Aloha!

My name is Mavis Seto. Growing up in Kauai, I learned how to surf at a very young age. Surfing quickly took over my life and I based everything off the sport. After surfing for over eight hours a day seven days a week, my boards would get pretty worn out, especially if I ate it off a big set. So, oftentimes, I would need to repair my boards. At first, I would stick a sticker on any of the cracks or holes in my board and call it a day. But I quickly realized that stickers were just not it. Water would eventually get under the sticker and my board would get water logged, which is an even bigger mess to fix! After being stubborn and naive for quite some time, my dad taught me how to properly patch a board. Resin and all. Now I could fix my boards and make them sturdy again and I soon became an expert! Fixing boards became fun for me and I eventually made it a side hustle, accepting $5 per repaid or a burger on most days. After about a year and many burgers later, I wanted more. I wanted to know how to make a board. I wanted to make a board that was so sturdy that it didn’t need repairs. I went to my local board shop and begged the shapers to teach me. This was hard work! Shaping a board was no easy task, and it often took the whole day! 

 

Fast forward to 6 years later, I finally got good enough to open my very own shop. I know, it took a long time. I opened a little shop called the “Surfboard Factory”. Not too long after opening my shop, I soon realized that shaping all my inventory, alone was no joke. I couldn’t handle it after awhile. So, I asked my mentors to join me and made some friends with new shapers like Eric Arakawa and John Carper. They allowed me to sell their boards in my shop, for a price of course. The shop became so popular and I was making and getting so many boards that I ran out of space. So I packed my bags, headed to O`ahu and opened a bigger, badder shop called “Surfboard Factory Hawaii”. I am proud to say that Surfboard Factory Hawaii has grown to be the largest surfboard factory in the state, carrying boards shaped in house and shaped by some of the top shapers and brands.