A little history about Imagine Eco

Imagine Eco was founded in 2002 by Corran Addison, a native South African from the surfing town of Durban.

Corran started kayaking at the age of 6, just a few years before he started to learn to surf. He is an Olympic whitewater slalom kayaker, and three time world champion medalist for freestyle kayaking (the kayaking equivalent of snowboard half pipe). He also held the record for over a decade for the highest waterfall ever run in a kayak - 101 ft (31 metres). But possibly what he was most known for in the kayak world was his designs and accompanying kayaking techniques that completely revolutionized the sport in the 1990’s. His designs are to kayaking what the shortboard is to surfing.

By the age of 8 he had built his first kayak with his father, and by the age of 14 had shaped his first surfboard. Surfing and shaping throughout his professional kayaking career, his kayak designs looked more and more like a surfboard each year, as did his kayaking style. By the time he was 25 he was probably the most renown kayak designer in the world. But what’s interesting to Imagine is that throughout his professional kayaking career, he was a passionate surfer, and shaper.

In 2002 he left the rat race of the corporate kayaking company that he had built from scratch to a $6 million dollar business, to start a backyard surfboard company. His love for surfing had outgrown his love of kayaking (though he still does both) and he began to shape boards as a way of life. By 2005, Corran was spending 40 hour weeks just making boards trying to keep up with orders, and teaching surf classes on the weekends in what is now the largest surf school in Canada. He has traveled all over the world and surfed on every continent (except Antarctica). He’s shaped and tested his boards everywhere from Japan’s 99 Beach, to New Zealand’s Ragglin, Mexico’s Zicatella, Hawaii’s Hookipa, Frances Hossegor, and of course South Africa’s famous Durban breaks.

However, as he watched the waste from surfboard manufacture building outside his shop, he began to question how surfboards were made - from the materials used, to the relative short lifespan of a surfboard, and in 2006 he began the journey to change the way surfboards are made, developing his ecological surfboard techniques using sustainable materials and making a stronger longer lasting board. This is the driving goal behind Imagine Eco today - to change the way surfers (with their boards) look at the synergy between their love of the sport, and the need to protect our planet.

In 2007, Corran was introduced to Stand Up Paddleboarding, and instantly fell in love. His passion for surfing and kayaking was melded into one, and he began to shape his first paddleboards, taking what were at the time no more than oversized longboard shapes, and applying his 30 years of kayak design experience to create new and innovative stand up shapes. The following year Imagine was offering paddleboards in their line up and Imagine is today known for having some of the worlds must cutting edge shapes.

In that same year, Imagine started to make kiteboards as many of the employees at Imagine kite as well as surf and SUP. As with the surfboards and SUP’s, the goal was to find new and better ways of making the boards, and this is evident when you ride one today.

We are still a small company, privately owned, and passionately run by a group of dedicated, excitable surfers. You can tell this by the way we do things, and by our love of surfing.