For most of us, surfing is a passion.
For Bruce Fowler, surfing has been a lifelong passion, a career, a lifestyle that has
provided for other surfer’s passions and a lifesaver for himself.
Check the beaver tail flying high at Sands, summertime, mid 70’s.
Bruce grew up surfing the beaches of Goleta. He has a book full of memories of surfing
perfect Haskells summer wind swells and sleeping on the beach by a campfire.
He remembers when Cappy Petterson and his brother Kurt first showed up at
Haskells, after moving here from Palos Verdes. Cappy was a hot little grom with a 5′
twinfin and rumour had it he’d won every contest he ever entered.
Fowler and the Talley boys were the guys that started calling the inside break at
Naples “Seals”. He used to stash a board and a sleeping bag in a trash bag up the
ravine and just stay up there and surf for a few days at a time.
Bruce at Depressions.
Back in the day, they drove in and parked by the railroad tracks and ate ears of corn
right off the stalk at Naples. Then some out of towners ran a cow off the cliff and killed it,
prompting the ranchers to cut of access, even though the Radon brothers offered to
compensate them for it.
Bruce switchfoot in a thick unnamed barrel.
Fowler started surfing at sandbar in 1959. His first board was a hand me down from his
big brother’s friend, Roland Bergin.
Roland was driving home from surfing at the Haskells pier, when sundowners blew his
10’2″ Greg Noll off the roof. Roland lived in one of the row houses up by Naples, because
his dad worked for the oil company. The board twirleybirded in the strong winds for a
long ways and landed in a ravine they used as a dump site. A couple of feet were broken
off the nose, it had about 40 dings, and the fin was nowhere to be found. This was
Bruce’s first board, a major reshape. When he was done with it, it was an 8’3″ with a
wood skeg his brother made in wood shop at La Colina. Sweet!
This was Bruce’s first real shaping room, 1972.
By this time, he was a full blown shaper. Over the years, he’s shaped for Clyde
Beatty, O’neil, Puu when he owned Morning Star, Owl, (he ran Surf”n’Wear for
almost ten years), Northshore in Hawaii, Oregon, Viking, his own label, the
Surfing Underground, and many others.
Here’s a sampling of boards Bruce has shaped through the years.
As soon as Bruce graduated, he and a friend named Joe Mickey opened their own surf
shop at 17 years old! It was on Tecolote Street in Old Town Goleta and it was called the
Bahne/William Dennis shop. The Bahne boards were a huge overnight success. They
were the first full downrailed boards with natural rocker. Cutting edge stuff at the time.
Mike Hynson, of Endless Summer fame, on a winter swell at Rincon, 1970
Mike had come up from Encinitas to promote his boards, and to get some of this swell.
Another shot of Hynson at Rincon on the same swell.
Mike Hynson and John Bradbury influenced Bruce’s shaping more than
anyone else at the time.
Time has taken it’s toll on this photo, but it’s still impresive.
West of Haskells, Bruce and his friends decided to take a break from ab diving and go surfing.
Good call.
This is Shelley Thomas, one of Bruce’s team riders.
She took first place in the NSSA circuit and went pro in the 80’s. Bruce built
her a 4 board quiver and sponsored her to compete in Europe on the Women’s
Pro Tour. Shelley was a strong big wave rider.
Pro rider Shelley Thomas at Sands.
After a couple of years, Bruce had enough of running his own shop, so
he took a 4 month hiatus to surf Central America. Upon his return,
Char Lockerbie asked him to work for Surf’n’wear, which he did from
1972 to 1979. His surfing was featured in most of their ads.
Classic early eighties styles. The red target logo was
Bruce’s. The surfer is Terry Brennan and the photo was
taken by Baron Spafford which he used in his calendar.
This was a custom board Bruce made for Mike Bakun. It was
specifically made for big Jalama, and it was so effective, he got seven
orders in a row for them, all red!
Clyde Beatty started telling people that the red boards were Bruce’s
“signature model”.
Butt cold winter day at Rincon. Check out the snow!
A beautiful quiver of Bruce Fowler creations on display at the ranch.
Bruce has a lot of stories to share and hopefully we’ll get some more pictures from him
sooner than later.
Thanks Bruce!
Check out this website called The Shapers Tree. This link goes right to Bruce’s page and a
nice little essay Bruce wrote about The Good Old Days.
http://theshaperstree.com/tales/fowler.asp
Contact Bruce himself here.
The_Surfing Underground
