Charles "Tex" Haines remembers founding Victoria Skimboards in Laguna Beach and shares stories about Duke Kahanamoku and Greg Taylor. Recorded at Laguna Beach Library.
Transcript
0:12 CH: My name is Charles Leroy Haines, III. I share my name with my father and my grandfather, both of whom were doctors, surgeons. And, uh, actually, my grandmother was also one of the first female surgeons in the United States.
0:28 Q: How would you characterize surf culture?
0:34: CH: Surf culture is as ambiguous as humans are different. San Onofre: lawyers, doctors, scuzballs, all the trades, you name it! Movie stars! They're all there, surfing together like brothers. Who cares who you are? And uh, San Onofre, I think, personified that in so many ways.
0:59 Q: How did you start your company?
0:59 CH: And uh, at some point or another, we were doing [sandals] and driving home at night, and we were quite often getting into oncoming traffic because the uh, the glue at the factory was pretty strong stuff. So we uh, we talked again about making skinboards, and uh, it was like a slam-dunk. Let's just do it! We asked Sparky if we could have half days, Sure. Take it. Whatever you want. We were ecstatic.
1:25: We went to Cost Crystaliner [Corp] in Costa Mesa, got some fiberglass. Got some plywood at the lumber yard downtown. Went back to the apartment in North Laguna and cut 19em outside, and then took 19em inside on his carpeted floor to glass 19em. [Laugh] We had paper! The guy downstairs came up within about five seconds. Are you trying to kill me? [laugh] Sorry!
1:54: So that first batch went down to Hobie's in Dana Point, and they snapped 19em up and said Come on back whenever you got more! We were off and running in 1976.
2:02: But IYou Know It's a.I'm eternally grateful, but even if it is a struggle, it's probably the best thing a guy could possibly do, make skinboards for kids, and have kids thank you, grow up, have their own kids, and thank you, and pass that on like that. So, um, I'm extraordinarily lucky. I'm challenged as a businessman, but I'm loving every minute of it.
2:29 Q: Are there any stories you'd like to share?
2:36 CH: So, um, my mother's grandfather was a sea captain. And um, a lot of these stories kinda come through her. But um, he was the chief tester for [Massan], so when Massan came out with a new boat, well he would go back east to Connecticut and test drive it for them. He told the story about a Duke [Kahanamoku], [whew] coming back from [the 1912 Summer] Olympics in Stockholm, or something, and he'd won gold medals. And they had to sail all the way through the Panama Canal, and it took months. And he ate dinner every night with all the guests in thein the captain's cabin. And they pulled into [whew] I'm so emotional. I'm sorry. [They] pulled into Honolulu Harbor and the entire town was out there. Everybody on the island was at the shoreline, which was one fuckload of people in Hawaii. And the people on the boat are going Wha, a holiday? What's going on? They literally had no idea Duke had won gold medals in Stockholm. 19Cuz he hadn't even talked about it the entire trip home. They didn't even know. He was that humble a guy, or modest, or whatever you want to call it. Just an extraordinary story. I found that amazing.
3:53: So, the third one's just kind of another fable that's associated with our company. We have a guy named Greg Taylor, one of the founders of the surfing movement, Greg Taylor and uh, I think of a couple other guys, if I can think of their names. But hehesomeone brought him a short paddle hollow paddleboard. So it's made out of wood, it's this thick [indicates about four inches] instead of about nine, eight, ten feet long, it's only about six feet long. I've never seen, anyone like it ever in my life. But somebody found it out at the dump back in the sixties, uh, and brought it down to the beach and gave it to Greg Taylor and said Hey..this at the dump, thought you might like it. So Greg brings it to us, years later when we start Victoria Skinboards, and says, Can you put some gloss coats on it? Sure, no problem! He takes it back home after we gloss it, and, uh it's uh, it's [this is] fifteen-year gaps here, ten-year gaps anyway. And um, then one day he decides, Man, I am going to try this thing. Today.
4:50: And heIt's a Sunday, no one's down at Victoria Beach at all, it's foggy, it's cold. It's perfect, No-one is going to give me any shit about putting this historical thing in the water. [laugh] And it's really calm. And the reef at Victoria is only about from here to the other side of thethe library wall. And um, he starts to paddle. He paddles like four strokes, and he goes, Holy shit! This thing is sinking, really fast! He can feel the water coming into it and sloshing around, starting to go down. So he sits up on it, and he starts to turn around, and he looks down, and there's a diver, right under him, with scuba gear on. And the guy's slowly oscillating toward the bottom, upside down. He can look right in his mask. [whispers Holy shit! The guy is.] He dives down, four or five times, 19cuz the guy's big, and he can't get him up. First one he gets the weight belt off, you know, thirdthird try gets the tank off. And fourth or fifth he finally gets him up to the board and kind of shoves him up over the board to get him on it. And the guy coughs! And he goes, Oh.this guy's alive! Takes him to the shore, kind of drapes him upside down over the bank, and the guy drains and starts breathing, and he's alive and his wife is screaming her head off, hysterically.
6:05: And of course it's early in the morning, [laughs] so Greg goes, Well, I'm outta here! It's ok, the guy I'll just wander away. And he did! He wandered off. Didn't think about it until ten, fifteen years later. And he's doing his morning walk at Victoria Beach, and it's foggy, and it's Sunday Sunday, and it's cold and no one's down there at all. And then suddenly, five people come walking down the ramp to Victoria Beach, and one of them is really tall, and he comes over to Greg and he goes, Hey man, II owe you! [laughs] A long time I've owed you this thanks!
6:38: Back to my father, he's thirteen years old, he's in Los Angeles for the Olympics [1932], and he happened to see Duke Kahanamoku compete in swimming, and there's so many stories about Duke, it's incredible. But uh, he came back out from the locker room with a surfboard under his arm. And he said you could hear the air suck out of the stadium, 19cuz people were so blown away by what, what he had. And my dad took up surfing at that point and started driving back and forth from Alta Dena to San Onofre, he, in a old car, several hours. And my mom, uh, who was born and raised in Hawaii, happened to be a part of the same club where Duke Kahanamoku did his teaching and surfing. And he would ask her to go out with him regularly. So I get the Hawaiian surfing and the California surfing, and we were a San Onofre family growing up. Spent a lot of dinners down there Saturday nights. Surf all day, sleep hard, go back Sunday, and sleep some more. But um, that, that was our family, which was about as good as you can get!
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