Shaped By Gianni Valdambrini

Florence 07/07/1964

An ambition and passion for art, complemented by a solid technical background and curiosity for anything and everything that’s new on the scene, have made Gianni Valdambrini one of the very best Shaper’s around.

An excellent skier since a tender age, he competed at home and abroad with the likes of Alberto Tomba and other members of the world's skiing elite. However, commitment to his studies and his family's textile business prematurely interrupted his ascension to the slopes. Instead he became a skiing instructor whilst still competing at a national level and was crowned Italian Masters Champion in 2001.

At 17 he discovered the world of windsurf, which he could fit in around his commitments during the skiing season. But it was his technical fascination for the rigs, more than his love for the sport, that convinced him to start building his very own custom boards in a workshop next to the family’s textile company in 1982.

Gianni was quick to learn the secrets of building a world class board for the most demanding of athletes, surf and windsurf alike. Hawaii became one of his regular haunts and it was here in 1988 that Cesare and Gianni met. They quickly built up a friendship based on their mutual respect for each other, and later decided to combine their talents in a new project: producing a range of custom boards for Cesare’s renowned 'GLOB-O-TOUR'.

This union created many new opportunities for collaboration with leading surf companies between 1999 and 2008, which meant the partners could produce novel board shapes, a number of which have received international accolades.

In 2001 Gianni started designing the first Kite Boards on the market, and soon he was shaping the boards for the whole surf and wind range (windsurf, surf and kitesurf).

2006 saw Gianni introduce his new toy into the workshop: the first CAD-CAM in Italy for designing, shaping and producing surf-boards and accessories with a numerically controlled CNC milling machine.

However, it is the combined talents and experience of both Cesare and Gianni, recognised and well-respected throughout the surfing world, that make up 99 Custom Boards, a brand that has been 25 years in the making.

Gianni handles the R&D as well as the production side of the business as ACME srl, recalling an old historical personal Custom Boards brand.