Keyo is steeped in historical significance and it's no accident that the name & culture have survived. 

In 1957 a young Denny Keogh started shaping surfboards from a garage and in 1959 officially opened the Keyo Surfboard factory & retail shop in the Northern Beaches suburb of Brookvale, Sydney. A neighbourhood that quickly became the nations surfboard manufacturing hub.

Midget Farrelly; winner of the 1963 Makaha international, was the first surfboard shaper brought in to help with the workload. Denny in fact shaped the board that Midget rode to victory in the first World Surfing Championships, held at Manly Beach in 1964.

Bob McTavish joined Keyo in 1967 where he shaped his Vee bottoms, wide-backed nine footers - which in part kicked off the shortboard revolution. The McTavish designed ‘Keyo Plastic Machine’ vee bottom models were soon selling at the astonishing rate of 70 per week.

During its early tenure other high profile shapers to work under the Keyo label consisted of Kevin Platt, Neil Purchase, Geoff McCoy, Col Smith, Phil Cooper and the legendary Mickey Mac.

In 1968 Nat Young came on board with his high profile to which produced another popular model; the Tracker. Later that year, sadly the Keyo factory burnt to the ground but was quickly re-opened in the premises behind the gutted factory.

In 1972, things were fast-changing and Denny acquired the Hobie Cat franchise to begin building catamarans. By 1974 the production of Keyo surfboards stopped, giving way to the high demand of the popular Hobie Cat.

Fast-forward to the mid 90's and a young Johnny Gill married Denny's daughter Vanessa - and has been producing boards under the Keyo label ever since. With a respected following, Keyo Surfboards are once again in demand.