Today’s Blog entry comes from Hayden Cox who recently signed an exclusive global distribution deal with GSI.

I was 15 years old when I started Haydenshapes. I spent an entire school holidays learning to shape boards on unofficial “work experience” in a factory in Mona Vale doing what I thought at the time was just a hobby and cheaper option of getting a new board. This then lead to shaping boards for a few mates and teachers from school, crafting a brand logo, and building a dodgy website that was basically non functional – at the time I thought it was good though.

It’s been nearly 15 years since then – I’m still shaping boards in a factory in Mona Vale, on the Northern Beaches of Sydney in Australia, but there is a HS logo on the door now. Haydenshapes has seen a fair bit over the years – the tough times and fun times, the creation of FiberFlex, lugging a van of boards around non-english speaking territories, one of our team riders Craig Anderson go from grommet to king, the Global Financial Crisis, a growing team of great riders and now a new partnership with Global Surf Industries.

There’s a great synergy between Haydenshapes and GSI, and both businesses together can focus on delivering high performance, innovative and quality surfboards. The partnership is going to take the Haydenshapes brand into 61 countries, which is a whole new level for us. There is a new journey ahead, that we are excited and proud to be a part of.

The partnership will be kick off in the Southern Hemisphere with boards being available around October 2011 in Australia, NZ and the USA. From there we will progress to having the boards available throughout the Northern Hemisphere in 2012. Haydenshapes will continue to run it’s “HS Custom Surfboards” program, with boards being manufactured in Australia and USA for custom requirements, so you’ll always be able to get a Haydenshapes board to suit you.

Thank you for all your support and I look forward to continuing to shape and design surfboards that will bring you more fun times!