Mark encouraged Harley from the beginning, and also happened to have one of Australia’s more interesting surfboard collections, a collection that wasn’t just for looking at. Harley was encouraged to try all kinds of weird and wonderful surf-craft, and by the time he reached his teens, he could ride anything from a 5-foot fish to a 10-foot log. Once he decided to focus on longboarding, Ingleby’s progression began to accelerate. By 2005 he was one of a...

Taylor Jensen’s TJ Pro Good surfers win the contest, but good boards help—and Taylor Jensen’s TJ Pro has helped him collect three longboard world titles. Designed with shaper Dan Mann, the TJ Pro is Taylor’s go-to competition board, and comes in a stock size of 9'0". Originally available in Firewire Timbertek, the TJ Pro will also be available in Thunderbolt Black (carbon fiber) and Thunderbolt Red (Xeon fiberglass) starting in April. The Thunderbolt Red provides a bit more flexibility and responsiveness, whereas the Thunderbolt Black is stiffer and provides more control in larger, more powerful waves. Regardless of the materials...

John John Dominates Margaret River With Historic Performance The Rip Curl Bells Beach starts today, but the world (and the world tour) is still in shock from John John Florence’s performance last week at Margaret River. Main Break is notorious for being one of the most difficult waves in the world to surf well, and that point was proved time and again last week as the world’s best looked to be surfing…well, not quite at their best. The wonky, fat walls of Main Break simply don’t lend themselves to exciting, high-performance surfing, and more often than not leave competitors looking...

What is THUNDERBOLT TECHNOLOGY Available CHISHOLM CJ NELSON Models and TOLHURST HARLEY INGLEBY MODELS Audio Harley Ingleby: (Start 1:49) - Billy Tolhurst and I have worked really closely for over 15 years. And, we’ve not only always tried to push ourselves about shapes and designs, but also with different blanks and laminations. We’ve been working for a couple of years behind the scenes with Thunderbolt Technologies. It’s just been amazing to work really closely with them and push that to a new level. I’ve worked with other sandwich constructions before, which have been okay, but to be able to work with Thunderbolt Technologies and I’ve really...

CJ NELSON Santa Cruz’s CJ Nelson is arguably one of the best nose riders. He has starred in films such as Sprout, The Present, and A Paradigm Shift, and in particular, his section at Scorpion Bay in Sprout maybe some of the most technical traditional longboarding ever featured on film. He is one of the few nose riders to comfortably switch his stance on the nose and does so with impeccable style. Although notorious for being a bit of a partier throughout his career, CJ is now vocally sober and strives to set a good example for the young people...