“The boards made by Surfers for the Surfers “303 Factory’s Laminator, Yoshiji Kohno, or Sander, Takashi Kakihara, they have been surfing all over the world, and they still do the same after all those years. Both of them are well known big wave riders, who even surfed The Bay (Waimea). Each surf trip has special memories and unforgettable waves & experience. Every lunch break brings fun chat about those trips’ memories, and we often hear the fun stories that bring out smile on our face. 303 is a small surfboard factory, but none of the members felt short on their quivers, ever. Our area has variety of breaks including Beach, Reef, Rock or River Mouth, which all have different quality and suitable sizes. This condition requires not a small collection of board designs, but each factory member keeps enough boards in the back of the shop to choose from. The board they made, the wave they rode, the board they snapped, or waves perfectly ridden are not here anymore, but the memory and the experience was stored each member’s body & soul, and creating Roots of 303’s board building foundation.
We also have few but Team Riders we are so proud of. Most of our Team Riders started young, while they are still low teens, including Kazuyuki Ogawa, Yujiro Tsuji, Kaiki Yamanaka, or Juli Nishimoto. They almost all got chosen to represent Japan to compete in the contest likes of World Amateur or World Junior held at exotic locations in the world. They are proudly flying Japanese flag at the venue, but we at 303 was also very proud that they rode 303 Surfboard on those occasion.
Yujiro Tsuji, especially, was exceptional one for us. He started to surf world contest while he was only 15 years old. He surfed countless contests in both domestic and international surf points ever since. There are so many memorable contests, that we can’t even decide which one is most memorable…. Is it the World Junior title in Australia, that he placed highest among Japanese competitors? 9th at Scotland? Far away South Africa? Portugal alone? or California, the Surfing’s Mecca? It was amazing to see him paddling out after walked through thousands of galleries on the beach at US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach…. (By the way, we still believe he won that heat! Not saying that the judging was biased…) We stayed up late to watch live stream of Yujiro’s heat at Trustles and he was lipping at Lowers. Then we heard he MC saying ‘Yujiro is riding 303 surfboard shaped by Kohei Chiba, Japanese legend”…that was a special moment for us.
Yujiro, as well as Kaiki, they are still holding on to those older boards they rode to win contests or rode special waves. We are happy for it, knowing that those boards we provided worked as their “Wings “to reach their goals. They can keep it as long as they wish.
June, 2022, “Are you good with your quiver ? “Kohei asked Kaiki and Nishimoto Sisters, as they reported him that they have entered to WSL QS contest. WSL has fully resumed their schedule this year, and they are going to the QS held at Kurui, Indonesia. Interestingly enough, Kohei, Yoshiji & Takashi, the Factory Team have planned to have a trip to Kurui about 2 years ago, July of 2020. They have booked the flight & pretty excited for the new destination that they have never been to. Then, Covid happened. Unfortunately, the trip didn’t happen, but their Team Riders are bound to the same spot after 2 years. This is an interesting coincidence & something hopeful.
Boards are finished and passed on to the Team Riders to be packed for the trip. Kohei routinely said, when he hand the board to the surfers “Take care of yourself, alright ? “ Factory member’s job ends here, and the rest is the Surfer’s. They manage their health, mind and ability, ride the brand-new board at the new surf spot, to fulfil their dreams. Follow your dreams and keep riding, that is what we all surfers do.