The Search for Freedom Page #2

they go, "Oh, God, poor guy."

The high school I went to had 3,000

kids, and I was the only surfer.

- And where was that?

- That was in Long Beach.

In 1959, the movie "Gidget" came out,

and surfing went from just a small

amount of surfers, trace amount,

to several million by '63.

The Endless Summer came out in 1964,

'65, and opened in Kansas City.

And there were guys driving cars around

with surfboards sticking out the trunk

that had never seen the ocean.

"Endless Summer"

showed the rest of the world

what surfing was really like,

and it was correct

for the people that were in it.

It entertained a general audience

who didn't know

anything about the sport.

It's just a home movie.

You just shoot it,

and then when you get home,

you look at the footage and edit it.

But that's what I'd always done.

We shot, edited, narrated,

not because I thought I was good at it.

It was the only one I could afford

that would work for 50 cents an hour.

Every time a new movie would

come out, you'd go to the opening,

and it was a gathering of the clan.

What the surfers found in them

that was so compelling

was what other good surfers looked

like, what they were doing.

So they were the basic form

of communication.

And the surf magazines came along

in the early '60s,

and it was the beginning

of the lifestyle culture.

It was the first time

they'd had a language

and a dress code and behavior

that left where you did it

and was taken to school,

or wherever you went.

And then the funny thing

about surfing is,

is that it spawned skateboarding.

And then skateboarding urbanized

and came back and influenced surfing.

So there's all kinds

of cultural cross-pollination.

The clothing industry caught hold

in the early '70s,

and this thing went ballistic.

If you were to ask me back

then if we were going to have

the largest surf-skate-snow

industry company ever,

I'd tell you, no, not a chance, no way.

It's really not about any one person,

never has been.

I always call myself just a humble

board short maker so here we are.

Let's talk a little bit about you.

OK.

I lived in a little house in Newport.

We had no money.

I had a Volkswagen van. That was

our biggest asset in the company.

At least we could drive around

and make things happen.

I had no business being in business.

I had no idea how to start something.

I thought my business experience would

be to just go to work for somebody

and get a paycheck and learn.

So we really had to make it up

as we went along,

just driving around town all day long

finding fabric, Velcro, snaps.

We'd get about 24 pairs

out of production every day.

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