San Diego January 2016

Craftswomen of Surfing San Diego January 2016 #FirstQuality A NOTE FROM KIM CRAFTSWOMEN Cher Pendarvis Point Loma, California Pendarvis-Studios.com Pendo.com @CherPendarvis Valerie Duprat Encinitas, California MereMadeSurfboards.com @MereMadeSurfboards Craftswomen of Surfing oardbuilding and surfing has changed drastically since I began working at Clark Foam in 1978. The waves being ridden and the surfing being performed has influenced Whitney Lang board design and, in turn, blank manufacturing. Mira Mesa, California But nowhere have I seen more change than with the growth of SurfWindy.com Bfemale board builders. @WindyWind We’ve always had a few orders coming through from female shapers, but the frequency has drastically increased in recent years. We see their finished boards on social media and are constantly impressed by the beauty of their work. I was fortunate to meet some of these women at the Boardroom Show this year (May 2015) and it inspired me to learn Christine more about their backstories. In that spirit, I share these stories Brailsford Caro Leucadia, California with you. Herein we’ve profiled 5 shapers in San Diego county, FurrowSurfCraft.com with varying levels of experience and expertise. @FurrowSurfCraft Through my 27 years with Clark, and now 9 years at US Blanks, I’ve had the distinct honor of working with many of the most iconic board builders in our sport. I am proud to now count these women among them. Kim Thress Chief Foam Fabricator Debbie Gordon Pacific Beach, California GordronandSmith.com @GordonandSmith 2 USBlanks.com CRAFTSWOMEN OF SURFING SAN DIEGO San Diego has a long, rich board building history. Pleasant year ‘round weather and waves make it an ideal place to live, but it’s the access to board building materials and proximity to the epicenter of the surf industry that have allowed the shaping community to thrive. While we’ve met amazing female shapers around the world, we’ll use these pag- es to focus on a few in California’s southern most county. USBlanks.com 3 CRAFTSWOMEN OF SURFING With waveCher riding always as the impetus, Pendarvis and working alongside iconic board builders, Cher Pendarvis has quietly influenced surf culture for over 50 years to become one of San Diego’s most revered craftswomen. y family lived in the Bay returned home to San Diego, California area when I was born. We where I had lived as a child. moved to Hawai’i in 1955. At 13, my mom and I were at the That’s where I first saw beach and I asked to borrow the life- surfing. I distinctly remember the shapes guard’s wood paddle board. That was the of the surfboards and how the contours board that I caught my first wave on. Mwould transfer and move through the When I was 14, I’d ride my bike water. Surfing had captured me and I to the beach and eventually mustered the dreamed of surfing from that time on. courage to ask someone to borrow their We lived in Oahu for 2 years, then we surfboard. I learned to surf on borrowed traveled and lived in the Philippines, Ja- boards. My family was conservative so pan, California, and Florida. I eventually the idea of a young girl participating in a 4 USBlanks.com CHER PENDARVIS I CRAFTSWOMEN OF SURFING some of the world’s finest, for- ward-thinking craftsmen and designers. While surfing in 1968, I met Skip Frye. He had spent time in Australia with Bob McTavish. Occasionally, I’d surf Santa Bar- bara and see George Greenough surfing, which left a huge imprint on my design awareness. On a six-foot day at Rincon, he was knee-riding a Spoon and drawing radical lines on the waves, when most surfers were trimming and drawing straighter lines. George told me that he was stoked to see me, a female, in the line-up. I was so inspired by his surfing ability and his ideas about board design. I’ve been very fortunate to meet Cher glassing a 5’2” Fish in 1970 some incredible board builders and male sport was somewhat taboo. remarkable human beings. I was developing this secret life without my parents knowing. I Cher with her finished 5’2” Fish in 1970 wanted my own surfboard, so during the spring of 1965 I got a job at my friend’s surf shop patching dings and doing repairs. My mother was an artist and I was always artistically inclined. Patching boards was where I first embraced my technical ability to convey my creative energy through my hands into a functional form. Through that job I was able to save enough money to buy an old 