CONCEPT

GEN4 | WE ARE CHANGING THE GAME

Gen4 has changed the way you buy surfboards. For too long has the surfboard market dictated such high prices for surfboards. The margins that distributors, wholesalers, and retailers add on, plus the huge costs of marketing, logistics, and other staff means that in the end the surfer is left to shoulder a hefty price tag for surfboards.

At Gen4 we cut out the middle men and the needless overheads. We create quality Australian made performance surfboards, but by utilising new technology and distribution channels, we are able to sell our surfboards at half the cost of traditional manufacturers. By using new technologies, we have less labour, and by choosing to distribute direct to the customer online, we don’t have the distributor, wholesaler and retailers all adding on their margins. This isn’t due to a lack of quality or compromise in the manufacturing – quite the contrary as our boards are actually made in the same factory, using the same materials and shaper, as over half of the biggest brands out there.

We are also fortunate that our strong roots in the surfing community allow us to have a team of established surfers that provide us with feedback and rep our boards worldwide. You’ll see Gen4 boards grace the covers and pages of surf magazines, our videos in the online surf media, and our boards under the feet of some of the best surfers in the WSL.

Don’t believe us? Try a board out yourself!

ABOUT JYE

Gen4 founder Jye Gudenswager has over a decade of shaping experience with some of the titans of the surfboard industry. JS Industries, Lost, Super Brand and Chilli are some of the global brands that Jye learned from and plied his craft with. Now stepping out on his own he is excited to use his wealth of knowledge and experience to create Gen4 Surfboards and bring you the innovative and world class boards.

Jye is a prominent member of the Snapper Rocks Board Riders Club and a sponsored rider himself. Growing up in Coolangatta he has been around the elite of the surfing community from a young age. Whilst building the brand Jye was lucky enough to be able to call on friends Mick Fanning, Mark Occhilupo and Joel Parkinson for advice.

There is also a long history of surfing pioneers in the Gudenswager family. Gen4 is derived from Jye being the 4th generation in the family to be a pioneer in surfboard design. Following in the footsteps of his Great Grandfather Frank Adler who was an Australian surfing pioneer credited with building the first hollow plywood boards known as “toothpicks”. Frank was also known for establishing the Australian Boardriders Association in 1946, enabling surfers the chance to break away from the Surf Lifesaving norms of the time.

Jye’s Grandfather, Ken, was a renowned surfboard manufacturer on the Gold Coast in the 1960’s and 70’s, opening up some of the state’s first surf shops and father Chris is a four-time Queensland surfing representative who competed for Snapper Rocks board riders club throughout the 1980’s and 90’s.

With encouragement from his father and almost 80 years of unique Australian surfing history up his sleeve, Jye carries on the family legacy with the name Gen4 acting as a proud reflection of his forefathers.