Derek Girven

Derek Girven, the shaper and founder of DGS, grew up surfing the South African south coast of Natal before moving to Durban, the talent pool of South African surfing. This is where he started his shaping career, with many of the country's top surfers giving him regular support and feedback. Soon he was consistently shaping boards for these local rippers and earned a reputation as one of the top shapers in South Africa.

Girven earned his wings at Safari surfboards under the supervision of Spider Murphy. After three years at Safari, he traveled to Australia to work with other shapers such as Matt Haymes, Mike Psillakis, Rex Marchel and others. Derek returns annually to shape for some of the biggest surfboard labels in Australia and to keep his knowledge aligned with international trends through feedback from other international surfers. Back in South Africa, he then started shaping Rusty surfboards in conjunction with his own label DGS surfboards.

Girven has produced boards for many of the world's top surfers such as Dylan Lightfoot, Sam Christianson, Greg Emslie, Chris Ward, David Gonzales, Simon Nicholson, Shane Thorne, Paul Canning, and many other top surfers.

DGS surfboards can now be found in the water as far afield as: Reunion, Dubai, Spain, Italy, Norway, Mauritius, Canary Islands, UK and Australia.