..:: Basesurfboards ::..
RIP CURL & DARREN HANDLEY DESIGNS ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP
   

  With less than one month until the start of ASP World Championship Tour surfing on Australia's famed Gold Coast, the recently announced partnership between leading surf brand Rip Curl and surfboard builder Darren Handley Designs (DHD) is proving to be a healthy one.

Under the new venture, DHD now has a "preferred supplier" licence to make Rip Curl/DHD surfboards that will be exclusively available through Rip Curl's extensive international distribution channels in more than 60 countries.

Darren Handley is also the personal shaper for two of the world's most exciting young professional surfers - current men's world number three Mick Fanning and record braking rookie Stephanie Gilmore, the youngest ever winner of a women's World Championship Tour event. The Rip Curl team riders are both past champions of the Quiksilver and Roxy Pros on the Gold Coast, each winning their title in 2005.

Fanning and Gilmore will be among the favourites to win their events this year and while the duo are mentally preparing for the pressures of competing on their home surf break, they can be confident that they will be in-tune with their 2007 Rip Curl DHD surfboards.

Fanning is spending the last week of January and first week of February free surfing in Hawaii, test riding his new DHD models.

Gilmore, on the other hand, was forced to switch into competition mode early this year - already competing and tasting victory at the Roxy Pro 5 star World Qualifying Series (WQS) tournament at Australia's Phillip Island in the third week of January.

Handley was stoked with Gilmore's win at Phillip Island and is extremely enthusiastic about the new partnership, saying: "For me, the most exciting thing is Rip Curl's commitment to surfboard design and innovative new technology. I'm now going to be travelling with Mick and Steph and the team to events designing and making the right equipment for the right events."

"Traditionally, most shapers have to stay at home and shape like mad to keep up with production. They don't get to see first hand how their equipment works and try to be innovative and get the best board designs."

Rip Curl International Marketing Director Neil Ridgway said of the new partnership: "We're stoked to have Darren Handley Designs making Rip Curl Surfboards, Darren is unquestionably one of the world's best shapers and this means we will be making more of the world's best surfboards alongside the world's best wetsuits."

Founded in Torquay, Australia in 1967 as a surfboard maker, Rip Curl has grown from humble beginnings to be a truly international surfing company, second to none with it's range of innovative, functional, durable and stylish products designed by surfers for surfers, available in more than 60 countries across the globe. Over the years since '67, the Rip Curl product range has expanded from surfboards and wetsuits to include surfwear (casual clothes for men & women), mountainwear (protective outerwear for snowboarding & skiing), footwear (surf, skate & urban-influenced casual shoes, boots, open-toe slaps & sandals), eyewear (contemporary sunglasses, optical frames & snow goggles), and accessories (unique surf watches, travel bags, backpacks and wallets).

A Kirra boy born and bred, Darren Handley established DHD on Queensland's Gold Coast in 1989, after Darren served a decade-long "apprenticeship" with the infamous Pipedream Surfboards. Darren has travelled the globe surfing in his quest to make the fastest, most responsive surfboards available in the world. Apart from having the world's best riders lining up to ride his shapes, his staff are at a very high level of surfing and this has been the catalyst for DHD reaching such high standards of production.