At this point, you will find external content that complements the article. You can display and hide it with a click.
Pio Marasco, who was born in Italy, came to Maui in 1990 and started out as an assistant to the company’s founder, Scot Dickinson, at the Maui Fin Company. “I swept the floor in the shaping room and wrapped fins in cling film,” Pio told us in an interview last year. “In 1994, I invested my savings in MFC and bought half the shares from Scott Dickinson, who had co-founded the company in 1986.” MFC quickly made a name for itself; many top riders such as Björn Dunkerbeck, Anders Bringdal, Robby Seeger and the West Team Germany, as well as Maui locals like Josh Stone, Jason Polakow and others, rode their fins.
The Maui Fin Company has close ties with Goya and Quatro, but other brands such as Tabou also fit MFC fins as standard on their boards. Last year, the brand was acquired by FCS. With team riders such as Marcilio Browne and Kai Lenny, Pio continued to develop fins even whilst he was ill.
There has been an outpouring of sympathy from the surfing community: “I’m lost for words when it comes to describing Pio properly or explaining just how deeply this affects me, but if you knew him, THEN YOU KNOW. So much respect and love for this man, whom we will never forget – a genuine soul and a larger-than-life personality,” wrote the photography duo Fish Bowl Diaries on Instagram. Kai Lenny wrote: “It’s always hard to lose a good friend. Pio was one of a kind; he was there for so many people in his life. I’ll never forget you!”
“I’m just so grateful that I got to know you, Pio!” wrote Sarah Hauser. “You always had a thousand things to do, but you were always so warm-hearted. Even before your cancer diagnosis, you had this wisdom about life, this effortless, balanced way of caring deeply for others whilst never forgetting to laugh and not taking things too seriously.” surf magazine has also joined in expressing its condolences.
