ENCINITAS — Family man, surfer, adventurer and entrepreneur Don Hansen, who founded Hansen Surfboards and set skydiving records, among other accomplishments in a life lived with infectious joy, died Saturday. He was 89.
Josh Hansen told The Coast News that since his passing, he has received videos of his father laughing and enjoying time with friends.
“They’re literally in their 80s and they’re acting like they’re like 15 years old. It’s classic,” Josh said. “They just never grew up and they – he – never took himself serious.”
Councilmember Luke Shaffer, an avid surfer, said that Hansen represented a bridge to a classic Encinitas archetype: “the ranch and surf model.”
Shaffer noted that Hansen’s shop is across the street from one of the world’s most famous beaches — Swami’s Beach. The Beach Boys even reference Swami’s in “Surfin’ U.S.A.”
“(Don) was a conduit to the culture that was and the culture that is,” Shaffer said. “I’m sorry to see a legend go.”
Born in 1936, Hansen grew up in Redfield, South Dakota, which had a population of about 2,700 at the time, according to his autobiography, “Hansen,” co-written with local author and The Coast News columnist Chris Ahrens.
Always athletic, Hansen was an all-state football player in high school with dreams of playing in college, but that ended when he broke his leg in multiple places. The same leg had been broken earlier when he was hit by a car while crossing a main road in town.
Pat, Steve and Vince Flynn, fraternity brothers at the University of South Dakota, introduced Hansen to surfing by showing him a homemade movie at the Beta House.
“That was it for me,” Hansen wrote in his book.
The final turning point came one summer while working a job building one of the largest grain elevators in the state.
Hansen wrote that he had “done my share of hard work before,” but after working six days a week, 10 hours a day, in “scorching heat,” for a $48 check, he knew he needed a change.
“I went home, turned on the air conditioning, and said to myself, ‘I’m not doing this s*** anymore,’” he wrote.
Like pioneers on horseback and in wagon trains from a century earlier, Hansen headed west, hitchhiking to Coronado.
Hansen worked as a lifeguard in Del Mar and later as a clerk-typist for the military at the former Army post, Fort Ord, on Monterey Bay. He also spent time learning to shape boards in Santa Cruz while apprenticing for Jack O’Neill, founder of O’Neill surfwear and surfboard company.
Feeling the pull of Waimea Bay and Pipeline, he moved to Oahu in the fall of 1960. There, he began gaining recognition in the emerging surf media.
Hansen rode his own board designs in films by Grant Rohloff and appeared on the cover of Surfer Magazine in 1962 for his big-wave surfing.
“I was scared at times, but I always tried to make it out, even though I had my heart in my throat a few times when I got stuck inside on big days at Sunset or Waimea,” Hansen wrote. “Keep in mind that they measure the wave from the back in Hawaii, so when what they call a 15 and 18-foot wave is dropping on your head, you’re nothing. You quickly realize how small you are compared to the ocean that is trying to hammer you.”
Hansen later returned to the mainland and opened Hansen Surfboards in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, across from Cardiff State Beach, at a location that is now the beach-themed bar The Kraken.
He credited his parents with instilling a strong work ethic and said his father taught him the value of customer service.
“In business, I figured I had an advantage over kids raised in California because I had learned to work hard from a young age,” he wrote. “Where I grew up, a handshake and your word were better than any contract.”
Classic Encinitas
Hansen launched his business with a $1,500 investment from Bob Driver Sr., who owned an insurance company and had experience backing entrepreneurial ventures.
Hansen met Driver Sr. years earlier during a stingray incident while working as a lifeguard in Del Mar.
Hansen had entered the water to save a child surrounded by stingrays, but was struck by a barb himself and was unable to stop the bleeding.
His friend Bob Driver Jr. told him that his father, Driver Sr., a World War II medic, could help treat the wound.
With Driver Sr.’s investment, Hansen began shaping boards out of his Cardiff shop. John Kies, a shaper and co-founder of Encinitas Surfboards, told The Coast News that Hansen hired him in 1972.
