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Surf and tunes mix with Board Builder Hall of Fame awards and Rhythm & Resin festival

September 6, 2024

They are craftsmen who have shaped the San Clemente surf scene for decades, their boards ridden on waves up and down the coast and around the world.

And now the nine honorees will be inducted into the San Clemente Board Builders Hall of Fame, now in its second year, during a celebration at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7, in front of the Catalyst at Bashams surf shop.

This year’s inductees include Matt Biolos, Del Cannon, Garth Day, Terry Martin, Jerry O’Keefe, Timmy Patterson, Rick Rock, Cole Simler and Jean Pierre “Fly” Van Swae.

The San Clemente Board Builders Hall of Fame will honor Terry Martin (left) and Jerry O’Keefe (center), in front of the shop prevjiously owned by Brad Basham (right), who died in 2022. Martin passed away in 2012. (Photo courtesy of Luki O’Keefe)

“I just think it’s so great that these people are being honored, because they get so little accolades and yet they are absolutely the essential players to providing millions of surfers with their equipment,” said California Surf Museum executive director Jim Kempton, who will emcee the induction.

The Hall of Fame ceremony, which will happen outside of the surf shop along Calle de Los Molinos, will be followed by Rhythm & Resin, a music festival that will shut the street down for the day and bring bands and booths to the town’s industrial and manufacturing area for the second year.

There will be about 100 vendors and bands performing throughout the day, including Tunnel Vision, Slapbak, West Chiller, Trolson County Bros and the Flys.

The Rhythm & Resin music festival and the Hall of Fame were created by surfboard maker Damian Brawner, who owns Brawner Surfboards in Dana Point.

Brawner’s father, Danny, was an early-era boardmaker and a surf music icon as a member of the Sandals, which recorded the soundtrack for “The Endless Summer” movie.

“The second generation is picking up the torch, they are all understanding what came before them, and now they are paying homage to that,” Kempton said.

About the inductees:

• Biolos first started sanding surfboards under Herbie Fletcher and later created Lost Surfboards, one of the biggest and most successful surfboard brands in the world. Several world championships ride his boards.

• Cannon was an original pioneer of modern foam shaping and among the surfers credited with riding Waimea Bay for the first time. He appeared as a performer in early Bruce Brown films. After shaping for Hobie and Ole surfboards, Cannon opened his first shop in San Clemente in 1965 before moving to Hawaii in the ’70s. He died in 2021 at 85.

• Day, who won the 2015 San Clemente Times People’s Choice Awards, is a well-respected shaper and beloved character in the southern Orange County surfing world. Day died in 2015, with nearly 300 people gathering for a paddle-out in his memory.

• Martin worked for Hobie Surfboards, shaping more than 80,000 surfboards over the span of six decades, at an average of 10 boards a day, earning him the nickname “The Machine.” Martin died in 2012.

• O’Keefe shaped more than 25,000 surfboards over 25 years while working for labels such as Hobie Surfboards, Stewart Surfboards, Dewey Weber, Timmy Patterson, Lost Surf Boards and Hurley, as well as his own label Soul Stix.

• Patterson, a well-known California shaper and creator of innovative fin designs, is a second-generation shaper from a legendary surf family.

• Rock was raised in Buena Park and started shaping on his own in 1970 under the Rockit surfboard label. In 1984, he started working at Basham’s shop where laminator guru Mike Muir introduced him to Shaun Stussy, who became his mentor. Rock struck out on his own with Fredrick Surfboards. In 2022, he won the Boardroom Icons of Foam award. He shapes for Lost and Mayhem.

• Simler started at the Hobie factory learning from the legends, then founded the Surf Spot with Roy Gonzolez in San Clemente. Cole Surfboards was started in 1987 in San Luis Obispo, after he moved there to attend Cal Poly. In 1999, Simler relocated back to San Clemente.

• Van Swae was born in Belgium, landing in Southern California as a youngster. He was part of many production teams, most notably for both Dale Velzy and Hobie Alter. He continues to make surfboards, paddles and hand planes.

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Surf and tunes mix with Board Builder Hall of Fame awards and Rhythm & Resin festival

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