MIKE MATTISON

Mike Mattison founded Northern Alliance in 2005 on the North Shore of Oahu. Originally from Huntington Beach, CA, Mike grew up surfing all over California's coast and chasing waves all over the world. This path brought him to Hawaii 20+ years ago where he has established himself as a resident surfboard shaper and glasser at the iconic Waialua Sugar Mill, home to many of the best surfboard manufacturers in the world.

 

Q&A with Mike

 

Dan: Tell me about where you grew up and how you got into surfing

 

Mike: I grew up in Huntington Beach, CA, in the 80's and 90's. Surf City USA in its prime. Huntington is home to 8.5 miles of beautiful beaches, weather, and surf, so naturally I got into surfing. I started competing regularly in the 6th grade in local NSSA and WSA events. Then the PSAA, CCSA, and ASP. Then onto the West Coast Pro Am Tour and the QS. I was a contest junkie. Sometimes I'd ride my bike from one beach to another and surf multiple contests a day!

 

Dan: How'd you wind up on the North Shore of Oahu?

 

Mike: I moved the North Shore in 2003. I had been traveling there regularly since 1987. I wanted to get out of Huntington Beach. It seemed like everyone around me was just partying and doing drugs. I needed to get out of there. So my brother and I moved out here and I started doing contests on the North Shore and South Shore.

 

Dan: How did you start getting into making surfboards?

 

Mike: I've been making surfboards for over 30 years. I cut my teeth at Wave Tools in 1990, starting off as an apprentice and graduated into glassing for Lance Collins. I was there for 10 years making the most progressive surfboards at the time. From there I moved onto Pure Glass until I moved to Oahu. In Oahu, I started at Town and Country Surfboards and bounced around to Lamination Hawaii and Green Room Glassing until I started Northern Alliance in 2005.

 

Dan: I know you make some great longboards too. How'd you get into that if your mostly known as a high-performance surfer?

 

Mike: Funny story. I was actually a professional longboarder at one point. When I was younger, I hurt my back from snowboarding and I couldn't surf for awhile. So to ease back into it I started longboarding. This was back in 1994 or 1995. Then I randomly entered a longboarding contest and won. Next thing you know, I won every single contest leading up to the championship in Malibu and won that too. I was the PLA Malibu National Champion!

 

Dan: I love how your boards work so well in critical waves, tell me about your process

 

Mike: Hawaii is the proving ground, but Mexico is actually a big influence on me and my models. It's a great place to try out new boards and try out different things. Every year I spend several months testing surfboards there. In Hawaii your average wave is only a few seconds long and very powerful, so you typically don't get a lot of diversity on a wave. So the board needs to work in Hawaii, but Mexico is a good proving ground to test a board through a wave that will suck up into a ledgey drop, barrel, flatten out into a mushy section, race off again, and bowl up on the inside. California is also a great place to try to make a board work in weak waves. Today's surfboards aim for the smallest board with the least amount of volume needed to work on a gutless wave, which is tricky.

 

Dan: What's next for Northern Alliance?

 

Mike: Well I just partnered with you to help scale the business. Our goal is to solidify our presence in Oahu, then expand to San Clemente, where Dan lives, and also Ventura, where my fiancée Laura lives. I have a lot of models that work well in California, especially my twins. We are planning on hosting some demos this summer at Trestles and Huntington, including a long overdue "Twinzday" so stay tuned!