Last June, The Coronado Times featured local resident Dan Mann as a surfboard shaper, paddleboard champion and homeschooling/travel guide.
Learn even more about Dan by listening to this well crafted audio interview conducted by The Wire right in Dan’s Coronado backyard…
Dan Mann is the mind behind many of the surfboards you’ve ridden, and he may be the most successful surfboard designer no one has ever heard of.
See, in the midst of designing some of the most popular surfboards ever, like the Baked Potato, Sweet Potato, Dominator and more, Dan has retired in Australia. He’s also retired in Spain and Portugal. South Africa too. Each time taking his wife and two teenage children with him as they explore new countries and go on adventures. Basically the exact opposite of sitting behind a desk and ‘building a brand’. In fact, self-promotion has always felt foreign to Dan. He even describes Instagram as ‘narcissistic’.
In this episode we cover a lot, like:
- How Firewire bought Dan’s business back in 2006, and turned it into the original Firewire Surfboards factory in San Diego.
- What its like to be on the same design team as Rob Machado, Kelly Slater and Daniel Thomson.
- Dan’s uncommon approach to health – including yoga and movement practices, Wim Hof breathing, sleeping on the floor, avoiding chairs and more.
- Which of his surfboard designs surprised him by how popular they got, and which ones, shockingly, didn’t catch on among surfers.
Just some of the boards Dan has designed for Firewire:
