Harbour Surfboards

Founded: 1959
Location: Seal Beach, California
Category: Longboards, Shortboards, Gun/Fish
The Shaper: Rich Harbour
Website: Harbour Surfboards

History of Harbour Surfboards

As much as it hurts to have your surfboard stolen, that is exactly what happened to Rich Harbour back in 1959, when his used longboard was stolen from his garage. There’s a saying that when “bad things happen, only good can come out of it”. And that is exactly how Rich turned it around.

Rich decided to create his own surfboard using materials he had around. Of course the first made surfboard wasn’t the best, but he did it nonetheless. Subsequent boards shaped improved drastically over the next.

He would go on to grow his surf shop dramatically, having to continue to move his shop to keep up with growth. throughout the 1960s. He would shape a board for then pro-surfer Denney Buell, and hire more shapers. Much of Harbour’s fame came after the mid-1960s where many of the team surfers would go on to surfing championships and win many titles.

As the 1970s approached, shortboards were becoming more favorable. Rich began experimenting with shortboard shaping including the shapes of the foil & rocker and the thickness of the board. He would eventually have Robert August help him shape boards throughout the 1970s. Rich also created skateboard decks for a short time in the latter part of the 70s, only to sell that business and concentrate on the surfboard designs.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Rich would go on to update the longboard design in the 80′s and the performance boards in the 90′s. And from the 2000′s to the present, Harbour Surfboards continues to create best surfboards with the latest technology and materials, sure to make them a contender in surfboard design for the 21st century.

Read more about Rich Harbour’s achievements through the 50+ years shaping surfboards.

Overview of Harbour Surfboards

With a long history of surfboard designs, Harbour Surfboards has an extensive collection of longboards and shortboards. These include (note some models have been discontinued):