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Bill Caster was an innovative San Diego shaper known for his progressive channel bottom rounded pins and humble demeanor. Caster started shaping in 1958 under the Select Surfboards label for his Uncle LLoyd Baker. Caster also shaped under distinguished labels such as Olympic, Challenger and Hobie. He started his own CASTER surfboards label in 1965. Bill Caster was drafted into service in the Vietnam War in 1965 just as his CASTER label was taking flight. He was released from service in 1967 and came home to find the shortboard revolution brewing up new ideas about surfboard design. It was an exciting time to be a surfboard builder. Caster was highly demanding of himself and adapted quickly to the shorter boards, both in the water and in the shaping bay. A quiet, confident and extremely skilled craftsman, Caster let his boards do the talking. At the peak of his commercial success in 1981 CASTER surfboards could be found up and down the coast of California and all along the Eastern seaboard. Surfers that rode Bill's boards were extremely loyal, most notable among them was La Jolla professional Chris O'Rourke. But Caster was a humble man who deferred compliments to others. Sadly Bill Caster died at the age of 44 from colon cancer. He left behind a legacy of quality hand crafted performance surfboards and a legion of friends. However, Bill's greatest legacy is the family he left behind: daughters Heidi and Heather, and sons David and Daniel.
This year a few hand selected shapers will be asked to replicate a classic CASTER surfboard during the SACRED CRAFT Consumer Surfboard Expo. These finished blanks will then judged by a panel of experts including Hank Warner, Bird Huffman and Peter St. Pierre and the winning shaper will receive $1000. The boards will be auctioned off and the proceeds will go to the CASTER family to help them protect the iconic CASTER logo and trademark.
ABOUT ICE NINE FOAM WORKS
What does a molecule sound like when it breaks? Like the surf, like the sound inside a shell, like nitroglycerin and Dick Dale… That's the siren call that led us to a secret staging ground in Orange County where our ace design team banged heads and whispered and had séances in San Clemente, studying old techniques and finally coming up with a new twist on high-performance polymers and voila! Surf blanks like you've never seen or danced on, providing a better ride in a better way as we make our way into a better future. Our mission? Serve Surfing. How? By supporting the local and domestic custom-surfboard industry by creating new and better products for hand shapers. Ice-Nine Foam Works is a foam blanks manufacturer that focuses on finding and implementing new processes and materials to elevate the surfing experience.