Board Shack Bourbon

We’re on a mission to elevate your whisky experience!

Only available in California.

PREORDER BOARD SHACK BOURBON

Please check back, we are coordinating shipping to additional states.

TASTING NOTES: Caramel, vanilla, fruit, dried fruit, slightly candied, slight spice.

AROMA: Vanilla, caramel, dried fruit, cream. Light rye spice in the finish.

Mash Bill for Bourbon (21% Rye)

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BARLEY MALT

The Story of Our Bourbon

When I rolled into Camp Pendleton in the mid-90s to kick off my Marine Corps enlistment, I found more than just a duty station—I found waves. DMJ’s and Church became my haunts, the local surf breaks where I’d paddle out whenever I could. Talking with lifeguards and salty old-timers, I heard whispers of the Military Surfing Championships—a pre-Desert Storm legend that vanished after the war. I couldn’t shake the thought: how do we bring that back?

It started small. A ragtag crew of young enlisted Marines and officers, we’d hit the lineup at dawn before work, sneak in lunch sessions, or catch evening glass before crashing at the barracks or heading home to our families. Those early rides bonded us. Soon, weekend meetups turned into something official—a club—and before long, we were hosting our own All-Military surf contests. Five of them rolled through between 2005-2006 and 2014-2015, lighting up DMJ’s and Church with boards, cheers, and camaraderie. But the Marine life—deployments, orders, constant moves—put the club into hibernation, tucked away like a stashed quiver.

Years later, after 23 years in the Corps (mostly at Pendleton) and five years into retirement, my buddy Carlos wouldn’t let it die. “Get it going again,” he’d prod. So, in 2020, post-COVID, I did. I built a website, revamped our apparel, fired up social media, and relaunched the club. Since then, we’ve kept the stoke alive—monthly surf meetups at our breaks, quarterly gatherings with local businesses, and volunteer gigs at surf camps for disabled kids and veterans.

By 2023, our All-Military surf contests were roaring back, but so were the costs. Entry fees climbed, and we were dipping into our own pockets to keep it going. Charging active-duty troops or vets $200 to compete? No way—that wasn’t us. We needed a new play.

In the summer of 2024, our club president headed to Louisville, Kentucky, for a Marine brother’s birthday. Touring distilleries, he soaked in the bourbon scene—barrels, mash, the whole deal—scribbling notes about scale and craft. A couple months later, we pitched a fundraiser idea to Nicholas Hammond at Pacific Coast Spirits. His response stopped us cold: “Why don’t you make your own bourbon?”

That lit a fire. We dug into research, scraped together startup cash, pulled the design from our last contest for labels, and got to work bottling. The result? Board Shack Bourbon—our first batch, with every dime funding our contests to keep the burden off our surfers. It’s just the beginning. Every four months, we’ll drop a new military-surf-inspired spirit, blending tales of our crew, our breaks, and our service. Think double-barrel blends, tequila-bourbon hybrids aged in wine barrels—wild stuff, all with Pacific Coast Spirits.

These bottles aren’t just booze—they’re stories in liquid form, meant to be cracked open and shared coast to coast. For those who’ve surfed and served at Pendleton, pour one out and let the memories crash in: carving long rights and lefts at Church, Hueys and Cobras thumping overhead, prepping for deployments, or raising a glass to the brothers and sisters who didn’t make it home. That’s the soul of it—surfing and service, two tides that pull us together and make life richer.

So here’s to you: grab a bottle, share the stoke, and toast to the waves and the warriors with your crew.

Cheers.
– Eric Franklin