Rodney ‘Weasel’ Bedford has a long career in building surfboards, predominately in South Australia. He has made boards over the years for many renowned surfers including Dion Agius, Jarrod Howse, Dion Atkinson, Mark Matthews, Josh Lock, and Brian “Squizzy” Taylor to name a few.

Rodney’s father, Rod Bedford Snr, and his uncles, Bert and Jim Bedford, were the original board builders in South Australia in 1959-60. They started making and repairing surf skis in 1957. Rodney started working at Jaybee Surfboards when he left school in 1967 and shaped his first surfboard in late 1968. Jaybee had started moving away from surfboard building around this time and were moving toward more industrial fibreglass work.

Rodney worked at Jaybee until 1974, but still made surfboards during this period in the family shed at home. In 1974 Rodney started making boards for his friend, Peter Victorsen, whom he had originally started surfing with and had just opened a surf shop near Adelaide. Sunrise Surfboards was the brand name and was very successful, but the travel bug got to him and with his partner, Christine, and fellow Sunrise board-builder Dave Kelly, ventured around Australia. They ended up in Byron Bay, working for Sky Surfboards. Rodney’s friend Dave stayed in Byron when Rodney and Christine moved back to South Australia and started Lipstix Surfboards in December, 1978.

It was in January, 1983, that Rodney quit Lipstix to move to Cactus on the West Coast of South Australia, but they had planned a trip to Tassie to catch up with friends first. It was during this trip that Rodney built several boards for Indian Pacific Surfboards, who had surf shops in Devonport and Penguin, on the North-West Coast of Tassie. From Tassie they moved to Cactus where Rodney made surfboards for Gravelle Surfboards in Penong for two years, then back to Adelaide, where Cutloose Surfboards started.

Cutloose lasted for 25 years and dominated the South Australian surfboard industry throughout the late 80s, 90’s and early 2000s. Rodney started 100 Percent Surfboards in 2010. He is still involved part time, but his son, Tom Bedford, is running it now as a rare third generation surfboard builder having been involved since 2015.

All processes are done in-house from design, shaping, glassing, sanding, and artwork by Rod and Tom and we continue to build boards under the Cutloose, Lipstix, Rip ‘n’ Tear, Sunrise and Jaybee brands. With knowledge going back to the introduction of foam blanks at the end of the 50s, we bring 3 generations of expertise to specialise in custom surfboard design. This ensures our customers get the most out of their surfboards in terms of functionality and historical authenticity, throughout a range of designs that span multiple generations of surfboard knowledge geared towards South Australian waves.