About Us

 

Aventuras is a family-run surfboard company based on the Central Coast of California.  Founded in 2019, our mission is to promote fun and respect in the water for all, while minimizing our impact on the earth. We design, test and refine all of our boards at our local surf breaks.  While we're passionate about surfing and the ocean in general, what really drives us on a daily basis is the chance to keep building our family's legacy in the surf industry, honoring our hard-working parents and grandparents who paved the way. 

Our story begins in the epic days of the early 70s California surf scene. Chris Wellington and his friends spent many fun-filled weekends surfing the beaches of northern San Diego County.  With little more than their boards, a van and a loaf of bread, the "Mountain View Boys" and their co-conspirators made tons of lasting memories just having a good time in the water.  Chris got hooked on surfing and dreamed of a way to somehow build his life around it. Years later, he would teach his kids how to bodyboard and surf at the same beaches he grew up on.

Fast forward to the late 70s: Chris' father-in-law, Hal Reynolds, ran a small metal stamping operation in Azusa, CA and the factory had some excess capacity to build additional products. Although Hal could make just about anything out of metal, he especially liked to make things that are fun, so he decided to try his hand at manufacturing a skateboard.  This effort resulted in the birth of Banzai Skateboards, a brand which pioneered the concept of Aluminum decks.  Banzai went on to become a cult classic brand and to this day these boards continue to be highly prized by collectors.  Building on this success, Hal kept experimenting and eventually learned how to make foam bodyboards, launching the SureCraft brand in 1980.  To promote the growing sport of bodyboarding or "boogie boarding" as many called it back then, the company co-sponsored the first Pro Bodyboarding Competition in Hawaii, the "Coca-Cola/SureCraft North Shore Body Board Classic".

                

Over the years, the family continued to build more brands, including Wave Rebel Bodyboards.  By the early 90s, however, the metal stamping business became so busy, that there was little time left for the smaller, action sports businesses.  By that time, through years of hard factory work, Chris had become an expert at making bodyboards, which at the time was still a mostly handmade product.  He decided to start his own company: Americana Sports.  Chris and his son Brent worked together for several years in the small family shop, making boards for T&C Surf Designs, Flowrider, LMNOP and No. 6.  Years later, Chris became a key member of the team that brought Wavestorm Surfboards to the US market.  Wavestorm revolutionized the surfboard industry by creating the first soft top surfboard that could ride with comparable performance to a hard top, for a fraction of the price and with built-in safety to protect surfers from injury.

In 2019, Chris started Aventuras Surf Co. as a way to stay connected with his passion: making high-quality boards for people to have a good time and "get stoked" in the water, just like he and his buddies did.  Our whole family is involved in the business today in different ways.

Although economic realities forced us and the majority of the surf industry to move production overseas, we're extremely proud of the 35+ year relationship we've built with our manufacturing partner in Taiwan who runs the cleanest, safest and most efficient factory we've ever visited.  Every step in their production process is aimed at minimizing their environmental effect and waste via a carefully planned recycling project that runs throughout their entire operation. The factory utilizes rainwater harvesting, organic gardens and an indoor air-cooling waterfall to minimize effect on the local environment.  Their efforts have resulted in drastic reductions in carbon footprint.  We consider our manufacturing partner to be the industry leader in sustainability.

At Aventuras, we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to work in the surf industry, so we take sustainability and giving back seriously.  It bothers us to see our oceans being polluted with plastic waste.  In fact, it's estimated that 33 billion pounds of trash enters our oceans every year.  As a result, for every surfboard we sell, we work with our friends at 4ocean to remove 4 pounds of trash from the ocean.  This is equivalent to 64 empty plastic water bottles!  We also feel grateful for the freedoms we enjoy, so we donate boards to AmpSurf, an organization working to help disabled veterans and first responders heal through adaptive surf therapy.  AmpSurf uses our boards to teach these brave people how to surf in spite of the physical limitations they picked-up while protecting our country and local communities.  We are excited to work with such incredible partner organizations.  To learn more about our impact partners, why we support them and our support commitments, visit our impact page.

             

 

Every wave is a new adventure!  We'll see you in the water.