Britt Merrick probably needs little introduction.

The Merrick name is synonymous with, of course, Channel Island Surfboards, allegedly,

the largest surfboard manufacturer in the world.

And that's because the label was founded by Brit's father.

Al was born in New Jersey, but he moved to San Diego at

seven, began surfing at 14, then moved to Santa Barbara at 21. He was in the water at

Rincon in the late 60s when Bob McTavis showed up with shorter boards and performance

possibilities for smaller surf started to explode. Al wanted increasingly short boards,

and the fastest way to get them was simply to make them on his own.

And by 1969, he was doing that under the Channel Islands surfboard label.

He really started to garner attention less than 10 years later

when then current world champ Sean Thompson ordered a few boards,

then Davy Smith started doing airs on them, and local junior high schooler Tom Curran

started winning every Pro-Am contest around. But I'll let Britt tell those stories. And another story

that Britt will tell is that Burton Snowboards purchased Channel Island surfboards in 2006.

And in a storybook turn of events, Britt, along with a group of Channel Islands employees and team writers,

purchased the brand back from Burton on July 1st, 2021. So that's the exact reason why I'm interviewing him today

to hear the why, how, and what this means for all of us and what it means for the surf biz at large.

If you'd like to hear Britt's personal backstory, you can listen to episode 232 of Surf Splendor.

That was published in October

2018. And today's show is recorded at Channel Islands HQ in Carpentaria, California on January 13th,

2021. So without further ado, my name is David Scales for Surf Splendor, and here is my conversation

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