Pio Marasco pitched-up on Maui to follow his ocean-loving dreams back in the early 90s. After lucking into a job sanding fins he rose to become a partner in and eventually outright owner of a brand that’s won more than 12 World Titles and supplies a bunch of the top board brands’ fins. But, as they celebrate 25-years in business, Maui Fin Company (MFC) and their team remain as humble as their beginnings. Pio explains the path to enlightenment.

Good ‘Ol Days
I went to Maui for a vacation back in 1990 and fell in love with the island. I was 18 and hungry for the good life. My longtime friend Claudio, who has a windsurfing shop back in Naples, used to come here every year for the Aloha classic and persuaded me to follow the lifestyle and get more involved with the sport.

The MFC shop was in the Pauwela Cannery in Haiku - and it still is today! I swept the floor, packed fins, cleaned-up and then got ‘promoted’ to do the wet-sanding and finishing! The next year I started shaping and finishing the first CNC-shaped fins for Dunkerbeck, Anders Bringdal, Alex Aguera and Robby Seeger until in 1994 Scott, my boss, asked me to become his partner. I went into a 50/50 deal and in 1996 I bought him out. Scott was tired, he’d been doing it since founding it in 1986. After that we signed Josh Stone and started working with QUATRO, Francisco Goya, Sean Ordonez and  Keith Teboul making all the QUATRO Fins and pushing all the CNC racing fin developments. It was great time, and still is.