Hyperlite

In 1991, the first Hyperlite wakeboard board was created, the board was produced by the company HO Sports. HO Sports partnered with surfboard shapers in Hawaii to design and build the first compression molded neutral buoyancy wakeboard, the Hyperlite. The first wakeboard was a 155cm directional board with a three fin configuration and four "phasers" on the bottom of the board. Phasers are circular indentations at the bottom of the board that are meant to soften the landing of the board. This innovation sparked the growth of what is now known as wakeboarding, although it was called skiboard or skurfing at the time. In 1992, two of the first innovators in wakeboarding, Darin Shapiro and Eric Perez, helped design the Hyperlite Pro. This board consisted of more phasers at the bottom of the board and a stronger rocker line. In 1994, Hyperlite became its own separate entity from HO Sports. In 1996, Hyperlite released the first twin tip board in wakeboarding. This allowed riders to more easily steer the shifter and opened the door to new tricks.