Pride Bodyboards is the world leading bodyboard brand.

Pride Bodyboards’ history

In 1999, Pride Bodyboards was created with the clear objective of pushing European bodyboarding to the forefront of the world bodyboarding scene. By then, the whole production was set up in a small workshop in Biarritz. The handmade nature of the boards quickly allowed Pride to be retailed in most French surf shops.

In 2002, Ben Player introduced the Pride crew to Nick Mesritz. A long & prolific relationship was born. In 2004, Imanol Arrizabalaga - Pride’s founder - & Nick decided to associate their respective knowledge in order to start producing from a new factory in java, Indonesia. To this day, it’s still considered by all members of the community as the best factory in the bodyboarding industry.

Pride was also one of the first company to focus on the hardcore side of bodyboarding. Brenden Newton riding giant slabs and pushing the limits of bodyboarding in “the road” is a perfect example of the strategy at the time. Pride also promoted a giant unknown slab in the Canary Islands, that we now all know under the name of “El Frontón”.

The combination of these factors ensured Pride Bodyboards a prompt international development. Indeed, in less than a decade the French brand was distributed all over Europe, Hawaii, South Africa, Latin America as well as Australia.

Pride Bodyboards’ role on the bodyboard international scene

In 2008, Pride decided to show the world the brand had become a true leader in the industry by being the major sponsor of the IBA Pipeline contest – which was the most recognized event at that time.

Nowadays, the Pride Bodyboards international team consists of Pierre-Louis Costes from France (2x world champion and considered by many of his peers as the best bodyboarder of all times), Isabela Sousa (4x world champion from brazil), as well as 2019 World Champion Tristan Roberts, 2019 World Champion Sari Ohhara from Japan, Lewy Finnegan from Western Australia, and Matias Diaz from Chile to name a few...

Pride still shows its commitment on the international stage supporting events such as the Antofagasta Bodyboard Festival 2019 and the Arica Cultura Bodyboard 2019 which were the two main events of the 2019 bodyboarding world tour.

The input of the brand in the bodyboarding industry can also be illustrated by high-end quality products as well as a top-notch R&D from the Pride Lab’. Lately we have released innovations such as the Single to Double concave boards, the creation of the Vulcan V1, V2 and V3 now renowned for their unmatched ergonomics & power as well as Pride Bodyboards exclusive shaping room in 2016.

Bodyboard & sustainability

We have now chosen to focus our efforts on reducing the environmental impact of our products while increasing their performances without any kind of compromise. We’re proud to present you the first ever recycled polyethylene bodyboard as well as a new range of Vulcan bodyboard swim fins containing a minimum of 40% recycled natural rubber. In 2020, we’ve also launched our first range of bodyboard wetsuits made exclusively with Yulex® Natural Rubber as well as our new Pride Daytrip boardbags made of 100% recycled polyester.

HERE COMES THE FUTURE

We invite you to learn more about our sustainable projects, the Pride Lab® innovations, our team and our videos in their dedicated categories.

The Pride Team.