Infinity celebrates 50 years of surf and SUP shred

Dana Point, California is widely considered the SUP capital of the world and Infinity SUP has been in the mix since the beginning. Steve Boehne, Founder of Infinity Surfboards, was one of the very first shapers to offer SUP boards to the public in 2004. Specialising in high end, high performance SUP designs for both surf and race, Infinity has been setting the tone for the global SUP scene with its cool brand culture, Paddle Like a Freak rider movement and impressive track record of Championship titles. TotalSUP caught up with Dave Boehne, master shredder and creative mind behind the brand, to talk about Infinity’s 50th Anniversary celebrations and what the future holds for both the company and the sport of stand-up paddleboarding.

Hi Dave, congratulations on Infinity’s 50 years of shred! How did the past decade define you as a brand?

Hi! The last decade was fun and with the explosion of SUP we dove headfirst into the sport and really established Infinity as a fresh brand and influential leader in the space. Infinity Surfboards was established in 1970 by my parents Steve and Barrie and the last decade represents their legacy and speaks to the overall heritage of the brand itself as 2020 Infinity celebrates 50 Years in business. Which is exciting stuff and a proud accomplishment!

Steve and Dave Boehne

How will Infinity celebrate the 50th Anniversary?

We have a year long campaign that we will continue to visit throughout the year. It won’t be all we talk about as a brand but it will definitely be a constant underlying celebration. We plan some limited edition 50 Year merch, Summer Party here at our showroom with some special friends from years past and present, and as luck would have it we are on track to hit the 50,000 mark for the number of Infinity Surfboards ever manufactured! Also, the City of Dana Point is honouring my parents with a statue of them which is a huge honour and pretty crazy to think about! Dana Point has already erected statues of Hobie Alter, Bruce Brown, and Phil Edwards.

What are the challenges of establishing a SUP brand?

It’s hard from the fact that SUP is a different experience from one person to the next. It’s hard to connect with everyone so we don’t try to do that. For us, we already had a loyal following from our years in the surf world. So naturally many of these same people crossed over to SUP. Also my Dad, Steve Boehne, was one of the early shapers in the sport to start making and marketing SUP so we were in it from day one. That being said we had the ground work already set but we were not a globally known brand. We are still one of the smaller brands out there but our reach and visibility is much higher now just by staying authentic and true to what the brand DNA is and simply having fun all at the same time. As the sport itself continues to grow and evolve we will naturally do that as well Work is not work if you love what you do!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Infinity SUP Co. ™ (@infinity_sup) on Jan 14, 2020 at 9:30am PST

What are your highlights of 2019?

Sounds cliché but all the places we visited and all the new friends we continue to meet around the world truly is very cool. It’s always fun when a friend wins a World Title on your equipment as well. Last year it was Shae Foudy and this year it was Izzi Gomez. So honoured to be working with the world’s best on a daily basis.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Infinity SUP Co. ™ (@infinity_sup) on Dec 23, 2019 at 8:58am PST

What’s in the pipeline for the brand?

More of the same! Make some cool stuff, introduce a few new products and continue to help and inspire people to enjoy the water like a FREAK.

Dave Boehne and Shae Foudy

Any 2020 predictions for how the sport of stand-up paddleboarding and foiling will evolve?

SUP is here to stay. It’s just a new era and new faces. We are stoked to be a part of this community and excited for the future. Foiling will continue to grow and evolve as SUP did. We are just at the beginning now but are excited for this next ride. See you out there.

Thank you for your time and here’s to the next decade of Infinity SUP!

To find out more and pre-order your 2020 Infinity SUP, visit www.infinity-sup.com