Cabianca Surfboards 2024 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: 2024 Surfboards Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: Cabianca Surfboards
Interviewee: JOHNNY CABIANCA, OWNER

To a certain extent, the surfboard market relies on custom-made products and on demand manufacturing. Does this means the business is relatively spared from the poor sell-out and overstocks reported in other boardsport categories?
The market is going back to “normal”, the way it was before the pandemic. But all manufacturers prepared themselves for the higher demand and many low cost factories popped up. Plus a lot of “garbage from Asia” is flooding the market. At the same time, there is an economic crisis and surfboards are not among the essential products people have to buy either way. At our factory we always only produced on demand. No stock boards. Custom-made products, many of them for athletes, make a big part of our production. But what really keeps us going are orders from abroad. We could export even better if the Euro wasn’t so strong.

While the board offer has never been so wide nowadays, which were the top trends of 2023?
80% of the boards produced under my label in Europe are performance boards, 10% of them for kids. So talking trends for the remaining 20% of boards; it would go as summer toys (easy to handle short boards; especially the Candy model), boards for inland surfing (static waves and wake surf), followed by longboards.

There is a noticeable step-back from competitive surfing: did this affect the sales of high-perf models?
There is not as much money in the surf industry as there was a few years ago. The big brands that used to organize the competitions no longer have the means to do so. That’s why the tour in Europe has become much smaller… But my brand stands for high performance surfboards, so we automatically attract this clientele and this is what we most sell. I just came back from Australia, where the average surfer is a performance surfer and a regular Australian surfer can consume 15 boards / year… so it’s a completely different story than in Europe.

There is no arguing: twins and midlengths still are crowd favorites. But which will be the trends within those two trends in 2024?
We sold less twins in the past couple of months than the years before, but more easy shortboards, like our Candy model for example. It’s also available as Candy Twin.

After the release of the Channel Islands Mid, the launch of the CI Log is a clear indicator of the appetite for classic longboards, outside the perimeter of niche hype brands. How is your longboard game for 2024?
I have reinvented myself somewhat in this area, thanks to our customers in Korea. We had a classic (Trimmer) and a more performance longboard in the catalog (Slimmer). But since there was a demand for a real old-school noserider, I added another model: the DREAMMER. Cabianca Korea has built up a team to make our longboards better known. This has increased demand for Cabianca longboards and now our factory in Bali started to produce longboards as well. My view for longboards; it’s a completely “parallel” movement. Longboards have a different mindset than regular surfers. So it’s like another market.

There are two main paths when it comes to sustainable surfboards: the eco blanks & resins, or the low-waste vacuum-made EPS boards. What is your take on the matter?
Low-waste vacuum made EPS board. How does this go together? Vacuum made boards create a lot of trash in the production; think of all the plastic bags, peel ply etc.! It’s not enough to just look at the end product. There are so many ways to build surfboards! We now use biomass based EPS for all our EPS/Epoxy shortboards (developed by Cutback Sports, EON FOAM® is a biobased moulded foam blank. The original material sued to manufacture this product is called NEOPS^®, non-petro-sourced foam material. This alternative to petro-sourced EPS reduces CO2 emissions by at least 30% for equivalent performance and technical characteristics) and Sicomin Surf Clear Evo epoxy resin, which is manufactured with a bio-based content of about 40%. All our models are available with Polyola blanks – directly from us or through their website. Then we a collab with Wyve we are stoked about, 3 models by Cabianca in their 3D-printed structure. Available through their website. We also have some boards in the making with Agave blank from Grow Blanks. On the other hand; while some people look for the most sustainable surfboard, about as many people are looking for a full carbon board… contractions.

Key Products:

The Pickpocket:
The magic happens in the details. The Pickpocket is Johnny’s latest high-performance creation – a technical, refined shape that gives progressive surfers the tool they need to elevate their rail game and push every move to its critical limit. Tuned to connect turns seamlessly within a condensed wave area, this board is your ticket to fast, pocket-perfect surfing.

Sherpa:
Inspired by the hull-bottomed models of the pre-Thruster era, midlength boards are the perfect choice for smooth, flowing turns and effortless glide on long, cruisy waves, especially point breaks. For the Sherpa, Johnny has taken the classic vee bottom and combined it with a double concave through the tail. The rails are thin and low: experienced surfers will love their precision and response.

CABIANCA_SHERPA

Dreammer:
Our classic retro longboard. The nose concave of ‘The Dreammer’ creates an incredible amount of lift, allowing you to ride the wave with ease and hold you in the pocket. The flat middle section delivers insane trim speed, carrying you through the flats and helping you to maintain momentum. Finally, a wide square tail with deep rocker makes turning easy, so you’re always perfectly set up to strut your way down the line to hang-ten town.