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My editions: Pukas Surf

PUKAS SURF
Pukas Surf is a family driven company based in the Basque Country and has built a reputation for making quality high-performance surfboards and custom bikinis. Mixing a global view and a local knowledge, the group has been able to feed their surf addiction since they first handshaped a surfboard in 1973.



THE TRUE STORY
The 70s had just started. Iñigo Letamendia (San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain), Raúl Dourdil (Bakio, Basque Country Spain), Merodio and Carlos Beraza (Cantabria, Spain)… long hairs, shirts, music… surf fashion… they are: “Tanganazo Boys”. Surfing, the waves, the girls, the beach, they like them all, the world is there for them to devour it and the jackets and ties are banned… Life is tough and they need to make a living, but the living they wanted: beach life. As surfers, making surfboards is their biggest aspiration. In Casa Lola,Santander, the first legit surfboard factory is born and the boards are called “Tablas de surf Santa Marina”. This is the beginning and settles the core values of Pukas.



They also open a surfshop in Zarautz by 1977. The second ever in Spain. A man known by the name of Hilario from Madrid had opened the first one at that exact same local a year before. The two parties associated share the tasks; Iñigo and Marian on one side and Zalo and Laura on the other. While Iñigo and Marian run the shop through a two-week period, Zalo and Laura take care of Casa Lola. Following that patern, they switch responsabilities every 15 days. In the end, cantabrians settle in Casa Lola (Cantabria), and the basque couple settle in Zarautz (Basque Country).

In 1978, after a bunch of Gin-tonics at Bar Moto Club, next to the Pukas shop, the crew at Pukas, Javi (Bar Tanit) and a bunch of friends venture to organize a contest “hell yeah!”. First prize a trip to Bali, raucous surprises for the finalists and a thousand more stuff; the unseen! Fortunatelly the winner is Iñigo Letamendia and the battered economy of the contest does not have to assume the expense. “Everything stays home this time!”. Since then Iñigo (co-founder of Pukas) has had time to recover through its surf safaris around the world. Years went by and every new edition of the Pukas contests grew in importance. It became the state’s most outstanding event and everyone wanted to be part of it. Prizes and charisma spoke by themselves. The PUKAS events, as history has demonstrated, were more than mere contests.

In 1979 Miguel Azpiroz joined the movement. He is Marian’s younger brother, alias “Pajarua”, and left the tough occupation of anguilla fisher and became a key player on the improvement of the brand they called Pukas (which literally means “hole” in hawaian, not in basque). A new shop is opened in San Sebastian (at Ramón Maria de Lili Street), in front of the infamous Maria Cristina Hotel. A surfboard is put as a sign and it only lasts two days. A surfer without means probably had a blast on it.

THE FOUNDERS
Iñigo Letamendia //Founder and visionary//

Being attracted to try the unknown, surfing in San Sebastian’s “La Concha” on a borrowed surfboard at age 20 changed his life. Being married to Marian Azpiroz with a Deusto College Diploma in Tourism and a stablished job at a renowned hotel as Chieff Commissary, Iñigo discovered another path. He joined 3 good friends to pursue a way of life that seemed a better choice in life; making surfboards. It was 1973, a time when spanish dictator Franco was still ruling Spain, and where growing your hair, live in a hippy communa, party, do drugs and enjoy the shit out of your days was both fun and scary.

Marian Azpiroz //Founder and Co-CEO//

Marian Azpiroz (1948) was born in a tiny little basque village called Aginaga (Basque Country, Spain). 2nd oldest daughter out of 7 children, her family was driven by the force, strength and hard-working philosophy of a big-hearted man dedicated to the angula. She fell in love with Iñigo Letamendia while in college, married him and worked with such success at the hotel where Iñigo was Chieff Commissary that she was quickly upgraded to Director of the hotel. When Iñigo left San Sebastian to manufacture surfboards with a bunch of friends, Marian decided to follow him a year after. And while girlfriends’ of other surfers would lay down to the sun, Marian sewed bikinis out of the house courtains. Then it was the boardshorts, then surfboard covers and the rest is history.

Miguel Azpiroz //Founder and Co-CEO

Once an avid anguilla worker based in his hometown Aginaga, Miguel Azpiroz (1957) becomes a key third partner by 1979. As a member of an unofficial 2nd generation of surfers from Spain, Miguel was under the influence of his brother in law and peers, plus international surfers such as Mark Richards and Shaun Tomson. With his inclusion by 1.979, Marian’s younger brother Miguel joined Iñigo & Marian’s periplus. These three characters were the seed which planted the foundations of Pukas and promoted the surfing culture in San Sebastian, Basque Country and beyond. With the opening of a new surfshop in the city, surf contests, surf schools and a vision for quality surfboards and pro surfers, Miguel has led a movement that feels even stronger today.