Best Surfboards - Hand Shaped in Portugal
![](https://www.seabreeze.com.au/img/Content/7934933/7934934.jpg)
You don’t hear too much about Best Surfboards here in Australia, but after this little video from the guys in Portugal, we might start seeing them a lot more.
Something happened to Best, something good…
They went from relative obscurity a few years ago, with several kites reviewed as failures and a board line-up that resembled a line of tombstones in the sand. Best have invested heavily in a new team of the best riders in the world, they’re back and absolutely massive this summer. We’re not sure if it was a who, or a what that made the change, but whatever it was, Best Kiteboarding as a company is probably still here today because of it!
Attention has promptly been brought to their surfboard lineup, which are now hand shaped in Portugal (of all places!), the home of big waves and wind in Europe. To understand why this is such a big deal, lets re-wind two years…
It’s 2011 and Best kiteboarding are working to regain the reputation they had back in 2009 after the successful Waroo kites. Their surfboards are made in Thailand like every other brand’s, and are heavy, had flimsy plastic fins and rode like a fence paling with footstraps. Almost every kiteboard was made like this, but luckily, the surfboard revolution was only just around the corner…
New companies emerged and started making some original shapes from the tried and true polyurethane and fiberglass construction, they were cheap and performed so much better than the epoxy pop-outs from Thailand. Other companies followed suit and quickly released polyurethane models, others went the way of laminating bamboo or paulownia into the deck and base of the board to protect it from heel dings and damage from jumping. Where was Best? Still in Thailand (or somewhere over that way anyway)… But finally with this new look for 2013, they’re back and ready for action with some serious competition.
Nobody expected handmade boards from Portugal though.
Polyurethane surfboards, with some high tech fiberglass technology on the deck and good quality fins, just the thing to announce the arrival of Best Kiteboarding in the surfboard lineup. Add some great pro riders like Nuno Figueiredo and Pedro Henrique to ride them and we’ve also got a cracker of a video to watch. Check it out below, and stay tuned to see how Best will go with the first year of serious surfboards built for kitesurfing.