Encinitas Surfboards

The shop began in 1975, when two craftsmen — Marc Adam and John Kies — who had cut their teeth at Koast Surfboards, decided to take a risk. With tools in hand and salt in their veins, they opened a place of their own. Not much in the spirit has changed since then — the door still exhales the scent of wax, the walls still echo with surfers trading swell forecasts, and the boards remain sacred objects. Marc still presides over the store, and John still shapes — his Kies Custom Shapes line tying the present to the shop’s earliest days.