This interview was conducted by Steve Emery during the 1997 Triple Crown Season on Oahu's North Shore inside Dick Brewer's shaping room. Dick Brewer is a legendary shaper who really needs no introduction. Read on as he introduces himself and shares some of his years of surfing and shaping experience.

My name is Dick Brewer. I'm at my shaping room on the North Shore of Oahu. I live on Kauai, another island, but right now the contests are going on. In fact, Myles Padaca, one of my pros is in a heat as we speak. I should be down at the beach but here I am doing an interview at my shaping room.

Steve Emery: When did you first start surfing, Brewer?

DB: I started surfing in 1954, about the year I graduated from high school, or maybe `53 the year just before I graduated.

SE: In the early days at Waimea, were you out there charging with Peter Cole?

DB: Yeah. I remember I rode Waimea every time it broke for six years and in fact, all the old Don James murals of Peter Cole and Fred Van Dyke and Buzzy Trent, those are all Brewer boards. I started a company in 1961 in Haleiwa called Surfboards Hawaii and it was doing really well up until 1964 when we had our shipping strike, it lasted nine months, and I kind of lost interest in running factories after that. So, (since then) I've been an independent shaper more or less, with a few factories here and there. I sub-out the glassing at this point.  

SE: OK. Why don't you tell us about the evolution of the surfboards back in the 50's to the 60's, 70's up.

DB: Well the evolution of the surfboard for me was a constant thing and it was the reason I started building surfboards. I'm an engineer and I really wanted to be involved in the design of the modern surfboard. In fact, I gave up my engineering career to do this, and in California before the early 60's, late 50's I had a balsa 9' double ender shaped by a guy named Dick Barrymore that weighed 22 lbs., it was 20 and 1/2 inches wide - kind of a conservative semi-gun, a mini-hybrid you might call it today. But I rode everything California had to offer on this board you know, up to what they call 20 foot at Lunada Bay and a few other spots. Then when I came to Hawaii Iggy shaped, I mean Donald Takayama (I had an Iggy also- a Dewey Webber 8'6”) but Donald Takayama shaped me a 9' board down underneath Tommy Lee's shop down by Ala Moana that, it had basically the same dimensions as my Barrymore. I was a shaper at the time but I wanted a Donald Takayama and I took that 9' board out and it worked good at Sunset Beach. But my friend Buzzy Trent and Diffendorfer and a few of my friends they convinced me, my biggest board was 9'10” my first year at Waimea, that I needed bigger boards. They had like 11' 6”s, in fact Jeff built me a 12' pintail just as an experiment and, but then during the early 60's I got involved in Surfboards Hawaii, building the big wave boards for the North Shore. Then about 65 or 66 I started wanting to get into research and development and not build, what we were building, what we were riding were really big boards but they rode the big waves. But they got in really early, they rode the waves well for what they did but I wanted to get into making regular guns and um..

SE: Mitch and Diff. Guys like you and Diff are considered master surfboard shapers. Who are some of the younger guys that you taught over the years?

DB: Yeah. Well you know I've had a lot of students. Mark

Richards was a student. In fact I gave him shaping lessons right here on the North Shore. I think it was 1973 or 74 somewhere in there, Sammy Hawk you mention Sammy Hawk, Owl Chapman, Gerry Lopez was a student, I taught him on Kauai, . . . Reno Abelleira, I've had a lot of students down through the years and it's something that I felt you should do- is to teach the young and pass things on and I think that's important in life. Knowledge. As humanity learns we all learn from it.

SE: What about, like the evolution of surfing. The whole surfing communities, it got more commercial in the 70's and 80's. People are making money as they get paid to surf, travel the world. What are your thoughts on that?

DB: Well, surfers, professional surfers. The average probably makes a little over $100- $130,000 a year if you look at the top 44 and what they made uh but the pay is nowhere near what a professional in other sports are, but it's a lot better than what it was a few years ago and uh, I think that professional surfing has really become a beautiful thing and you take any one of the top 44, they're great surfers you know and there's a lot of really good surfers in the world, all over the world and they aren't just the young pros. There's a lot of surfers.

SE: Has surfing, surfers have changed. How about shapers. Have they changed? Have they evolved. Is there a difference between shaping in your days and the present day or is it basically the same thing?

DB: Shaping has really evolved. Boards in the 60's were by today's standards very crude. You know when I worked, when I went over and shaped at Hobie's in the summer of 65-the only thing they complained about were the 60 grit scratches. A few bumps here and there didn't bother anybody. Today, this day and age, you just don't do that. The quality is a lot better than it was.

SE: Where do you see shaping going in the future? Computers are coming into it, being a factor, and molds. Are shapers going to be obsolete or are they an endangered species?

DB: No. They're not an endangered species. In fact, there's a couple computer boards right there. They do need work. They need fine work and, the fact is that any kind of molded board you make, when you hand-shape the foam and expose the cells of the foam, the mechanical bond of the resin is real good. Anytime you mold something and there is that outer surface- there's problems. They bubble. They delaminate. They have a lot of strength promises and what not but the strength-to-weight ratio that we're making in the modern surfboard is excellent.

SE: Where do you see surfing going in the future? What is the future of surfing? We're coming into the year 2000 here, do we see some sort of quantum leap or is it basically the same tools, or the same you know? I remember being back here in the 70's where we didn't have leashes back then and uh tri-fins were just coming into..

