Hello,

My name is Jason Feist and I am the Designer and Shaper of J7 Surfboards in Santa Barbara, California. I would like to take a moment to introduce myself, share a little history about J7 and just say thanks for checking out our new website.

I started surfing at the age of 10 on the outer beaches of Cape Cod where I grew up. It was my first 8 years as a surfer that I began to really appreciate the importance of custom boards and the Shapers who built them. During those initial years I had the privilege of working with and learning about the construction of surfboards from a local shaper named Mike Losordo of Hawaiian Moon Surfboards. Mike has always been one of the finest craftsmen I know and to this day has instilled in me the importance of quality, whether it be remodeling a house, building furniture or crafting surfboard.

After High School I packed up and headed to San Diego where I started college with a tunnel-vision emphasis on surfing. It was hard to focus sometimes with all the great surf I found around SD and Baja, but managed to finally make my way to UC Santa Barbara where I settled in and fell in love with the perfect point breaks and variety of Beach Breaks that are often seasonal but worth the wait.

During my stint at UCSB I had started shaping boards for a few friends and myself. It did not take long before I began to get the feel for mowing foam with a power planer and customized hand tools and I soon became committed to perfecting the templates, rocker profiles and bottom contours that I had visualized. As I became more confident with my tools and the boards that I was producing, I noticed that word began to spread as friends of friends and new customers were starting to order boards. Thus I started the J7 Brand.

It has been about 12 years now since I first started J7 and I still find myself falling to sleep at night and often daydreaming about new shapes and ways to build a better board. In recent years I have teamed up with Santa Barbara’s surfing standout Tarik Khashoggi. Together and with the amazing support of the surfing community, we have been working hard constantly refine and build the finest quality surfboards with a non-compromising dedication to helping surfers of all ability reach their next level of performance!

In conclusion I would like to express my gratitude for all of the support and feedback over the years. It is an amazing feeling and gift to find a passion in life such as surfing. The friends and experiences it has left me with so far, is undeniably the inspiration for me to carry on the craft of building surfboards and promoting the surfing experience. Thanks again!

Respectfully,

Jason Feist