With Southern California’s once emerging surf
subculture now seemingly well past the point of
complete saturation, it’s tempting to take a nostalgic
look back to those simpler one-fin times of the late
1950’s and early 60’s at surf Meccas such as Malibu
and San Onofre.
Los Angeles-based clothing designer Kio Inagaki is
especially fascinated with this time period because
of its “refined style and uniqueness—a time before
all the mass-production and commercialism, when
surfers were riding their locally shaped boards and
wearing clothes made in the USA.” Inagaki’s Yellow
Rat label is inspired by clothing worn by early
members of the WindAnSea Surf Club along with
legendary surfers Phil Edwards and Lance Carson.
Speaking of Edwards and Carson, their surfboards
are on display at the Surfing Heritage Foundation
in San Clemente--which houses over 150 surfboards
and serves to illustrate the evolution of surfboard
design. The collection contains Simmons, Quiggs,
Kivlins, Velzys, Brewers and includes boards ridden
by the likes of Gerry Lopez, Duke Kahanamoku and
numerous other legends of the sport. Also on display
is a shaping shack built with wood from the late
Dale Velzy’s old fence. It’s filled with Velzy’s tools
and a balsa blank rough shaped by him.
Up and coming San Clemente-based shaper Donald
Brink recently visited Velzy’s shaping shack where
he felt an “incredible appreciation for [Velzy’s]
dedication to custom-built wooden boards—it was
so much more of a labor of love back in those days.”
Brink’s appreciation also stems from his personal
experience shaping balsa wood surf craft inspired
by the finless hot curl boards from the early ‘50’s.
For his Revolver label, Brink looks at retro concepts
for inspiration and builds user-friendly boards for the
modern surfer. “There is definitely a trend right now
where people are riding classic and retro boards
without shame. You can go down to San Onofre
today and watch kids drawing elegant lines with the
class and style of the forefathers of surfing.”
One such forefather is Walter Viszolay from Laguna
Beach who started surfing in 1961, and now at 61
years old, still shapes and rides his own wooden
longboards. “Being a surfer back then when not
many people were doing it was really special. Things
have changed now, but I still manage to find places
that aren’t crowded where I can enjoy surfing similar
to how it was back then—with my son Eli—now.”
And so it goes—the spirit of surf stoke gets passed
along to the next generation.—Gabe Sullivan
