Encinitas Surfboards Brief History
Store Hours
Open Everyday 8:30-6:00
107 N Hwy 101
Encinitas, CA 92024
(760) 753-0506
OUR STORY....
Marc Adam and John Kies
both migrated to Encinitas with their parents when they
were children. Friends from the surf, they worked together
in the early 1970’s at the old Koast
Surf shop in
Cardiff. They left Koast
Surf at the
same time, and John, who was making a name for himself as a
longboard shaper, moved to Hawaii to try to make a go of it
there, while Marc stayed behind in Encinitas, taking a job
at the original George’s restaurant
on the beach in Cardiff. About a year later Mark gave John
a call to let him know that Koast
Surf had
closed its doors. A few months later, John was back in town
and, in 1975, Encinitas
Surfboards was
born.
The Marc Adam, John Kies partnership proved to be an
equation for success. It didn’t take long for John to
establish his reputation as a shaper and for Marc, who runs
the retail operation, to convert this reputation into the
rapid growth and success of the Encinitas
Surfboards name. By
the late 1970’s, if you lived anywhere in California and
didn’t have one of those long sleeved T-shirts with
“Encinitas Surfboards” written down the sleeve you just
plain old weren’t cool, and probably didn’t surf very well
either.
A
key reason for their success was John’s ability to adapt
his shaping skills to the shortboard market. You could
always find a few longboards on the rack at Encinitas
Surfboards, even
during the height of the shortboard revolution when most
shops were treating longboarders as if they had the plague.
But Kies threw himself into the world of shortboard design
and production like it was second nature. According to Marc
Adam, “John is a shaper extraordinaire,” which
allowed Encinitas
Surfboards to
service both the shortboard and longboard markets.