Born and raised on Long Island, Mark Petrocelli grew up on the water. With a fondness for the sea he became an avid boater and fisherman by early adolescence and naturally progressed into a relatively well -rounded waterman. At the age of 16 Mark began surfing competitively in ESA/NY contests going as far as to take the state title one season a few years later. After high school Mark moved down South to and continued honing his competition skills in the more competitive ESA/CFL district. During his competitive stint he rode for two different local board builders at various times, all the while working closely with each of the two shapers to come up with the highest-performance shapes to suit Mark's needs for the various wave conditions he encountered. It was here where his passion for knowledge of board designs really began. Competition pushed him to stay in tune with how each subtle change in a board's shape would deliver various results and in turn, how it would help him improve his all-around performance while sliding across the surface of the water in his everyday free-surfing.

Always a student of good board design, Mark pushed to keep himself in-tune with the latest advances in surfing technology and this ultimately brought him to his longtime friend and shaper, AJ Finan of Cannibal Surfboards. The two shared a passion for performance progression and Mark began working alongside AJF, changing rockers, concave, and measurements, implementing new and different ideas while attempting to come with the best designs for the breaks they frequently surfed.

Mark being a naturally creative person was quite a 'doodler' with a pen in his hand but never really thought much of this skill as he was under the impression intricate scribbling on a sketchpad was something everyone did while talking on the phone. His friends thought otherwise and recognized an untapped talent and pushed him to harness this ability to be used in a more practical manner. In 1996 he brought his creative skills to Cannibal and became actively involved in the brand development of the label working on t-shirt and logo designs. At the same time he learned how to airbrush and became one of Cannibal's leading surfboard artists. But Mark wasn't satisfied as just simply being a member of the artistic team. He grew anxious as he had a burning desire to have more involvement in the complete surfboard building process. Mark watched and learned the basics from some of the best board builders in the Central Florida region on how to properly set fins, glass, and sand boards until his grasp on these smaller, yet very important aspects to the complete surfboard were solid enough to where he was producing solid, ready-for-showroom, results. What had once been a passion for performance surfing was now extended into a passion for the art of surfboard construction and in the grand scheme of things he was "paying his dues" on the path leading to surfboard shaping.

After years of living and working in Florida he eventually grew tired of waiting weeks and even sometimes months for a waist-high bump to appear so he traded the boardshorts for wetsuit rubber and returned back to New York hoping to be able to get in the water more than once or twice a month. Up North, a few of the local surfboard manufacturers employed Mark's skills to implement his knowledge and know-how into the basis of the structure of their own product. "Natures Shapes" happened to be one of the local New York labels that employed Mark's craftsmanship to make a better surfboard. Continuing on his path, Mark needed a place to massage himself into the next, much bigger phase of the complete board building process. He wanted to shape. He found comfort under the continued support and encouragement of Nature Shapes' owner and shaper, Mike Becker to make that next big step and he began shaping himself surfboards. It was here where Mark gained guidance and insight on how to shape better boards for himself and after many attempts and much practice he began finally to shape foam to his satisfaction. It wasn't before long that friends started to take notice of Mark's creations and began requesting him to produce shapes for them.

In March 2006 Mark decided it was time to take his knowledge and skills from his 20 years of East Coast surfing experience to the next phase by bringing birth to his next endeavor of his own label, FAKTION SURFBOARDS. Mark has set out to make FAKTION a brand known for it's custom surfboards forged of the highest quality materials and craftsmanship. All with the goal of taking board building in the Northeast to the next level.

Mark's approach to board building is a marriage of old school techniques and modern technology. Mark believes that it is this philosophy what will push FAKTION forward with continued and increased popularity in the future. Where many shapers are trying to keep up with increased demand by the use of mass-producing machined processes, Faktion remains true to it's roots as a member of a dying class of surfboard labels where every stage of surfboard production is done entirely by Mark. This includes shaping, laminating, glossing, sanding, polishing, air brushing, and pin-lining. It's this attention to detail given by an individual in lieu of machine that separates Faktion from some of the bigger companies that have sacrificed conventional practices switching to assembly-line processes to cut costs and keep up with demand. Where quality control is sometimes passed on to the next guy, Mark takes absolute control in assuring that his vision is realized through his own personal attention.

If you are interested in a board company that puts its knowledge, heart and soul into every aspect of the art of board building, then join the Faktion group and be part of process to bring your design to life.