Charlie Smith established his reputation as one of the best surfers at Haleiwa during the 1970s. It was there where he began riding Lightning Bolt surfboards and working directly with shaper Tom Parrish.
““He was one of my very best team riders. I didn’t have a lot of local Hawaiian’s as team riders, so getting a guy like Charlie was really special to me. He was so unbelievably good at Haleiwa. Gerry (Lopez) had Pipeline. Barry(Kanaiaupuni) and Jeff (Hakman) had Sunset. And Charlie dominated Haleiwa for a good fifteen years. Nobody could touch him.” Tom Parrish
From his earliest days Charlie spent countless hours in the shaping bay. His passion for the craft combined with his immense surfing ability give Charlie a unique perspective on board building. For the past 30 years he’s focused on low-production, hand-crafted surfboards. Located on Maui, Charlie works as a firefighter and shapes boards some of Maui’s finest surfers.
Smith partnered with Parrish to design our 7’4” SP, 7’10” SP, 8’4” SP, and 8’4” SPX. This represents the latest project among their 40 years of collaboration.
