NASCAR and Surfing: An Unlikely Marriage Legendary boardbuilder Roger Hinds buys prime advertisement space on a 200mph stock car By Dashel Pierson

Published: April 12, 2016

April 12, 2016 Views: 2,584







NASCAR and Surfing: An Unlikely Marriage Legendary boardbuilder Roger Hinds buys prime advertisement space on a 200mph stock car.





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Related Legendary surfboard shaper Roger Hinds has been building boards for over four decades. He's witnessed board design change and evolve, and he's made equipment for some of the world's best. But when a new door opened - the chance to advertise on the unlikely hood of a NASCAR stock car - Hinds jumped all over it. Photo: Jeremiah Klein

Here's Hinds watching trackside with the roar and rumble of stock cars whizzing by during the recent Auto Club 400 in Fontana, California.

Stickers emblazoned with Hinds' name and handcrafted surfboards were blasted on the unlikely ad space of Matt DiBenedetto’s Car #83.

Hinds and DiBenedetto, an unlikely friendship between surfer and racecar driver. The Southern California boardbuilder even created a custom 'BK Racing' board to display at the recent race in Fontana.



During a recent weekend,



It probably helped that Hinds was in the center of the track, near the pits and far from the sun-soaked bleachers and raucous, red-faced fans. But how did a Southern California shaper find himself at the epicenter of this middle America pastime, let alone in the VIP section? And perhaps most curiously, how did his custom surfboard business get prime sticker placement on driver Matt DiBenedetto’s tricked-out Toyota?



As many good stories do, this one began in Vegas. Ron Devine, a Burger King franchise holder and owner of Car #83, struck up a conversation with Hinds after noticing his shirt, which featured his custom surfboard logo.



“You meet somebody for what you feel is the first time,” Hinds recalled about their chat in that Sin City restaurant. “But then you guys connect as if you’ve known each other for your whole life. There’s no friction. It’s like, ‘hey, you’ve been my best friend forever.’”

“I thought for years that surfing and NASCAR couldn’t be more dissimilar things. But now, it has a lot to do with surfing in my mind. I’m making boards for guys to surf Jaws and Waimea, and those boards are engineered to go really fast and maintain speed. Those cars are the same way.” – Roger Hinds

They may have come from entirely different worlds, yet the two found an unlikely bond. Hinds’ method of surfboard shaping – building everything from start to finish himself – is similar to the way Devine and his team build race cars. At a 50,000-square-foot facility, engineers create the speed demons from scratch. From that connection, the two struck a deal. Hinds bought prime ad real estate on #83 to be broadcast to 80,000 screaming fans at the Auto Club 400 in Fontana on March 20th.



“I thought for years that surfing and NASCAR couldn’t be more dissimilar things,” Hinds said. “But now, it has a lot to do with surfing in my mind. I’m making boards for guys to surf Jaws and Waimea, and those boards are engineered to go really fast and maintain speed. Those cars are the same way.”



Hinds realizes that a NASCAR race isn’t the best way to promote a surfboard brand. But he doesn’t care. Although his website traffic tripled that weekend, he hasn’t noticed a change in board sales. He’s already an award-winning shaper, having made an array of designs over four decades that have been ridden by some of the world’s best surfers. But finding a rare commonality in two dissonant worlds, and a new friendship, holds its own value.



“I’m a fan of anything that goes extreme,” Hinds said. “Nothing’s better than a guy stepping of a seven-story building of a wave on an 11’4” that I made. Or nothing’s better than somebody going 200mph into a turn. It’s all the same to me.”



The only difference, from a directional perspective, is that surfers typically have more freedom in which way they ride. NASCAR drivers can only go left. They may have come from entirely different worlds, yet the two found an unlikely bond. Hinds’ method of surfboard shaping – building everything from start to finish himself – is similar to the way Devine and his team build race cars. At a 50,000-square-foot facility, engineers create the speed demons from scratch. From that connection, the two struck a deal. Hinds bought prime ad real estate on #83 to be broadcast to 80,000 screaming fans at the Auto Club 400 in Fontana on March 20th.“I thought for years that surfing and NASCAR couldn’t be more dissimilar things,” Hinds said. “But now, it has a lot to do with surfing in my mind. I’m making boards for guys to surf Jaws and Waimea, and those boards are engineered to go really fast and maintain speed. Those cars are the same way.”Hinds realizes that a NASCAR race isn’t the best way to promote a surfboard brand. But he doesn’t care. Although his website traffic tripled that weekend, he hasn’t noticed a change in board sales. He’s already an award-winning shaper, having made an array of designs over four decades that have been ridden by some of the world’s best surfers. But finding a rare commonality in two dissonant worlds, and a new friendship, holds its own value.“I’m a fan of anything that goes extreme,” Hinds said. “Nothing’s better than a guy stepping of a seven-story building of a wave on an 11’4” that I made. Or nothing’s better than somebody going 200mph into a turn. It’s all the same to me.”The only difference, from a directional perspective, is that surfers typically have more freedom in which way they ride. NASCAR drivers can only go left.

Roger Hinds found himself at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, for race day. NASCAR, to be exact. As a legendary surfboard shaper and a self-professed stranger to the gearhead American tradition that is stock car auto racing, Hinds couldn’t have been more out of place. Yet he was having a blast.“I’m in my sixties,” Hinds said. “I’ve been around awhile. And it was the most fantastic weekend I’ve ever had. It was amazing. For one thing, I’ve never felt more American in my life.”