About the Founder: Neal Sumner
Hi, and welcome to Little House Surf. I’m Neal, and surfing has been my life since the day I turned
eight years old. My first board was a tiny hollow Hansen 5’1” Stratoglass, and from the moment I
stood up on it, I was hooked. Surfing didn’t just capture my attention, it became a part of my DNA.
Even now, nothing stokes me more than watching someone else light up in the water. Friends tell
me I bring fun to every session, and honestly, that’s the best compliment I could ever get.
By the time I was 20, I was so immersed in surf culture that I opened a little shop in Burlington,
North Carolina, four hours inland. The bank thought I’d lost it, but I trusted my gut. It was 1980,
just as surfing’s popularity was about to explode, and against all odds, that tiny shop grew into
five stores. Kids came from all over, and even the big department stores admitted: no one could
compete with the vibe we had. It was a wild, unforgettable ride.
That experience taught me to trust my instincts. Like when I ordered my first pair of Ugg boots
straight from Australia after spotting an ad in SURFER magazine in the late ’70s. I wore them with
shorts and eventually stocked them in my shop for $150 a pair. Crazy at the time, but right on the
money.
Decades of surfing also taught me something else: no matter how many boards you own, you’re
always wishing you had the other one with you. That frustration lit the spark for my latest work,
designing a hull that could unlock performance and stoke for every surfer, from the so-called
“kooks” to the pros.
I poured years of research and experimentation into it. What I discovered was pure magic: a
convex “V hull” with twin concave channels tucked inside. Cheyne Horan’s surfing always
inspiredme, but I saw the limitations in his single V-shaped hull. My design solved them, adding
drive,speed, and flow that opened up new possibilities in performance. I still believe if Cheyne
had ridden this version, history books might read a little differently.
In 2016, that dream design made its way into the hands of Kelly Slater himself. Thanks to a little help from Shaun Tomson, Bill Johnson, and Mark Price, one of my boards was glassed overnight and passed along to Kelly. At first it sat untouched, and I figured that was the end of the story . . . until I learned Kelly finally rode it at the Surf Ranch. Not only did he ride it, he was ripping beyond his norm. That board never came back to me, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Fast forward: Firewire released a similar shape in 2019. In 2024, Slater Designs launched the S-Boss, the Boss Up, and added the same hull into their high-performance shortboards. Hearing Dan Mann himself rave about the hull’s magic confirmed what I already knew: this design works. Sure, I was naïve not to protect it. But the truth is, I’m proud that what I created has helped shape the future of surfboard design, and I’ll always take that as the highest compliment.
From there, the mission grew: to engineer a modular board system that could transform into any board you need: shortboard, midsize, funboard, or longboard. After years of trial and error, in 2024 I cracked it. Along the way, I even stumbled into a radical new fin design that grips the wave face like crampons on ice while lifting and driving with insane speed. No gimmick, just another step forward in surf evolution.
Little House Surf is more than a brand, it’s my lifelong dream becoming real. Every curve, every innovation, every session has led to this moment. And the best part? I get to share it with you.
— Neal​
