In the surfing world, Matt Biolos is a household name. Every surfer is familiar with Matt’s brand, his boards, shops, films, personality, and innovations. Co-founder/shaper/designer of Lost Surfboards, Matt “Mayhem” Biolos is regarded as one of the top shapers globally, and recently won the WSL Championship Tour “Shaper Rankings.” This means pro surfers on the WSL tour who ride Lost placed higher throughout the year than surfers from any other board brand. Surfers like Griffin and Crosby Colapinto, Caroline Marks, Carissa Moore, Erin Brooks, Yago Dora and many more lead the charge with top placings to earn Mayhem this coveted award.
In the snowboarding world, Matt might be slightly lesser known but has been making his mark over the last thirteen years with his signature Mayhem board line with LIB Tech. More recently, Matt expanded his footprint by collaborating with Dakine to create the Mayhem x Dakine snow line to include a backpack, board bag, glove and beanie. We had a chance to get a word in with Matt recently in San Clemente, CA to learn more about his latest exploits.
—Jeff Baker
How did your relationship with Dakine begin?
I’ve had good relationships with key people at Dakine for decades, specifically, the core Hawaiian crew from Maui who drove marketing and design. Mike Madlener was a key part of the brand and friend for ages. Micah Nikens ran the team and we overlapped athlete sponsorships forever. Recently, Shane Wallace had a stint running key divisions at DK. We grew up in the same town. He invited me on a DK company cat boarding trip to BC and really the collab was his idea. His team embraced it and we were off!
Dakine has always been a brand dedicated to making top of the line surf and snowboarding products. It must have been an easy decision to collab with them?
Absolutely! It was a no-brainer, especially considering these are categories where I have a passion but not the resources to build ourselves. I wanted to leave it with the experts but still have creative freedom to bring our twist to it. With all our collabs, we strive to be with a clear category leader. Period!
-LIB-Tech for snowboards (12 years)
-CARVER for surfskates (8 years)
-Catch Surf for soft surfboards (7 years)
Did Dakine allow you to select the models (Heli Pro, Crossfire, etc)?
Yes. I feel the Heli-Pro just covers all the bases. It’s the bag I use for everything. Splitting, pow surfing, sledding, cat days or even just carrying snacks and extra gear around for the kids. This first winter line was kinda last minute and we only had time to develop the spring glove but next season we have a bomber storm day mitt coming.
How was it working with Dakine’s product design team?
Nate Shute is my main contact there. He’s a sweetheart but there’s a solid crew in design. Talented and humble guys. We did a BC cat trip together and they also came down to San Clemente to hang at our surfboard operation as well as Mammoth. I’ve been up to their place in Los Angeles multiple times to work on product and marketing as well. That’s what makes things like this real.
Drew Brophy did the graphics for the line. How did you end up selecting Drew as the artist?
Ya know, Shane (Wallace) and I wanted to make an impact, not chase sales or play the middle road. We wanted the line to stand out a bit visually from the rest of the Dakine line. I believe collab projects should be icing on the cake for the manufacturing side of things (Dakine, in this case) and a creative expression/extension for the licensing brand (Mayhem).
There seemed no better artist to hit that mark than Drew. He and I have been connected at the hips since the mid-‘90s. His art has been synonymous with my boards for almost 30 years. Shane was a big fan as well and Drew was motivated. It was perfect timing because Drew had been doing the art for our “Rocket” Snowboard the last couple seasons so we used the same art which I believe creates synergy through our snow story.
Considering you have a Heli Pro in your line, you have any heli trips lined up this winter?
Haha. No, I don’t. But I have multiple cat trips lined up and we run around the back and sidecountry in Mammoth all season long. I enjoy pow surfing with my son and friends, a bit of splitboarding and we also have a sled in the garage which i don’t use enough.
Are you seeing more surfers getting into snowboarding these days and vice versa?
I am! And the influence of directional “surf” style snowboarding has also exploded. You have to give credit to the Japanese guys for being a spark that ignited the movement. Then I did the deal with LIB at the same time my buddy Chris Christenson did deal with Jones. 13 years ago we helped usher our directional, turn-focused boards with heavy surf influence at a time when snowboards of that shape were pretty invisible. A decade later, they are everywhere and every brand are making them. They’re just so fun to ride!
Who is the ideal customer for your product line?
Anyone who demands a functional quality product and prefers to fly a bit of the freak flag to stand out graphically. That and of course people who know and appreciate the Mayhem Surfboard shaping label and all the fun things we have focused on in surf and snow.
Do you see your line with Dakine expanding in the future?
Yes. There’s a significant surf line coming in spring ’25. Then a larger snow line with new art for winter ‘25/26 and another surf line for spring ‘26. As long as its fun for the people involved and received well by the snowboarding community and surfers at large, we hope to continue.
