While based in sport, surfing is an exhilarating dance with the ocean’s rhythm where every beach reflects the water’s energy and every coastline its local community. Surfboards become conduits for communion with the earth as much as connections with fellow surfers. And in some cases, the process of making creates a special bond between the shaper, the surfer, and the board itself. In her latest launch, designer Kelly Wearstler invites her audience to ride this wave where craft, memory, and soul converge. The Pacific Collection stands out as a sculptural tribute to the rituals that bind people and place, drawing deeply from her family’s shared love for surfing and the timeless artistry of California’s coastal makers.
For Wearstler, the ocean has always been more than a backdrop – it’s been an inspiration to her craft and the maker of bonds between her loved ones. “My entire family are surfers – it’s been an amazing sport for us to do together. It’s really a part of our identity as a family. That’s what led us to begin collaborating with surfboard artisans.”
That devotion to the Pacific’s ever-changing beauty is imbued in each piece, carved with intention using a proprietary technique, and echoing what scholars have called the ‘spiritual aura’ of surfing – an entanglement between humans and nature that transcends physical activity to become deeply personal, even meditative.
The first two pieces to grace the collection include the now-iconic Pacific Surfboards and Pacific Credenza, the relaunched Trancas Credenza. A tribute to surf culture’s golden era, the Pacific Longboard is a monumental addition to any space. Each object is hand-shaped to expose fluid birch layers, with every grain pattern one-of-a-kind like the waves at dawn. Its sideboard counterpart transforms storage into a sculptural statement, blending practical design with the spirit of surf craftsmanship in an evolution of Wearstler’s original Trancas piece. The modular form and exposed birch rings mimic tidal lines, while hidden storage keeps function behind an artful exterior.
The collection’s Pacific Dining Table and Pacific Dining Chair draw the most inspiration from early surfboard silhouettes in an homage to those pioneering artisans who transformed simple planks into elegant vessels for riding waves. With the introduction of these latest pieces, Wearstler’s studio pushes its proprietary method even further. The layered birch surfaces reveal organic striations like coastal topography in a reflection of place and time. And concentric rings echo tidal marks. Inspired by the precise curves of a surfboard, the chair and table legs have a softened, architectural form that marries artful shaping with the ergonomics of everyday use.
Each handcrafted piece is one of a kind, proudly showcasing wood grains and markings unique to each product. Detailed joinery and custom curves capture the spirit of the Pacific, each bearing the subtle imperfections and grain variations that speak to nature’s hand in making. In many ways, it honors the belief that true beauty lies in imperfection and flow.
“Those ‘imperfections’ more often than not generate the best ideas for our designs,” Wearstler adds.
Her studio first partnered with an LA master surfboard shaper in 2017 to develop their own distinct approach to plywood craft. The production method utilizes CNC machinery to expose layers within birch wood before being meticulously hand-sanded to soften their ridges and temper their rough texture. The final result reveals vibrant hues and organic striations through the wood grain.
In fact, the surfboard shaping techniques, which heavily influenced Wearstler’s concept, became a respected craft in the early 20th century. Local artisans mastered the refinement of elements like length, weight, and contour to better ride the Pacific swell, pioneering lamination techniques and hand-carved profiles that now grace the aptly named collection. These innovations transformed surfboards into functional objects of beauty, contributing to a distinctly Californian design language the multi-hyphenate creative has long stewarded.
In surf culture, boards are more than tools – they are heirlooms, symbols of identity, and extensions of the self. So too is Pacific meant to be lived with, passed on, and imbued with new meaning: family meals that mirror the dawn’s surf session, moments of stillness that feel like watching a wave crest and break. Each curve and joint is engineered for these daily acts, merging sculpture and function in a seamless experience.
“The California Pacific has such a rich natural and cultural history. This collection embodies the freedom and optimism of Southern California. A free spirit,” Wearstler says.
The Pacific collection is offered exclusively through KellyWearstler.com.
Photography by Paige Campbell Linden.
