Dan Mann is riding
a surfing sea change. Two years ago, Australia's Firewire Surfboards
saw the chance to expand when the company that made 90 percent of the
world's board blanks shut down. Firewire set up shop in Cardiff, Calif.
— and asked Mann to produce boards from more durable, eco-friendly
materials. "Our boards are 30 percent lighter than stuff in the past,"
the 34-year-old Mann says. "And they're still stronger."