JONAH LEPAK

Jonah Lepak. Born in the Seattle Washington area to hippy parents and taken on a hitchhiking trip across the country at 6 months of age. Parents built a 45 foot sailing catamaran that was launched when I was 3 years old, our family lived aboard this boat until I was 7, sailing from Seattle to British Columbia, San Francisco, San Diego and Hawaii. 6th birthday was in the middle of the pacific ocean on the way from California to Hawaii where I started to surf and spearfish by 7 years old. Moved back to Washington state to build another boat that my father designed and built, a 34 foot catamaran. We sailed this boat to Alaska, California and Mexico. We first saw high-wind windsurfers in Bodega Bay in 1982 and started windsurfing the next year at 12 years old. I was always a boat design geek, having a collection of AYRS (Amateur Yacht Research Society) magazines and building working model hydrofoil boats to tow behind our sailboat.

Helped my father build our first "shortboard" windusrfer (10'!) on the deck of our boat in 1983 out of XPS foam and epoxy. I started shaping sailboards and surfboards on my own in 1989. Moved to Santa Cruz in 1991 where I worked for Larry Tuttle (inventor or the Tuttle box and innovator in fins and foils as well as making some of the best racing windsurf boards during the 1980's) building racing and speed record setting sailboats for several years. Began building my epoxy sandwich waveboards for the local Santa Cruz market around 1993. Worked with some great shapers and innovators along the way: Randy French (Surftech founder), Ward Coffey (legendary local Santa Cruz shaper/surfer), Martin Littlewood (Delta designs in Margaret River WA). Competed in US wave contests throughout the '90's against the likes of Josh Angulo, Pritchards etc.. Started kitesurfing and shaping kiteboards in '99 and competed full time 2002-2003 until a career ending knee injury. Developed kiteboards and kites for Gaastra kites, 2002-2005. Got back into windsurfing around 2005. Developed a large surfboard factory in China 2006 -2008 working with many top name shapers from around the world in the process. 

With the financial crisis in 2008, the factory was shut down and I returned to medical device startups designing and developing minimally invasive cardiac ablation and other devices. I have around 10 issued patents. Currently taking time off from the med device world and getting back into surf/windsurfing industry as well as wavesailing, surfing, foiling,  kitesurfing, mountain biking, sailing, fishing, spearfishing as much as possible while raising two young boys....