Like millions around the world, Jeremy and Ivory Lloyd found their daily lives brought to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic. With over twenty years of experience in the visitor industry, Jeremy found himself unemployed when the hotel he was working at closed. At the same time, the couple’s two young children, who had been enrolled in a Hawaiian immersion school, were now at home, and the pair tried to find things to keep their children engaged while figuring out their next steps.

During this time, Jeremy gravitated to woodworking, a hobby he acquired growing up as the son of a cabinet maker. He and the couple’s oldest son began working on a wa‘a (canoe) when Ivory was inspired. As a lei (floral garland) maker, she envisioned a long table shaped like a surfboard to create her lei. Once the table was finished, Jeremy and the couple’s sons were curious to see if this surfboard-shaped table could be surfed upon. After finding success catching waves on their newly crafted creation, Jeremy was invigorated to produce more boards and learn about the art of surfboard making.

Initially, Jeremy worked with wood found on the couple’s North Shore property. Ivory recalls, "During the pandemic, finding materials to work with was tough. At first, Jeremy carved surfboards from wood around our home. Slowly, word spread about what he was doing, and friends and tree trimmers started offering wood from their backyards. It was cool to work with locally sourced woods and experiment with what wood types floated.”

One of the first surfboards Jeremy created was an alai'a, a style of surfboard whose roots can be traced to pre-contact Hawai‘i. The thin, round-nosed boards were generally made from koa and featured no ventral fins, contrasting modern boards. In addition to Jeremy and their children testing the boards, he created alai'a boards for the kids in their neighborhood to surf and give him feedback. These alai'a boards featured asymmetrical tails, a signature design for Lloyd Boards. “The asymmetrical alai'a is seen on my company logo. Carl Esktrom created asymmetric boards in the 1960s. With asymmetrical boards, the long edge of the board makes contact with the face of the wave and the short edge is your cut-back side. There is a shorter radius and shorter turn on your cut-back side.”

In addition to the alai'a boards that range from five to eight feet in length, Jeremy creates many other pre-contact style surfboards like paipo boards, measuring five feet and under, and kiko‘o boards, measuring eight feet and up. Jeremy points to his pre-dawn research sessions when asked where his inspiration comes from to create new boards. “Some days, I wake up at about 4 a.m. and research how ancient Hawaiians created their surfboards. I tend to come up with my ideas while drinking my coffee.”

As with the ancient Hawaiians, Jeremy uses several kinds of wood when making his surfboards. “For the boards to surf, I stick with ulu, koa and wili wili, like the Hawaiians used. In my research, I also found that indigenous communities worldwide have used Paulownia wood to make surfboards, similar to kukui trees. That led me to create surfboards from kukui wood, too.” In addition to surfboards, Jeremy creates boards that can be displayed as art pieces. He incorporates other woods, such as locally grown hau (Talipariti tiliaceum), lychee and mango, for these boards. From boards created from single slabs of wood to boards like his “Hapa” boards, which blend different types of wood, Jeremy’s product line continues to grow organically. From his “Finnie” board that features inlays of tiny skegs to improve the surfers’ directional stability to his “Dad Bod,” which is longer and wider than his typical boards, he has become versed in creating boards ranging from pre-contact Hawaiʻi to the present.

Through it all, this husband-and-wife team has ridden the waves of growth and appreciates what Lloyd Boards is becoming. “One of our biggest concerns was creating a business that fits into our lifestyle of being near the ocean and surfing. When Jeremy and I first met, we surfed daily, and our family continues to bond over the ocean. When the pandemic happened, and we were thinking about what we wanted to do in our next chapter, we wanted to make sure our business fit into our lifestyle. We wanted to ensure our lives were sustainable and that we could continue to do the things we loved, like spending time with our children and friends,” said Ivory. “Our goal is to normalize seeing alai'a surfboards in the lineup, to get more alai'a surfboards in the hands of keiki (children) and to do the work now to benefit future generations.”

Lloyd Boards is revitalizing surfboards but looking for inspiration from the past, blending old and new with their extraordinary way of perpetuating Hawaiian culture by creating surfable art.

Visit their online store for current inventory or to create a custom board: lloydboards.com. Available at ‘Ohana Shop in Hanalei (ohanashop.com) and Sway Island Living in Kīlauea. Jeremy’s woodworking and surfboard tables are displayed at his daughter’s coffeeshop, The Haven (Instagram @thehavenkauai).