Arenal Surfboards

What's your name, age, and where are you from?

My name is Michael Arenal. I am 31 years old and I'm from Ventura, California.

And how long have you been shaping?

I've been shaping for about 14 years.

What was the first board you shaped yourself?

The first board I shaped myself was a twin fin Mini Simmons Tyler Warren Bar of Soap style shape, kind of rectangular with crazy bottom contours and double foil keels.

Cool. And what made you shape that? You just wanted to shape something, or...?

It was basically the time where we were just making some Alaias type of boards and hand planes with some friends. And then a buddy and I were just like, let's try to shape a foam board. And at the time, the Bar of Soap was poppin', that's what was happening.

Yeah, it went pretty nuts there. What kind of surfboards would you say that you specialize in?

Oh, I would say that my focus is definitely alternative boards, of all size ranges. But over the last few years, it's been a big focus around midlengths and speed shapes and gliders. I still make a lot of noseriders and fishes and stuff, but the majority these days is midlengths and longer boards that are more about doing different types of surfing rather than just noseriding.

Do you shape boards based on your personal specifications, like what you’re into?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, ultimately, that's where it comes from - you have influences from the people around you and what you're seeing. But I think I definitely am having the most fun on those types of boards. 

So this kind of goes into this next question - what surfers inspire you? And do you keep that inspiration in mind when you're shaping new designs?

Interesting. I mean kind of the classic examples. Obviously, in the early years Tyler Warren was a big inspiration. And then, you know, [Ryan] Burch and Bryce Young, and those guys are the type of surfing I look towards. But these days, I'm also just inspired by the simple pleasures of riding a glider at home, and just the little subtleties of that.

I know you've traveled a bit to shape. Where, besides here, have you been in the last year?

The only other place I've traveled abroad so far to shape is in Portugal, at Wave Gliders.

What are you currently riding?

Right now, I feel like it bounces around between different models, but always focusing on gliders. I've been trying to blend gliders and noseriders at the moment. So I've been working through some designs and some testing. I'm trying to figure out a path that is kind of split into two different directions and I've been working on some new stuff in that realm. Trying to combine those things. And then I've kind of been riding this thinner longer shortboard if you will. What size is that? That one's 6'10". Yeah, just trying to get different, sharper feelings. And then I'll always just bounce around different midlengths and such.

No names necessary, but what's your favorite wave in the world?

This will just come into my head so maybe we'll just go with this, but recently I went on a trip to Costa Rica and to see that setup was pretty insane, but that really made me appreciate how good of a wave Rincon is, ‘cause getting a perspective of another super long point like that made me realize like, oh this wave is actually insane!

Yeah to have something so good and so close to home… We don't know what that's like here. What else are you into other than surfing?

I like being in the outdoors as much as possible - in the summertime I do a lot of hiking, that sort of thing, and winter time, I've been really enjoying getting into snowboarding. I did it more as a kid, took a break in my 20s and now I'm getting back into it with a buddy Darrick in Ventura who makes snowboards. What's his brand? His brand is Sounder Snowcraft. And yeah, it's crazy, he's essentially the equivalent of a hand shaper building snowboards in Ventura, it's pretty rad. So yeah, I've been getting into all that stuff which has been super fun and refreshing and you know surfing adjacent, but new feelings and it's been fun.

What is one song that is stuck in rotation on your playlist?

I keep playing the song Silver Dollar by Sierra Ferrell.

And then last but not least, since we are in New Jersey, what's your favorite size of pizza?

My favorite slice I have had here was the one from Tramonto’s that I forgot what it's called…

Oh, like the square grandma pie!

Yeah, with extra sauce. That's pretty good.