I was born in San Luis Obispo, California in May of 1953 and spent my early years tolerating school and living for baseball and the beach. Then, in the summer of 1966 a buddy introduced me to surfing. I bought my first surfboard from this surfer girl in Avila Beach for $35, sharing the expense (formidable at the time) with my older brother Tim. The thing was so heavy and wide that it took both of us to get it to the water. We weren't exactly the beefiest kids on the beach, either...check out the photo of us in the Birdwell bio and you'll see what I mean.
For the next seven years, I lived for surfing. My brother and I surfed every day our parents allowed, mostly at Avila, Pismo and Shell Beach. The waves weren't very good at Avila, but then we weren't very good surfers. We also experimented with making our own boards (the first was a v-bottom made from a cut down pop-out), saw every surf movie that came to town, and read every word of the Surfer magazines we could get our hands on.
I dropped out of the surf scene when I left the Central Coast for Northern California to attend Chico State University in the fall of 1973. After graduating in December 1975, I headed for the hills to ski Lake Tahoe for a few years before landing a "real job" in Sacramento with Pacific Bell. But I missed the beach, so I quit my perfectly good job, shed my three-piece suit, tossed my briefcase and moved back to San Luis Obispo in December of 1985. I was immediately back in the water, and started an independent sales organization serving the windsurf and ski industries. A year later, I bought a small mail order company that catered to the surf and skate crowd.
Today, after working for fifteen years in various sales and marketing positions, I'm happy to be back in the surf business. Finally acting on an idea I've been kicking around in my head for about five years, my good friend and business partner Wayne Barnes and I launched the Last Wave Originals website in June of 2005.
I want to say a quick word of thanks to all the guys who have helped us get this thing started. I would like to mention names, but I'd forget someone, and that wouldn't be good. But these guys have been willing to help in so many ways and we are truly grateful. As John Leininger of Becker Surfboards said, "Just think--even if this idea of yours doesn't work, at least you will have met some great people." You are so right, John.