Corey Colapinto AKA "Kookapinto" was born into an ocean-loving family in 1997 on Oahu. Soon after he was born, his parents Matt and Denise decided to move to San Clemente, where Matt and Corey’s uncles grew up and fell in love with surfing in the 70’s and 80’s. Credit for Corey’s introduction to surfing goes to his father and uncle Mitch, who were avid surfers, lifeguards, and founders of two popular beginner surf camps in San Clemente. Some of Corey’s earliest surf memories were with his cousins, Griffin and Crosby, riding soft tops every day at their father’s surf camps. When Corey was about 10, his cousin Griffin began progressing as a prodigy high performance shortboarder. This motivated and propelled Corey into the shortboard only, competitive surf scene. With natural talent and many hours of riding waves, Corey began making a few finals in NSSA events, and he learned some progressive shortboard tricks, like airs, along the way. 

Anyone who knows competitive surfing knows that it can be a bit grueling. Depending on how prestigious an event is, there may be few smiles and “hellos” given to fellow competitors, and an almost certainty to find yourself in a paddle battle; each person aiming to outperform the other by tearing apart each wave. Some, like Griffin and Crosby, who are now world renowned competitive surfers, thrive under this pressure cooker environment, while others, like Corey, can become disillusioned with the sport of surfing as a whole because of it. Corey, who has a calm temperament, wasn’t excited about competing; and especially when your local surf spot is lower trestles, it can be hard to divorce surfing from competition. Because of this, high school Corey nearly lost all interest in the art of surfing. The love for surfing, as it is in its essence, was still a buried treasure that Corey hadn’t been able to locate under the muck and mud of competition. 

Pure enjoyment for surfing did, however, exist in his father who opted for a longboard rather than a shortboard. Corey remarks that he would see his father going to longboard 2-3 ft San Onofre, “frothing like a grom” or a kid in a candy store. Corey grew up enjoying many family beach days at the famed San Onofre (better known as Sano), but he hadn’t yet appreciated the aura of San Onofre surf culture, which reaches back all to the 1930’s and 40’s when surfboards were 12ft plus pieces of wood with no fins. When commenting on his 1,500 page magnum opus, San Onofre: Memories of a Legendary Surfing Beach, historian David Matuszak argues that San Onofre is home to, “the most unique and influential surfing culture the modern world has ever known.” Nevertheless, the lore of Sano was still veiled from Corey who admits that his perception of longboarding small waves seemed boring. 

Eventually, after his dad convinced him to join him at Sano, Corey gave longboarding a shot. According to Corey, this was the catalyst that got him back into surfing; for the first time in a while, he genuinely enjoyed surfing again after learning how to noseride. Corey’s self discovery at Sano was similar to the discovery of the “perfect wave” in the Endless Summer movie; after crossing a south african desert, surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August struck gold in the form of a perfect right point break. Corey’s own crossing through the so-called competitive desert created a perfect contrast that allowed him to appreciate the gold he found at Sano, except he didn’t need to travel to the other side of the world to find it… all along it was in his backyard in San Clemente. 

With new kinds of waves came new kinds of boards. Not only was Corey drawn to riding longboards, but also fishes and mid lengths. This positioned Corey into a unique cross section between loose, graceful turning on fishes, and stupendous noserides and trim on longboards. Corey’s surfing became so advanced on the long walls of Sano that the surfboards needed to advance with him, but there really weren’t boards on the market geared toward the type of surfing he was aiming for. This began his shaping journey; and like any innovation in surfboard design, it began with inspiration, a problem, and a good idea. 

When Corey became acquainted with a pure, unique expression of surfing through longboards and fishes, he was not alone. He found friendship and inspiration in other remarkably talented shapers and surfers, like Ryan Burch, Tyler Warren, Josh Martin, Jon Wegener, Tommy Witt and others. After riding a Ryan Burch 5’1 fish, he became fascinated with the speed and loose turning ability of a fish style board. Simultaneously, Corey loved the feel of trim, with the noseride ability of a longer, wider board. Therein lies the problem that Corey sought to fix, how can one retain the speed and turning ability of a fish, while simultaneously being able to noseride and carry speed in slower sections? Through studying various surfboard designs, Corey came up with what we now call the “Fishy Noserider.” The swallow tail plus quad set up, with low entry rocker, allows for incredible speed and turn ability, while the longer, wider outline makes noseriding and trimming easy. Corey called the feeling of riding this board, “super magic,” and it sparked an even greater drive in him to continue surfing and shaping. 

Corey’s journey is not without adversity. Soon after shaping his first board Corey battled with a serious concussion after the fin of his surfboard hit him in the back of the head on a wipeout. During nearly the entirety of 2019, Corey was unable to surf due to chronic headaches and pain. A year after the injury, he could surf a little more, but only on the cleanest days. This difficult period in Corey’s journey also expanded the trajectory of his surfboards. Instead of thick heavy longboards which can be dangerous if you get hit, Corey opted for lighter, thinner boards. Thus, the “thin twin” was Corey’s next surfboard model. These ultra thin boards have an amazing ability to trim, but the width and length still allow for cross steps and nose rides. These boards also have smaller fins, as most of the hold in the wave face comes from the thin rail. 

As his surfboards progressed, so did his surfing. Richard Kenvin, who wrote a feature piece for Corey in The Surfer’s Journal, describes Corey’s surfing beautifully, “Colapinto carves, trims, and cross-steps to the nose and back, blending time and technique with hypnotic flow and nimble quickness. His approach is vintage elegance meets speed and progression, an archetypal style in the making with elements drawn from classic surfing of every era… tip to tail, rail to rail, and all points in between.” About the progression of the board Corey was riding to inspire such a well-put description, Kenvin simply wrote, “...It’s flying”

Corey’s story cannot be shared without mentioning the story of how Corey began, and continues to shape in a chicken coop; it is a perfect touch to an already amazing and unique surfing journey. 

Sano local Tim Baker invited Corey over to renovate half of his old chicken coop into a shaping shack to start experimenting with Corey's design ideas.  After hundreds of hours of testing designs in the water and refinement in the shaping shack Corey was able to translate what we wanted in his head into his designs.   It was in this rustic chicken coop in San Clemente where Corey learned how to design and shape surfboards.   Both the Fishy Noserider and Thin Twin models were born here and have become popular designs ridden by hundreds of surfers around the world. Today Corey and a bunch of local groms still get in there to experiment and build new designs.  An occasional chicken runs through the coop during the shaping process to keep things interesting :)

Beyond Corey’s journey as a surfer, he is known to be an extremely humble, kind, and joyful person. He is a loving husband to his wife Heidi, and he is a devout Christian. His artistic expression points upward to honor God, each surfboard exquisitely designed to match the waves which are given by God, the ultimate artist and designer. 

Today, there is much concern that Sano surf culture is fading away; a recent storm destroyed much of the parking lot, which holds within it nostalgic memories of summer beach BBQ’s, Dick Dale surf guitar playing in classic VW Bus radios, sun burns after sunrise to sunset sessions, worn-out longboards, and innumerable surf stories. With the parking lot’s corrosion, many fear that pure expressions of surfing are corroding with it. In spite of all these growing fears, surfing is alive and well in Corey Colapinto and his surfboards. It is Corey’s aspiration that you too will share in surfing's past, present, and future, hastened by new excitement, passion, and fun on a Kookapinto shape.

Photos Courtesy of Shawn Parkin and Jeremiah Klein