Riley Balsawood Surfboards was founded in 1996 by Mark Riley.

Mark had returned from an extensive trip through Central and South America where he had been looking for a stronger and lighter material for surfboards when he stumbled upon balsa wood. He returned to Sydney with enough balsa for two surfboards and started shaping a 6’8’’ foam core and a solid 9’0’’.

 After the first trial session Mark was convinced to have found a true alternative to polyurethane. The boards felt great in the water, were light and strong, durable and attracted much attention. Without loosing much time Mark ordered his first container of balsa from Ecuador and started shaping balsa boards full-time.

Nowadays Mark is still the director of Riley Classic Balsa Boards and he is involved in the whole operation of selecting the balsa wood, grading, cutting, laminating, shaping and finishing all orders. As Ecuadorian balsa is renowned for its superb quality we still import containers on a regular basis. However, we have started growing our own balsa trees in Australia to lower our impact on the environment.

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