ADRIAN ROPER

You have been making boards since 1998. Can you briefly take us through then to now?

I actually built my first board in 1981, it was a windsurf board built from a translation that I made from a French windsurf magazine. It was polystyrene and plywood. I built all the parts for the rig as well. I have been building boards ever since: windsurfing boards, surfboards, kiteboards, wake boards and foiling boards. I moved to Maui in 1984 and worked for Jimmy Lewis at Sailboards Maui, building wave boards for Mike Waltz and speed boards for Fred Haywood and Pascal Maka. I later worked for Peter Thommen and F2 building world cup raceboards for Björn Dunkerbeck and most of the top world cup riders. I also competed in windsurfing in speed sailing, course racing, slalom racing and waves. I don’t think I was ever the most competitive but I was always good at making boards feel balanced and easy to ride, and I did have the New Zealand speed record for many years! I then started building kiteboards in the very early days of kiteboarding with my company Underground Kiteboards and more recently