9’7” O’hare that had been broken in half and repaired. It weighed 30 lbs and was very diffi- cult to transport, but I rode it for a year. My next board was a used Dewey Weber “Standard Speed”. Eventually, I bought a used Surf- boards Hawaii “Model A”, which had a lot more performance and was better suited for the waves I was surfing. There was a substantial surf community in San Diego in the 1960s. We lived in Ocean Beach - Point Loma. I was exposed to USBlanks.com 5 Cher riding her hand-made 5’5” Fish in 1974. Photo by T. Threinen CHER PENDARVIS I CRAFTSWOMEN OF SURFING CRAFTSWOMEN OF SURFING I CHER PENDARVIS In the 1960s foam was very diffi- cult to acquire, so most of the early boards that we built were stripped down from old longboards and reshaped into smaller boards. We also experimented with packing foam and blocks of refrigeration foam. At this time, surf shops didn’t sell materials, so we bought boat resin and heavy, 8 and 10 oz. fiberglass cloth from Kettenburg Marine. I loved to experiment and feel how different shapes worked in the water. The first board I built was a 6’1” Rounded Pin Tail Single Fin, then a 5’8” Twin Fin, then a 5’2” Fish that I also glassed. Other our friends. people began to ask me to glass I graduated from San their boards and make their fins. Diego State with a degree in arts Our San Diego shaping and worked as an illustrator and community has been open about art director for several publications. sharing ideas and techniques. Over In the 1970s I was an Art Assosci- the years, Skip Frye shaped sever- ate on staff at Surfing for five years al boards for me and allowed me when it was bi-monthly. to watch his shaping process. I I’ve done freelance design glassed a couple of those boards and writing, and I’ve taught in var- and made the fins. Skip’s been a ious colleges. Some favorite proj- great mentor to me. Jimmy Blears ects were designing and illustrating won the world contest in 1972 on logos for friend’s surf companies, a board that I built the fins for and including Channin, Surfboards by helped glass. Donald Takayama, and Steve Lis. Fish inventor Steve Lis is Through these years I’ve always a good friend who has had a huge shaped and built a few boards each influence on me. Every board he year. shaped for me, he allowed me to My husband, Steve Pendar- watch him shape. In the late 60s vis, and I got together in 1983. He & early 70s I was also inspired by made his first board, a wood Paipo, Larry Duff, Ben Ferris, Larry Ge- when he was 11 and he’s been phart and Thomas Threinen, who building boards ever since. Steve’s were creative surfers and shapers always encouraged my board build- in Point Loma and Ocean Beach. ing. A creative master-craftsmen, In the late 70s I was surfing for Steve developed a system called Channin, and really enjoyed work- “Pendoflex” that changes the rocker ing on designs with master shaper in the surfboard. The tail works Mike Casey. When he shaped like a gas pedal; by pressing it team boards for me, we’d collabo- downward, it straightens the rock- My focus is on custom orders, rate on templates and he’d openly er. It also allows you to find speed made completely by hand, and my incorporate my ideas for rail and in sections of the wave where you favorite concepts are creative varia- bottom contours. I’m hugely normally could not, because of the tions on the Fish, Paipos, Eggs and grateful to have learned from all flexible rocker. fun Step-ups. 8 USBlanks.com CHER PENDARVIS I CRAFTSWOMEN OF SURFING I’m very grateful to have surfing in my life. It gave me a place to go and helped me achieve my indepen- dance over the course of my 51 years surfing. Surfing is such a gift. Steve and I ride “prayer waves” for people in our lives. We’ll focus our intention on a friend who is sick and we’ll ride waves for them, praying for their healing. It’s a gift to build boards for friends. It feels as though a part of my presence is with them wherever they are riding waves in the world. It’s part of a communal love of the ocean, the waves, and for surfing. Building a board for a friend is just one facet of that relationship and communication. Learn more at Pendo.com and @CherPendarvis USBlanks.com 9 CRAFTSWOMEN OF SURFING I VALERIE DUPRAT Valerie Duprat Mom, biochemist, and former competi- tive tandem surfer, Valerie Duprat, shares how board building has granted her repreive from daily life.

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