Catch Surf was founded in 2007 in San Clemente, California by one George Arzente. At the time, he was a real estate developer and had decided to take a year off to surf and relax in California.
During this time he discovered his true passion for surfing, but also saw the opportunity to make surfboards like bodyboards - out of foam. And so Catch Surf was born from that mantra.
He teamed up with bodyboarding veteran Tom Moray and they began developing the first foam surfboards. The first boards they shipped were high-performance soft-top boards known as The Y-Boards. The individual models were known as The One and The Super One.
The early Y-boards from Catch Surf
These boards had a quad fin setup, afterburner rails and a smooth bottom and top. These boards still form the core of the Catch Surf ethos of soft top surfboard design.
The Y-boards served as the inspiration for Catch Surf's groundbreaking board, the Beater. George and Tom took what worked on the Y-Boards and combined it with a certain amount of fun and playfulness to create The Beater. The premise of The Beater was that you can have fun on a surfboard regardless of the conditions.
In George's words, this was the reason The Beater was founded:
We just wanted a cool board that performed no matter the conditions and was more about carefree summer days at the beach than ripping.
And the tagline for The Beater advertising says it all: "Grab Your Towel. Grab your Beater. Head to the beach...It's Summertime." Needless to say, the Beater is Catch Surf's best-selling board of all time.
As a utility board, the Beater was designed to be ridden either as a twin fin or finless and skimmed. Since it is only 48-54 inches long, some people also ride it as a bodyboard.