About Rich Price Surf Designs

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In 1976, after spending three years in the surfboard business just stoked on being able to surf and being able to make a living in the industry, I got the opportunity to learn to shape surfboards. For quite some time I had been interested in what made a surfboard work but I really never knew what I was looking at in surfboard design until I started shaping.  So I went out and bought all the tools I needed, made my first templates, and then started going for it. After a couple of years shaping a few boards  that worked and a whole bunch that didn’t really work, things began to come together. I was able to start  shaping boards for some guys who ripped and they actually liked them. They would tell me what was working but more importantly they would tell me what wasn’t working and that is where the real progression in surfboard design comes from. My goal from the beginning was to make cutting edge, state of the art, high performance surfboards that worked for all levels of surfing ability and to this day that remains my primary goal. Over the years I have had the opportunity to work with or shape boards for many world class surfers. The list of all these guys is really too long and not really relevant to what’s going on today to name them all but they really helped define who I am as a shaper. By having them travel around the world and put my boards to the test, they were able to give me very valuable and honest feedback.

Whenever I was able to develop a working surfer/shaper relationship with any one of these guys I had one basic philosophy and that was consistency in the shapes that I was providing for them. I knew every board I shaped was not going to be magical but if I got 7 or 8 out of 10 to be  one that they really liked, than I was successful. Any shaper who is really honest would have to say the same thing. Progression in my designs has always come from working with guys like these, having them travel around the world to some of the most demanding breaks, and then ride my boards. Trust me, that will expose every weakness that any shape might have.

To this day my shapes and designs have been tested and proven in Hawaii, Australia, Indo, the south Pacific, South Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, Japan, and all over the USA. It has always been a goal of mine to transcend just being a guy who shapes in Florida. I want my shapes to work and be recognized on an international level. I feel that because I’ve been blessed with being able to shape boards for guys  like I referred to, that I have achieved this goal. That’s not to say I’m not still learning. That is an ongoing process when you shape, no matter how many boards you have done.

With my exclusive line of RPD boards I want to keep refining and pushing the limits of high performance boards because when I do, it filters down into all of my designs and models. This makes a better board for the surfer regardless of what model he or she might chose to ride. I love doing this and I hope you can feel that in my boards.