Kirk Pifer

Kirk Pifer

Kirk Pifer built his first surfboard from a first quality Clark Foam blank in 1969 when he was 15 years old. Growing up in the south bay area of Los Angeles county, Kirks earlier influences were being an A.A.U. competitive swimmer since he was 9 years old, joining L.A. county jr. lifeguards at 10 years old, learning to surf on a longboard at 11 years old, having an older brother who surfed, and standing in the doorway of Phil Beckers shaping room watching the foam fly. After cutting down a couple of longboards, Kirk was inspired to make his own new high performance shortboards, as longboards were quickly disappearing at the time. Kirk made boards during his high school years, mastering the basics of shaping and glassing in his parents garage. He also worked shortly for Clark Foam in Laguna Niguel, and Hobie Surfboards in San Clemente. After graduating from Saddleback College in 1976, Kirk got involved in his first commercial surfboard venture by purchasing and operating Pacific Glassing Company, located in Signal Hill, Long Beach, which serviced mostly the Huntington Beach area with contract glassing. Although Kirk was shaping through this whole time, he became a fine craftsman specializing in glassing and color work for other shapers. In the mid 1970’s, Kirk glassed for, and was influenced by Bob Hurley, Sam and Chris Hawk, Rich Harbour, Robert August, Steve Brom, Larry McNeely, among others. In 1978, Kirk left California and moved to Oahu, Hawaii, where he started working at the Town and Country Surfboards factory. This was one of the most progressive times and places in the history of surfing. Kirk worked closely with, and was influenced by, Glen Minami, Larry Bertleman, Dennis Pang, Ed Angulo, Phil Byrne, Mark Richards, Dane Kealoha, and Randall Kim.

In mid 1980, Kirk parted ways with Town and Country and moved to the north shore where he started another glassing business. Kirk then glassed for, and learned from, some of the worlds best and most respected surfboard shapers including Barry Kanaiaupuni, Randy Rarick, Eric Arakawa, George Ku, Tim Carrol, and Gordon Quigg. After learning all he could from studying and glassing some of the best shapes in the world, Kirk perfected every aspect of his shaping, bottoms, rockers, rails, and stopped glassing for other shapers and started making coordinated surfboards from start to finish that could showcase his pride in function and craftsmanship. Today Kirk is a premier north shore shaper with more than 35 years of experience under his belt. Kirk prefers to do most of his own R&D and can be found almost everyday there is surf, in the water at dawn, somewhere on the north shore.

Kirks surfboard designs are very user friendly and are known to increase your ability whether you are an accomplished surfer, or just getting started.

For more info on Kirk Pifer, please visit www.cheater5hawaii.com.