THE BIRTH OF SURFWEAR

by Corky Carroll

Surfwear has become a huge industry over the past 65 years.  I have seen it grow and seen it go through all kinds of changes over the years.  Money from the big surfwear companies has been at the heart of Professional Surfing and a major source of income for the top professional surfers since the 1960’s.  There have been many brands come and go, some have endured though.  Only a few, most flame out at one point or another for various reasons. 

Today I wanna talk about when it all got going and a couple of, at least I what I consider, interesting stories of how the seeds were planted to kick  the whole thing off.

Going back into the 1950’s there were only a few places that you could get what we called “surf trunks.”  Garments made specifically to surf in.  There was a small company out at Makaha on the West Side of Oahu called M.Nii.  This was a family-owned business that made work clothes and began to cater to local surfers who needed something to wear surfing. Not long after a lady named “Taki”, who had a small clothing store in Waikiki, also began to sell similar surf trunks.  These were the “cool” places to get them.

There were a few surf moms along the coast that made the trunks for their kids and husbands to surf in.  Mrs. Wilks, in Laguna Beach, was probably the most well-known of these.  Her husband Barney and son John were both big time local surfers.  Many of the San Onofre Surf Club members wore Mrs. Wilks designs.

Kanvas by Katin's first board shorts customer

Ok, this is where I come in.  I was a 13-year-old surf gremmie growing up in Surfside Colony, just south of Seal Beach.  I used to surf in old pairs of my dad’s swimming trunks and a pair of cut off “clam diggers.”  I wanted a pair of actual surf trunks.  There was a place across the highway from our house that made boat covers called “Kanvas by Katin.”  One day I went over there and asked the owner, Walter Katin, if they could make me a pair of surf trunks.  I drew a sketch of what they should look like and they measured me.  A week or so later I had a pair.  Short story, the canvas was stiff and very abrasive so Walter got some softer cotton and make me another pair.  White with blue strips on the side.  I loved ‘em and wore them every day at the local surf spots.  This led to them getting so many orders for custom surf trunks that they put out a sign and almost quit making boat covers all together. 

A couple of years later Hobie Alter bought “Ole” surfboards and opened a shop in Seal Beach.  He hired Mickey Munoz to run the shop and Mickey recruited me to be the sponsored surf team rider.  One afternoon I was hanging out in the shop with Mickey and this not at all surf looking dude came in and introduced himself as “Duke Boyd.”  He wanted to show us a new line of surfwear that he was representing.  It was called “Hang Ten.”  We were his first sales call.  He gave us the whole pitch on this great new company and how it was gonna take over the surfing market.  Me, being an obnoxious typical surfing brat, kinda thought the guy was blowing smoke and for sure his real name was not “Duke.”  On the other hand, Mickey Munoz bought into the whole concept and was convinced that this Duke Boyd dude was onto something.  He and a lady named Doris Moore, who lived up on the hill in Seal Beach, had come up with this company at just the right time in the growth of surfing. 

Mickey was right.  Before long Hang Ten took off and not long after there were more like it.  Ocean Pacific being one of most successful.  Also, big clothing companies such as Jantzen and Catalina got in on the surfwear market.  Voila, an industry was born.  From the M. Nii family, Taki, Mrs. Wilks, Walter and Nancy Katin, Vivian Birdwell (also an Orange County brand), Duke Boyd and Hang Ten there came the Quicksilvers, the Hurleys, the Billabongs and all the others. 

I still love it when I drive by Surfside and see the Katin shop still there in the same spot with the same “custom surf trunks” sign in the front.  Some things change but thankfully some things don’t.