Dumpster Diver

When Dane Reynolds created the Dumpster Diver, he wasn’t out to make the most popular surfboard. He didn’t intend to unseat a model, the Flyer, that had held that honor for more than 10 years. He just wanted something that was more fun and higher-performing in the small punchy surf of his home breaks. Something he could drive hard out of a turn and hit the wave’s lip with enough speed to do the aerials that have established Reynolds, at 26, as the most go-for-broke surfer in the world. Something that would turn like a swallow and float the landing after doing an airborne 360. So he walked into the manufacturing facility of his surfboard sponsor, Channel Islands Surfboards, in Santa Barbara, Calif., and began to talk with one of the shapers.

Channel Islands is the world’s largest single-brand surfboard manufacturer. It was founded in 1969 by a California shaper named Al Merrick. From the beginning, Merrick was committed to rider-driven design, sponsoring the best surfers and relying on constant feedback to create the boards that allowed the athletes to win, or in Reynolds’s case, fly.