232 - Britt Merrick - Surf Splendor

Lead designer at Channel Islands Surfboards, lead pastor at Reality family of churches, Britt Merrick talks about his role shaping boards for World Tour athletes, how losing a daughter challenges one’s faith, and how to scale a business globally without sacrificing quality and family values. Enjoy.

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Britt, testing his wares at a wave built by Channel Islands most famous athlete.

In the bay with father Al at The Boardroom Show 2017

Al, Britt, and Aaron Smith judge the Icons of Foam shaping competition in 2017

@zekelau has been on fire lately—ranked 6th in the world—so Britt surprised him with a batch of new blades for the upcoming Bali event. Including these #ciBlackAndWhite round pins (6 ‘0″ x 19 x 2 7/16) with color work to match the roll he’s on. . While on his way to Indonesia from Brazil—where he finished 3rd—Zeke dropped by our Santa Barbara factory over the weekend to pick them up. Britt has been working on some special little tweaks to Zeke’s Keramas quiver, and they had a chance to chat about them before he bolted to LAX. . #ciSurfboards
A post shared by Channel Islands Surfboards (@cisurfboards) on May 21, 2018 at 8:52am PDT

At Pukas shop in Zarautz hosting ongoing brand education

And a short film made by Britt’s son, Isaish

It’s hard work making surfboards but we love what we do here at Channel Islands. Handbuilt by surfers for surfers since 1969. This video was shot and edited by Isaiah Merrick, the son of our head shaper Britt Merrick. Isaiah works here at our Santa Barbara factory airbrushing and installing CI’s new engineered flex technology called Spine-Tek. He digs being here and was inspired to make this video of his coworkers just for fun. Like Isaiah, we’re all pretty psyched on talking surfboards, so please don’t ever hesitate to reach out to our customer service via phone or Live Chat anytime you have a question about a new board or model, whether it’s about something in stock or if building a custom on our website’s Custom Boardbuilder page. . Video by @isaiah_merrick . #cisurfboards #surferlabor
A post shared by Channel Islands Surfboards (@cisurfboards) on Jun 29, 2018 at 4:05pm PDT