ABOUT ROD
Rod Dahlberg started surfing at 10 years of age on a piece of styrofoam on the beaches of Mount Maunganui in New Zealand. At 13 years old he received his first fibreglass board, a second hand 6’4’’ scaled down Malibu. He still vividly remembers the elation of cutting sideways along a green wave. The obsession started there, and a few years later Rod began shaping boards. His first few boards were reshaped from old mals with the glass stripped off, and then from whatever old blanks he could get his hands on. When Rod left school at aged 17, he already knew what he wanted to do - surf and shape surfboards. So he spent a few years doing odd jobs, trying to save enough for his first trip to Australia. Finally in 1972, at age 19, Rod and his best mate, Nev Hill, boarded a plane for Australia. They surfed from Noosa, down to Angourie in Northern NSW, where they shacked up for most of the winter, surfing every day. Rod also shaped a couple of boards for his mates. When Rod returned to New Zealand, he had a full time shaping job with Bob Davie, the grandfather of New Zealand surfboard manufacturing. To this day, Rod still rates him as one of the finest craftsmen he’s ever seen. For the next six years Rod settled into a pattern of Angourie winters and New Zealand summers. But when he fell in love with a local girl, Rod decided it was time to spend summer in Australia too. He established himself in Angourie, surfing and shaping, honing his skills at both and thoroughly enjoying the cruisey coastal lifestyle. Living and shaping at Angourie exposed Rod to a lot of great surfers and shapers, and also gave him a great wave to test his own designs. He was freelance shaping for local brand Country Style, and Sky Surfboards in Byron Bay. 1983 was a huge year for Rod. He established Insight Surfboards with best mates, John and Greg Webber, married his long term girlfriend Adrienne, and had the first of two daughters, Kelly. John, Greg and Rod grew Insight into a major brand within two years, attracting pro surfers Richard Cram, Greg Day, Joe Engel, Thornton Fallander and a host of other hot locals to the label. The partnership dissolved amicably in 1985 and Rod started Dahlberg Surfboards, the label he still shapes under to this day. In the early 1990’s Rod established a long relationship with Mark ‘Occy’ Occhilupo, culminating with Occy’s World Title in 1999. In the same year, Joel Parkinson won the Junior World Title, also riding Rod’s shapes. Other highlights in Rod’s shaping career include Joel Parkinson, Shaun Cansdell, Dan Ross and Ben Dunn all winning the Billabong Junior Series, riding Rod’s shapes. More recently Rod has enjoyed working with Tom Whitaker, a great surfer from Bronte, Sydney, who now resides on the Gold Coast. Tom had many great results riding Rod’s boards, including 8th in the World in 2008 and a 2nd place finish at Sunset Beach in 2009. Tom Whitaker and Dan Ross also completed back to back victories riding Rod’s shapes to win the Margaret River Six Star Prime WQS in 2008/2009. In recent times Rod has reduced his pro surfer commitments, preferring to concentrate his custom service to his loyal clientele and experiment with a variety of shapes. Rod has been using APS and AKU shaping machine technology for the past ten years, which has opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. The new technology and changing face of surfboard shaping has reinvigorated Rod’s passion for shaping boards now and into the future. |