Your board has probably been shaped by this man.

Broady owes its success to one person, Nick “Mez” Mesritz. Mez is acknowledge by his peers as the best bodyboarding shaper in the world and he also became, through the years, a wise entrepreneur. His motto during all these years? Producing the best bodyboards on the market. Thanks to his expertise, earned while working for Toobs in California and Morey in New-Zealand, Nick decided to launch his own business in 2001, in Java, Indonesia. The idea? Developing a factory able to produce thousands of bodyboards a year, and doing so, meeting an increasing demand.

It actually became impossible to be competitive working from Australia because of the relocation of the low-end PE bodyboards’ production in China: “It was just impossible to compete with the minimum Chinese salary at the time. Therefore, we had to choices: sink or swim. This is the moment my partner chose to relocate our factory in Indo.” Mez commented.

7 years later, the subprime crisis in the US forced the DOW core providers to stop its foam production (mainly used for house isolation). Thus, Broady had to drastically modify its processes and find alternative solutions. Using expanded core was one of them. Technology and innovation has been Broady’s main competitive edge, including a 3-axis machine enabling to increase precision when shaping board’s outline and more recently the acquisition of an AKU shaping machine, specialised in surfboards’ shaping and providing its owner with ultimate precision especially when it comes to shaping channel and concaves. 

All these investments allowed Broady to widen the gap between themselves and their competitors. The “made in Indonesia” has even become a guaranty of quality.

Nonetheless, the whole industry, mainly based in Asia, is questionable on an environmental point of view. What’s the future for these boards? Is it good or bad for bodyboarding development to have almost all bodyboards produced in the same factory? Would it be better to produce locally in smaller workshops?

In any case, the bodyboarding market is a niche, and small workshops will never have the financial power to invest in technology & innovation. On the environment point of view, most of the raw materials are produced in China or Taiwan, which forces small workshop to import these materials. Not sure if it’s “greener”.