DB: I think surfing is at this point in time of history a very refined sport and yet in the last 2 years of surfing you haven't seen that much difference in the boards. Actually the size is, there are refinements in the rails, in the bottoms, in the. And that's the kind of things we're going to see. We're not going to see the equipment change a great deal. What we might see is a production surfboard that's so light and strong that, it could be that our shaper might be replaced. But there's people trying to do it.

SE: I guess the North Shore is getting more crowded. It's kind of the Mecca, the surfing capital and more and more people are going to the outer reefs, getting towed in. What do you think about that?

DB: Oh, definitely! It's a whole new thing and look, I've been with Laird and Darrick Doerner and this tow-in thing right from the beginning. In fact, I've got to go home to Kauai and build Laird some boards. Right now we put his favorite board on computer and we did put some balsa through the computer, so I got to do some fine shaping on that. Laird likes wood, he likes foam, he's had composite materials, that, there very hard. They land hard. He likes the soft feeling but the strength of wood on real big waves when he's doing tow-ins.

SE: What's the difference between a tow-in board and a regular paddle-in board, besides the straps on them?

DB: It's narrower. It's thinner. And everything is a lot more refined, because we don't have to have a little excess baggage just to help you catch the wave.

SE: Duke Kahanomoku, Hawaiian, considered the father of surfing- what do you think about Hawaiians and Duke Kahanomoku?

DB: Well, you know, I shaped for Duke Kahanomoku, for the Duke Kahanomoku Surf team, at Charley Groleno's Greg Noll shop in 1967. In fact, Jock Sutherland won the Duke meet that year on a Duke Kahanomoku label/Dick Brewer shaped board. Duke came to my shaping room that year and said he was very proud, that he'd seen Jock's board he felt it, it was lighter and shorter and the fin was smaller- design was still very important to him. He said he wished he had a piece of equipment like that when he was younger. And then he said in the old days a surfboard builder was considered a kahuna. He said, “You have great powers, my son. Don't abuse your powers.” I've always tried to remember that . . . those words. But that was my experience with Duke Kahanomoku- I remember getting goose bumps when he came into my shaping room and . . .

SE: So shaping is an art form. Its not like another building trade? Do you consider shaping an art form?

DB: Oh, yes. Definitely. Its an art form. Its cold engineering and its beautiful art all at the same time because the curves and everything you're doing is empirical. Like, you can figure out what's going on but until someone rides it and tries it its not real.

SE: So you can actually look at a guy like Mark Richard's or Gerry Lopez and see how they ride the board and you can pick up on what they're doing wrong, or shape the board according to . . .

DB: People surf just the way they are. I can watch a person walk across the room. I know exactly how they surf.

SE: Interesting. How do you feel about contests now and these kids, you know, traveling the world and going first class. Are they spoiled, or . . .

DB: It's a dream come true (laughs)! It's a surfers dream come true- and still making a hundred thousand dollars a year. Gosh its great.

SE: The name of my show is Hawaiian Soul Surfing What does soul surfing mean to you?

DB: Well, originally soul surfing was first becoming totally involved with the wave and forgetting the outside world and it happened back in the 70's, supposedly. And it was a smoother phase where people were maybe styling out a bit, which is ego, part of that is vanity of doing those vain smooth maneuvers. Soul surfing today is people really getting involved with the waves and the sport because these little boards we have are really hard to ride . You've got to give up a lot of things to ride these little boards and, you know, it encourages good clean living.

SE: Long boards seem to be making a comeback. You've got guys like Brian and Rusty Kealana and Dino Miranda winning contest. How do you feel about that? Are longboards making a comeback?

DB: I think its great, you know. You know, people drive Cadillacs and they drive Mazda Miatas, you know, and neither one of them is riding wrong. In surfing there is no right and wrongs, were just going from one end to the other but to make a rule that you had to ride a certain length puts parameters on the surfer and it does bring you into that vanity that style that you can put into a long board that isn't in the short board and its real because they're all on equal turf because they all have to ride a nine foot board. Maybe its caused a resurgence in long boards and you know 10 or 15 years ago you wouldn't be seen on the beach alive with a long board. You know, the peers group the people on the beach would look at you and go, “Ooh, kook!” But now, you can walk down to the beach with a longboard and its acceptable because of Rusty Kealana. They've done us all a big favor. But the fact is, at different speeds, different boards, and different areas, and different sizes, it functions. And there is a use for long boards.

SE: What do you think about guys like Buffalo Kealana and Rabbit Kekai and the aloha spirit and passing it on to the new generation?

DB: Those guys have always had aloha. You know, I was a haole from the mainland when I first came here and Rabbit and Buffalo . . . Buffalo rode and won Makaha with my boards in 62. They've always had aloha, and uh, its something the haoles got to learn.

SE: Any advice for any up and coming shapers-any words of wisdom for them?

DB: Uh yeah you know when I was in Japan I looked at a lot of boards and, you know, a lot of even so called “famous shapers” you know and, hey guys, I've always been a little critical of people that copied but hey don't be afraid to pick up an Al Merrick or a Brewer to copy it- you'll save yourself and your customers a lot later.

SE: So, learn from their experiences! Do you have anything you would like to say in closing?

DB: “Hey guys, keep surfing, you know.” I don't know what to say but I'm 61 years old I'm still surfing. You know, it keeps you young!