Kies had shaped between 200 and 300 boards at that point, but only independently.
“That was my first real shaping job for a real company,” Kies said.
Despite a later “friendly rivalry” between their shops, Kies said Hansen “was really cool to work for.”
Jim Kempton, president of the California Surf Museum and former editor and publisher of Surfer Magazine, said Hansen helped shape the course of his life.
Kempton had been drawn to surf culture by the movie “Gidget,” but his parents were wary. So they agreed to visit Hansen Surfboards.
“Don just charmed the pants off of my parents,” Kempton said. “They left there with a feeling that surfing was as good a sport as any for me to continue with. I have always thanked Don for getting me my start in the surf world because his demeanor and his ability to reach anyone — from parents to kids — has always been an amazing feature about him.”
Kempton also left with a longboard shaped by Hansen.
“It was a super beautiful board,” he said. “It was pretty epic looking for a kid.”
Hansen adapted as surf culture evolved, shifting from longboards to shortboards and expanding into retail clothing. He later opened a larger shop in downtown Encinitas across from Swami’s Beach, invested in Ocean Pacific, and added ski and snowboard gear.
Kempton said many early surf brands struggled to adapt, particularly with the transition from longboards to shortboards.
“Either they were too late in getting into that game, or they just decided that wasn’t what they wanted to do anymore and moved to Idaho and went skiing,” he said. “You know, well, Don did both. He not only went and played in the snow, but he also made a really great transition into shortboards and continued to have great guys riding his boards, great shapers that he mentored, and an excellent retail store that people still go to because it’s probably one of the best you’ll ever find for surf stuff.”
Hansen also pursued skydiving, at one point jumping into a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert and performing demonstrations at local schools.
“He truly lived on the edge and I say that in the best of ways,” Josh Hansen said. “He truly appreciated how life outside of your comfort zone is a place of true joy and happiness.”
Don Hansen’s 10-man Speed Star team, Airfreight, won national championships and set a world record of 9.4 seconds.
“You wouldn’t think that the guy who sold you surfboards would do that on the weekend,” Ahrens said.
“He always loved the adventure,” Josh Hansen said, describing his father as “the original surfing cowboy.” “There was no backdown in my dad. He was not afraid. And honestly, to a fault sometimes because he had some horrendous injuries over the years.”
Don Hansen later developed a passion for downhill skiing and hunting, splitting time between Encinitas and Big Sky, Montana.
Kies, who lived nearby, said Hansen often practiced team roping in his front yard.
“It was pretty cool,” Kies said.
Throughout it all, Hansen ran his business in a way that drew people in.
Kempton noted how rare it is for a retail business to successfully pass through generations, with Hansen’s children continuing to run the company.
“To see a whole family go into the same business with continuous success, I think it says a lot about both the kids and the father,” Kempton said.
“He was very loyal and he cared about everyone like they were his family,” Josh Hansen said. “He always told me, ‘You work to live, you don’t live to work.’”
Legacy
Hansen embodied a generation that came of age in the late 1940s and 1950s.
“The world was really open to them,” Kempton said. “And they took full advantage of it. Don and his family have kept that spirit alive and have really epitomized what the surf culture is all about.”
“He didn’t just participate in the surf culture, he helped build it,” Shaffer said, adding that Hansen maintained a laid-back, upbeat charm throughout his life.
“There’s something about the surf culture that calls to us,” Shaffer continued. “It calls to a deeper part of the human nature that wants more. Surfing brings a peace throughout your being, at least for me.”
Ahrens said writing Hansen’s book stood out.
“When I worked with Don, it was really fun,” he said. “It was one of the most fun things continuously. Nobody ever packed in more in a lifetime than he did.”
Josh Hansen said his father had a sharp sense of humor and embraced every moment.
“He always said, ‘In your darkest times in life, if you keep a sense of humor and you laugh, you can always get through it,’” he said.
For Hansen, family remained central.
“He loved my mom dearly,” Josh said.
