Martin Weiß
Martin is the founder of Backwood, a brand focused on building sustainable wooden boards. He builds and sells them, creates do-it-yourself kits and runs workshops where customers can make their own boards in his workshop.
Although he built his first foam board back in the late nineties, a few things had to change before Martin would decide to become a shaper with a focus on wood. A trip to Spain rekindled his desire to surf and a lack of money prompted him to build his board himself. There also seemed to be an emerging awareness among surfers that conventionally manufactured plastic boards were toxic and a waste, in both production and disposal, and were extremely harmful to the environment and our health.
Martin was inspired by the early shapers of the 60s and 70s, the great masters like Stuart, McTavish, Gerry Lopez and George Greenough. Alongside this he was influenced by Tom Wegener's wooden construction, and Martin started to build his first wooden boards in 2009. His architectural studies also came in handy as creating a hollow board requires calculations, spatial imagination and drawing skills.
His passion took up more and more space in his life, and in 2013 he finally changed from architect to shaper and founded Backwood. Martin's old faithful is his longboard, but the range now includes all types of boards: long, short, SUP and kite.
A love for the sea, a passion for surfing and constantly keeping the environment in mind connect Backwood and Rebel Fin. We have been close friends with Martin for years and have a keen interest in each others opinions on surfing and shapes. It’s a pleasure to have Martin as part of our network and look forward to future collaborations.
The first results of the collaboration are two BACKWOOD boards that Martin made exclusively for REBEL SURF:
6'1'' Fishtail
6'10'' Minimalibu
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