ONE of my fondest childhood memories is wandering in to the O'Hare Surfboards surf shop back in 1964. I was tagging along with my Mom who had a painting class in Cocoa Beach that day. It just so happened her class was right next door to the little wooden structure that housed Pat O'Hare's beautiful surfboards. I wandered inside drawn by the smell of resin and the sound of a planer carving through foam. And so my introduction to the world of surfboard building and the amazing Pat O'Hare began...
Surfboard building was never profitable. The cost of materials, labor, advertising, and overhead always made it a "for the love of it only" occupation. And the competition for the few dollars surfers actually had was always stiff. Many familiar labels from surfings "golden age", namely the sixties, had called it a day by the eighties. They literally couldn't afford to do it anymore. And a lot of the Mom and Pop companies were done soon after. Unless you had a very visible team of contest surfers and a famous surfboard shaper, you had to switch to selling clothing in your surf shop to even have a chance of survival. Two things changed that. Enter automation and overseas factories. Surfboards have traditionally been shaped and fiberglassed by hand. And the pool of craftsmen shrank as the pay did. So, like most American companies, they shipped production overseas. Most overseas (and stateside) factories are automated these days, the computer has aided in producing machines that shape the surfboard with only minor finishing required. And the factories are usually production line, working for many different labels, both legally and "bootlegged". Surfboard making has become profitable again, but, like everything else machine made, it's lost it's soul. Although the number shrinks every year, there are a few who still do it the way they used to.
Pat O'Hare moved from Manhattan Beach, California in the early sixties and set up shop in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Rick James came along too, and James and O'Hare Surfboards were born. The time was ripe on the East Coast, surfing was about to experience a major boom in America's consciousness. Thanks to The Endless Summer, every kid near an ocean wanted to experience surfing. This helped Pat and Rick get off to a good start, although Rick returned to California a short time later. Pat kept on making beautiful surfboards, in between raising a family and surfing as much as possible. He had a knack early on too, of making surfboards that worked insanely well in the myriad of Atlantic surf conditions. He was (and is) a quiet, humble man, never blowing his own horn. Oh, he could, and justifiably so, but he's just not wired that way. But those who understand superior craftsmanship and excellent design could take one look at a Pat O'Hare surfboard and marvel. Greg Noll was one such expert, and Pat was picked as the sole maker of the East Coast Greg Noll line. Quite an honor, and where most shapers would puff their chest and tell the world, Pat just took it in stride. Amazing. Looking at a vintage Greg Noll board shaped by Pat is to see a subtle combination of blended lines and curves, where nothing is out of place, and stunning symmetry is the end result. Ditto for anything under his O'Hare label, from the sixties Tommy McRoberts model "The Rebel", right up to any of his modern shapes. He's still on it, Fish, Quads, seventies style single fins, and of course, his amazing longboards. The lines are still soft and sensible, but once you get them on a wave you'll know that each board is truly magic. Other labels claim their boards are magic, but O'Hare quietly delivers in his own low key way. Pat still shapes today, just the same way he did back in the early sixties. All one hundred percent by hand, and all made with S-O-U-L. Get one while you can through the link below, and get ready to be amazed on the very first wave you take off on. You're not just riding an unreal surfboard, you're riding a piece of art from one of the last American craftsmen. Amazing.
PS - I'm sure he'd want me to tell you that you better hang this piece of art on the face of a wave, not on your wall at home ...
To contact Pat O'Hare about your piece of art, email him through www.16streets.com.
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