Fabio Giacomini

Fabio Giacomini is an Italian shaper whose path into surfboards began with windsurfing. In his first-person biography, he dates his professional start to spring 1980, designing and hand-building wave sailboards and testing the prototypes himself. He recalls riding those boards without a sail in the mid-1980s, an experience that led him toward performance surfboard shaping. His account traces West Coast, his first company, from 1980 to 1988, followed by the founding of PIKE SURF in 1988. He also dates a move to Durban, South Africa, to 2006, describing it as a chance to gain professional input and technical knowledge among experienced surfers and shapers.