JS INDUSTRIES Surfboards at Hawaiian South Shore

Jason Stevenson has been a global leader in surfboard design for 20 years, ever since he left DH Surfboards and started his own label. At the beginning, a lot of people said that he might not make it as an independent surfboard shaper, but he had confident in his shapes and abilities, and was friends with a lot of top surfers, and knew that if he stayed true to his designs and talents he could make a go at it.

When he started JS surfboards, Stevenson didn’t want to use his name on the brand. A lot of other big shapers used their names, but Stevenson was a pretty private guy, so he wanted to do something different, that deflected the focus away from him. His father had worked with heavy machinery and Jason had grown up around industry, and as he was looking for a logo, he and his wife bought a bunch of Caterpillar tractor toys from a toy store and took a bunch of photos, and ended up really liking one. That “Traktor” became the logo for his brand.

Early on, Stevenson knew that he would need some big-name athletes to give his brand credibility. At the time, Luke Egan was ranked number two in the world, having just finished a close title race with Andy Irons. Luke had seen a few boards that Stevenson was shaping for a young Dean Morrison, and came in one day and asked Stevenson to shape him some boards. Read More...