One broken board started all of this.
Second Fin is an independent art studio on the Carolina coast, giving retired surfboards a second life as one-of-a-kind pieces.
Renée & the studio
I'm Renée — an artist and lifelong coastal North Carolinian. The studio began the day a favorite board came home from the beach in two pieces: too broken to ride, too full of stories to throw away. Painting it felt better than tossing it. Friends started bringing their boards. Then friends of friends.
Today I take in boards from all over the corridor between the Outer Banks and Wilmington, and every piece is still finished by hand, one board at a time.
Renée
The OBX–Wilmington corridor
Nags HeadHatterasOcracokeTopsailWrightsvilleWilmington
This stretch of coast — Nags Head, Hatteras, Ocracoke, down through Topsail and Wrightsville Beach — has one of the deepest surf cultures on the East Coast. It also produces a steady stream of retired boards.
We arrange drop-offs and pickups along the corridor, so a board's last trip is a short one. If you're nearby-ish, ask — we make runs up and down the coast regularly.
What we believe
Boards are biographies. Every ding and repair happened somewhere, to someone. Our work keeps that history visible instead of sanding it away.
Less landfill, more story. A surfboard is mostly foam and fiberglass — hard to recycle, easy to give a second act.
One at a time. Nothing here is mass-produced. Each piece is a one-of-one, and when it's gone, it's gone.