What’s your name? Jason Stevenson
Where do you live? Gold Coast, Australia
Where are you now? Somewhere between home, the JS factory, Dbah and the pub.
Where are you from originally? North Stradbroke Island, QLD, Australia.
What do you do? Ride and shape surfboards
When did you decide this is what you wanted to do? Early 20s.
Tell us about the board you are riding or are excited about right now?
All of our HYFIs – it still blows my mind how excited they make you to ride waves that’d normally be boring. The main HYFI Monsta Box I used as a prototype is still my favourite everyday board of the last two years!
What was the single most successful board you ever shaped and who was it for?
There’ve been a few that stand out, from Occy and Andy back in the day to Julian and Owen now. But Parko’s favourite from 2009 that won three CT events has got to be way up there!
Who are your biggest influences in life? My family, my friends, and our entire team.
FCS2, Futures or Captain Fin? We’ve recently released our JS template with FCS2, which is the benchmark fin we’ve used when testing boards from the Andy days all the way through to right now. That’s been the go-to!
Epoxy or PU? For small to medium-sized waves, our epoxy HYFI technology, all day.
If you could surf any wave in Western Australia where would it be and what board would you ride? I loved the entire Southwest region so much during the CT leg that we stayed for three weeks, but for something different, any of those perfect lefts up north in the desert would be amazing. Ideally, I’d be riding a Forget Me Not round pin, 6’2” x 19” x 2 7/16” x 29.2L.
Have you got advice for anyone ordering a custom board in the wave rich land of South West Australia? We love making boards for that whole region – holding a fresh shortboard or step up designed for good waves has still got to be one of the most special feelings in all of surfing. Our Performer Series in particular has thousands of hours of R&D with a bunch of the best surfers and best waves in the world, so you can be confident that your next Monsta 6 or Forget Me Not will help you enjoy your surfing more than ever from WA to Indo and beyond. Also, for the southwest, obviously foam is your friend, and so is heavier glassing!
Where do you see surfboard design going in the next 10 years?
We’ll see the new technologies like HYFI become more and more useful for all surfers – especially your regular everyday guys who want something that’s fast, exciting and still more durable.
What do you think you will be doing in 10 years and where do you hope to be? Designing boards for myself, family, friends and some of the best surfers in the world, while still surfing as much as possible and living here in paradise!
Check our JS range out Here!