Colombia-born, California-raised, Bali-based FLKLR founder Mar Cubillos keeps a low profile — actually, low key is an understatement, if he wasn’t forced by commercial imperative to expose himself (if you will), this page would remain blank.
But FLKLR needs to tell its own story so here goes…
Name: Mar Cubillos
Date of Birth: April 24
Home Break: Pleasure Point, CA
FLKLR board of choice: Tough one… I’d say it’s between the MarMar and the Messy Tessi, but again, the Nuki is so much fun too…
Instagram: @marpixel
From Mar
I was born in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, but I must have ended up there by mistake — Bogota is freaking cold and 8,000 feet above Ocean level.
It's a beautiful brick jungle, but I always felt disconnected... Not a huge fan of big cities, unless is Tokyo.
First time on a board
The first time I surfed was as a kid on a wooden door in San Andrés island, on the Caribbean side of Colombia. There were a couple of guys on the island who had boards but they were notoriously dickheads so we didn’t want to ask to borrow theirs. We stuffed the door knob with rags duct taped any exposed holes, then sanded the edges.
It was like riding a Cadillac with no steering wheel...
California
At 15, I left Colombia to live in California and that’s where I really got into surfing. I met Legend Johnny Rice RIP, the first native American shaper, he made my first log and I watched him shape it. Ever since then I fell in love with the fact that you can just take this piece of foam and just turn it into something you enjoy so much. Michel Junod is also a huge inspiration. He is such a stylish surfer and shaper. I learned a lot about surfing from CJ Nelson, Matt Tanner and other Pleasure Point locals.
I was constantly being pushed to surf better and better by those around me. I competed in longboard contests between 1999 and 2001, I was sponsored by brands like O’Neill Int, Pearson Arrow and Surftech, but in 2001 I quit because I didn’t like some of the negative elements of competitive surfing, and I didn’t enjoy "having" to surf.