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BEACH & BAY PRESS, Thursday, May 20, 1999 - Business Section

McIntyre Makes A Cool Career Designing Her Own Surfboards Point Loma surfboard designer Shannon Payne-McIntyre is no Gidget. McIntyre founded her own company, Shannon Surfboards, approximately 18 months ago at the age of 22, and she custom-designs and hand paints surfboards which sell in California surfshops for $400-$500. According to her, the business has grown out of her two great passions: surfing and painting.

"At Point Loma Nazarene College, I was a studio art and graphic design major," McIntyre said. "I've always had the attraction for surfing. As a very young child, I would go with my Uncle Bob surfing, and when I was about 16, I started to go every day. I feel like an athlete when I'm out there. Being in the ocean is always something challenging. I don't really relate to the whole beach-blanket, bebop thing."

McIntyre got her start at a Point Loma Nazarene College senior art show, when she made her first surfboard. The students responded to her work enthusiastically: "I started getting orders from my girlfriends, then people around the local area, so I decided to make a difference from it." She shapes the boards from foam planks using carpenters' tools, then paints on images at her customer' requests. Those range from vivid floral designs to sea turtles to giraffes. Her travels inspire the pictorials.

"About nine months ago, I got a part-time position at American Airlines as a flight attendant," McIntyre said. "I'm so happy - it's the only way I could support the surfing and the travel addiction. So now I'm back, and I have board orders to get accomplished for the summer. Since I started, the women's surf subculture has exploded. I hope I can inspire more to take the plunge.

"Locally, McIntyre like to surf Sunset Cliffs, Windansea and Black's Beach. Her favorite spot is the Caribbean, but she has also surfed in such exotic locales as Tonga, West Samoa, Costa Rica and Sumbawa. "San Diego is really unique, though" she said. "I grew up here." The biggest break she's surfed was at

Dunemere's, just north of WindanSea, when it was 20 feet. McIntyre has been interviewed in "Surfing Magazine," "Cosmopolitan," "Surfer," "Slamm," "Wahine," and on the CBS Morning News during a segment on women in the surf industry. She attributes her big break, however, to being featured on the Levi's Website in a you-culture "webumentary."

By, Steve Macy