It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Pio Marasco, the longtime driving force behind MFC Hawaii – Maui Fin Company, watersports innovator, designer and highly respected member of the Maui ocean community.
Pio lost his battle with cancer, leaving behind family, friends and an enormous community of watermen and women whose lives he touched over several decades.
Pio was part of the Maui watersports community that we have followed for many years, and when Foiling was still in its early stages, we had the opportunity to visit him and tell the story of what he and his team were working on.
Looking back today, that story was another chapter in a much bigger life dedicated to innovation on the water.
FROM ITALY TO MAUI
Pio’s story on Maui began around 1989/1990, when the young Italian from Naples arrived on the island at only 18 years old. He had grown up with Windsurfing and followed a dream shared by many young windsurfers of that generation: move to Hawaii and live close to the ocean.
Unlike most people who dream about it, Pio actually did it.
Maui Fin Company had already been established in 1986. Pio initially started at the bottom, working as an assistant, sweeping the shaping-room floor and packing fins. He learned the craft from the inside out and eventually invested his savings into the company, becoming an owner and developing into the creative force most people in the watersports world would later associate with MFC.
His lack of a traditional engineering background never stopped him. Instead, Maui became his laboratory.
PUSHING FIN DESIGN FORWARD
During the early 1990s, MFC became one of the pioneers in using CNC technology for fin production, bringing a new level of precision to fin design.
Pio went on to work with some of the greatest names in Windsurfing, Surfing, SUP and Big Wave riding. Over the years, MFC products were used by athletes including Björn Dunkerbeck, Jason Polakow, Josh Stone, Dave Kalama, Laird Hamilton, Kai Lenny, Francisco Goya, Levi Siver, Marcilio Browne and many others.
One particularly important chapter came during the development of Tow Surfing at Pe‘ahi – Jaws in the 1990s. MFC worked with Dave Kalama, Laird Hamilton, Darrick Doerner and the Strapped crew and became an early developer of aluminum tow fins specifically for Jaws.
Another milestone came in 1999, when Pio developed the short Style Master freestyle fin together with Josh Stone. The shorter design helped open the door to new rotational Windsurfing moves, and Stone went on to win the 1999 Freestyle World Championship using it.
MFC would eventually become associated with dozens of World Championship titles across Windsurfing, Stand Up Paddling, Surfing and Kitesurfing.
EARLY INTO FOILING
Pio was never someone who simply protected what had worked in the past.
When Hydrofoiling began emerging as the next major development in watersports, he recognized its potential early. Around 2016, MFC began its own foil development and introduced the Hydros foil program.
This was also when we at the Stand Up Magazin crossed paths with Pio for one of our stories.
At the time, nobody really knew just how big Foiling would eventually become. SUP Foiling, Wingfoiling, Downwind Foiling and eventually Parawing had not yet developed into the sports and industries we know today.
But Pio was already experimenting.
That curiosity was typical of him. Whether it was a Windsurfing fin, a Big Wave fin, a SUP fin or a Hydrofoil, the question was always the same: How can we make it work better?
As part of a story in our print magazine in 2021, we met with Pio talking about the development of foils and they are designed. This video remains a witness of a time when started to take off and MFC was at the forefront.
MAUI WAS MORE THAN A HEADQUARTERS
What made Pio special was not only the products he designed.
He was part of Maui.
For decades, the island was his home, workshop, testing ground and community. MFC operated out of the Pawela Cannery in Haiku, and Pio was known for personally talking with riders, listening to their feedback and testing products himself.
Even after decades in the business, that connection remained.
When MFC supported the return of the Maui Pro-Am in 2025, Pio explained that giving back to the community that had become his life and family was a privilege. He spoke about events as places where the community comes together, experiences are shared and the next generation becomes inspired.
Those words probably say more about Pio than any list of products or World Championship titles ever could.
A NEW CHAPTER WITH FCS
After nearly four decades as an independent Maui company, MFC entered another major chapter when it was acquired by the parent company of FCS.
Pio remained involved in research and development, seeing the partnership as an opportunity to combine MFC’s decades of experience with FCS technology and continue pushing product development forward.
Even while battling cancer, Pio continued designing, working with MFC and FCS and staying involved in the projects that had defined so much of his life. His family described someone who remained remarkably positive and continued doing what he loved despite an extremely difficult diagnosis and treatment.
MAHALO, PIO
People like Pio Marasco are an important reminder that the watersports industry is ultimately much more than brands, products and sales numbers.
It is built by people.
People who spend countless hours shaping, testing, failing, changing something and testing again. People who stand at the beach talking with athletes. People who believe in an idea long before anybody knows whether there will ever be a market for it.
Pio was one of those people.
For us at the Stand Up Magazin, we are grateful that our own path crossed with his and that we had the opportunity to document a small part of his work during those exciting earlier days of Foiling.
Our thoughts are with Pio’s family, his friends, the MFC team and everyone in the Maui watersports community who was close to him.
The ocean community on Maui has lost one of its innovators and one of its own.
Mahalo for everything, Pio.
Rest in peace.