Lib Tech Surfboards 2026 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: Surfboards 2026 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: Lib Tech
Interviewee: Pete Saari Co Founder, Product dev/marketing

The latest market studies show a 25% growth in worldwide participation between 2018 and 2024? Does this translate in your sales pattern?
That’s exciting to hear there is global good energy in surf participation. We have seen surf lifting again this year after post pandemic industry adjustments and re balancing.

Can you share the sales ratio between stock boards, custom orders, online D2C vs brick and mortar shops?
We see about 85% of our sales going through dealers. Having deep roots as snowboard brand and as a manufacturer we like the visibility and stability a “pre book” order model gives us and retailers. We are also focused on managing inventory for traditional count and fill at once and DTC orders.

How can we lure back the newcomers into hardboards while softboards are their go-to choice?
Our unique Eco Impacto II construction matches the carefree ding free experience softboards bring but at the same time offers high performance that will be there for you as you take your surfing to the next level. Our environmentally friendly process and materials combined with long lasting durablity add another level of appeal to customers who care about their ocean environment. Our Pickup Stick series of playful performance mid sizes and longboards are ideal shapes for newcomers that remain relevant in a surfers quiver for a lifetime of good times. The unique “dang difficult to ding toughness of our hard boards makes them ideal for families to share or as a no worries loaner to friends. Our Eco Impacto II and Eco Impacto II Lite constructions include our rugged new wavepool tested Hammerbox urethane fin boxes that add durablity and user friendlyness to a key surfboard component that changes the game for both first timers and the rippers. As hands on board builders we feel like we have done the development work on the product side to eliminate the durablity challenges traditionally associated with hard boards and bring lightweight high performance at the same time. We are working to get our unique message out and appreciate Source including us in this buyers guide.

Which are the most sought after designs in 2026? (Mids, fish, grovelers, hi-perf, logs…)
We see high performance groveler hybrids like the Mayhem Puddle Jumper and Quiver Killer models being staples for our customers. The Smooth Operater mid size has been very popular serving as both a great board to learn on and a high performance Mayhem mid size option for a wide variety of conditions and abilities. The RNF series both the higher performance 96 and the more traditional San Diego inspired RNF Retro also generate quite a bit of interest for us.

In comparison, which designs tend to fall back?
We aren’t really seeing any particular design falling back but consumers do get excited about new shapes or old favorites in our updated lighter constructions. Construction wise, EPS/Epoxy+carbon is gaining momentum.

Do you think the fancy tech constructions are all smoke and mirrors, and PU boards won’t disappear shortly?
Ha, the reason we are in the surf industry (besides the fact that we love surfing and have been shaping and building surfboards all our lives) is that we wanted to bring new healthier, more environmentally friendly, higher performance options to the surfboard world. Our “fancy tech” construction is more accurately described as “friendly tech”. We are more user friendly on every level, easy livin hard rippin. The combination of our rugged Eco Impacto constructions and Matt Biolos’s amazing shapes lets you relax your mind and lifestyle freeing you up to rip his fine tuned World Tour winning shapes.

Organic grown and eco-blanks are available for mass production nowadays: what is your take on those?
We love it…some of it is green washing some of it is relevant and exciting. We use our own environmentally friendly Eco Lite foam formula; Lightweight, closed cell ( it doesn’t take on water if you expose it),40% upcycled content and completely recyclable back into foam blanks. Our foam formula includes the use of an environmentally friendly blowing agent.

Any tips for retailers trying to sort out their order sheets with more designs available than they can actually stock?
Most retailers in the industry know their businesses and how to keep their toes on the nose, the boss in the barrel and numbers in the black. There are lots of board options there all we can ask is that shops take a look at the good work we are doing and support our journey to bring better construction and higher performance options to the game. We truly are unique in our approach our materials and our product performance and durablity. Our new Eco Impacto II and Eco Impacto II Lite construction takes a ½ Lbs and 1 full Lbs off the weight of our builds and brings high performance responsiveness to our story…dang difficult to ding x high performance. We make all our boards ourselves in our little factory near Canada in the USA and love what we do. Thanks for your support, relax and rip it’s a Lib Tech X Mayhem!

Key Products:

Lib X Mayhem Pisces

Latin for Fish the Pisces is the product of over 3 decades of Matt Biolos’ high performance fish refinement and evolution. This rip everything everywhere fish perfectly marries the speed and glide of a classic 70s fish with World Tour proven high performance design. Built in our latest lightest EcoImpacto2 Lite construction with Hammerbox urethane finbox technology the Pisces is ready to relax your lifestyle and elevate your fun at your local or dream destination in surf from 2-10’.

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Lib X Mayhem Big Rig Driver

“Lib’s newest light weight responsive EcoImpacto2 Lite construction perfectly complements high performance shapes like our Driver series” – Matt Biolos. For our first Lib x Mayhem high performance model we went with the Big Rig Driver. Developed with world tour surfer Cole Housmand the Big Rig features all the design elements of our elite team riders boards with modestly generous volume, strategic foam distribution and a relaxed entry improving speed and wave catching ease.

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Lib Tech Pickup Stick Series

Our Pickup Stick series is ultimate lifestyle relaxing performance enhancing collection of fun shapes ranging from the 80s shortboard style squash tail 6 6” to the high performance mid-size minded rounded pin tail 7’ and 7 6” and the fuller nosed performance minded longboard 8’ and 9’ shapes. Featuring catch free chines, generous wave catching volume and high performance bottom contours and rockers the Pickup sticks guarantee good times for rippers to first timers and the entire family and friends .