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Jimmy Lewis is a Hawaiian surfer, sailor and world-renowned shaper

He lives on Maui where he personally takes care of the R&D of his boards at his workshop on Nehe Place, in Haiku.

At the young age of 15 years he shaped his first surfboard, showing a talent that led him to develop many innovative projects from surfing, to windsurfing, to tow-surfing, to kitesurfing, then on to stand up paddle boards.

In the early 80’s Mike Waltze brought Jimmy Lewis into the limelight as the “shaper” of the moment, winning the legendary "Aloha Classic" with one of Jimmy’s custom windsurf boards.

In 1982 the French windsurfer Pascal Maka broke the speed record in a windsurf [2], reaching 27.8 knots, riding a board created by Jimmy Lewis specifically for the event.

In 1986, Pascal Maka was the first windsurfer to break the speed record for sailing sports that remained unbeaten for forty years. He reached the speed of 38.86 knots using a Jimmy Lewis board and a sail manufactured by Gaastra. The same day three other athletes broke the record before him: Eric Beale (36.73 knots), Jimmy Lewis (36.31 knots) and Fred Haywood (36,13) ..

During the 90’s he began his collaboration with Bic and Sailboards Maui, developing models of commercial success. He also worked with Windsurfing International designing plugs for production boards, including the Windsurfer 99, amoung others.

Then, around 1995, with Lou Wainman, a famous pioneer of kite surfing, he developed the first bidirectional board completely innovating the sport.

In 2005 his interest in stand up paddle starts to grow, quickly becoming one of the protagonists of this new discipline shaping the first prototypes for Laird Hamilton. It is the Jimmy Lewis Cruise Control 11'0.7 the still in production most sold stand up paddle in the world.

The Jimmy Lewis board is entirely hand-built in the Kinetic factory in Vietnam, using the exclusive HI-TECH Sandwich PVC. Jimmy Lewis claims that the manufacturing is done almost the exact same way as he builds boards on Maui using the same materials and techniques and, above all, with the same meticulous care and attention to detail.

The kiter Niccolò Porcella, the sup racer Paul Marconi, and the pro ASP surfer Marlon Lewis (Jimmy’s son) are among his fine crew of athletes.

References and further reading

 * Aloha Classic Maui
 * Standupjournal
 * sdc kiteboard
 * speedsurfing
 * international windsurfing association
 * international funboard class association
 * the kite border
 * Orange bowl paddle