About

DEAD KOOKS.. 

Dead Kooks means nothin’, really.

Years back, fresh out of school, there was a pile of broken boards in my yard. I had a friend spray paint the words "Dead Kooks" and a cross on one of them—it just seemed kinda funny. Around that same time I had been making a few boards, and for fun a friend did up a cheap lam on some tissue with a coffin and the words “Dead Kooks” under it. Without much thought I kept slapping those lams on boards, and now here we are.

Dead Kooks surfboards are built with a keen eye for functional design and stimulating aesthetic details. I personally shape all the boards and work closely with some of the best glass-shops around the world. My focus is crafting custom boards for the individual but I also stock limited runs of my most popular models which have been refined by years of personal R&D and feedback from a mix of some of the world’s best surfers who I’m lucky to work with and call friends.

Spending the year following summer from Byron Bay, Australia to Venice Beach California, I also do frequent surf and shape stints in Hawaii, Japan, Bali and France. The ability to chase swell around the world each year has given me a rich understanding and firsthand experience with what designs work best around the globe. Additionally, it’s given me the chance to collaborate and learn from some of the very best craftsman in the game.
  
These experiences over the past decade, combined with relationships I’ve developed with insanely talented surfers has afforded me the opportunity to offer you a range of highly refined designs to suit your needs and wants in a board.

Please waste some time on the website, see what speaks to you, and give me a shout—I’d love to hear from you!  My curiosity and desire to shape and further this beautiful craft is stronger than ever.

Sincerely,

Eden Saul
Founder/Shaper - Dead Kooks

 

 

Shipping tiddlybits..

When receiving your board from us, the first thing you’ll probably notice is the box. It won’t say ‘Dead Kooks’, but probably ‘Made in Taiwan’ or something along those lines. We can assure you, it most definitely wasn’t. I mean the box might have been, but not the board. Byron Bay is home to HEAPS of different retailers who receive their boards in these boxes, so we hunt around and round-up as many boxes as we can to make sure we’re not adding any more manufacturing or excess waste to an industry already relatively environmentally unkind.

The second thing you might notice once you’ve opened the box is the Green BubbleWrap! FUN! But traditionally, not so fun on the environment. To try to alleviate some more of the negative environmental impacts of shipping surfboards, we use EcoPure BubbleWrap. This eco-friendly bubble wrap contains "Ecopure", an organic additive that uses the presence of microorganisms to make polymer plastics completely degradable in 3-5 years without any environmentally harmful residues. Nice huh?

Shipping Estimates for Custom boards:

Long Stuff:

  • East Coast Aus - $240
  • Perth Metro-ish - $380
  • Regional West Aus - $POA
  • Perth Metro-ish - $380
  • US East Coast - $700
  • US West Coast - $700
  • UK - $800
  • Japan - $780

Short and Mid Stuff:

  • East Coast Aus - $150
  • Perth Metro-ish - $320
  • Regional West Aus - $POA
  • US East Coast - $500
  • US West Coast - $500
  • UK - $600
  • Japan - $580

For an up-to-date quote on any stock boards to your exact location, please contact us at hello@deadkooks.com

 

Custom Order Agreement

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably interested in getting a custom surfboard built, so firstly, thank you for your interest in getting a custom board from Dead Kooks. We know there are plenty of options out there so we really appreciate that you have come to us. 

We build surfboards one at a time. It is a slow, dirty, dusty process and we love every bit of it. But no two boards are ever exactly the same.  

We take the time to make sure we get your colour as close as humanly possible to whatever reference you’ve forwarded on, but there will always be some variations that within reason you have to be understanding of, as every colour is mixed by hand, individually.

Abstracts, swirls and other resin details are a very tricky thing to perfect. Part of the DNA of Dead Kooks is in the detailed resin work we pride ourselves on. Every resin abstract is entirely unique and one will never be the same as the next, we believe this adds to the beauty of it, every board will be different and no one will have a board like yours.  Within the process of creating these designs, we play with and manipulate coloured resin to create specific design, but true to its name, the process is quite abstract so the end result can always vary. Please be aware that when ordering a custom surfboard there needs to be an understanding that resin will do what resin does, and the ever present human element in building our boards means that there can be differences from expectations to a realised surfboard. 

A $500AUD deposit is required to begin the process of building your custom board, in the case of a cancelled order or change of mind, a partial or full refund of this amount may be available, however this will be determined on a case-by-case basis and a refund of any amount of the deposit can not be guaranteed. While we promise to do the best of our ability on every surfboard to produce an end result we are proud of and you are happy with, we understand this may not meet your expectations. In this case, please voice your grievances with us so we can do our utmost to find a solution. In the case that your surfboard is completed and a full or partial refund of your deposit has been agreed upon by us, this will be made available to you once we’ve been able to recuperate some of the costs we’ve incurred in building your custom surfboard.

We thank you for your time, your patience and mostly for choosing us. We look forward to building your new board and if you’re keen to pull the trigger, you’ll hear from us soon. 

Thanks.

Eden Saul

Dead Kooks.