I’ve spent a lot of time in Santa Cruz, much of it sleeping on Bob Pearson’s floor. For years, Bob’s house, perched just above Stockton Avenue, was my northern home away from home. And it was through Bob that I met some of the greatest surfers in the state, any state for that matter.
Bob is the owner of Pearson Arrow Surfboards and the captain of a surf team that has included Ken “Skindog” Collins, Shawn “Barney” Barron, Jason “Ratboy” Collins and Darryl “Flea” Virostko. (While it’s not mandatory to have nickname to be on Team Pearson, it apparently does help.)
Pearson has made surfboards for all levels of surfer and for all sizes of waves, and, it is estimated, he has shaped over 100,000 surfboards over the decades.
While working primarily in foam, he recently made a radical departure from that discipline to undertake a project of historical significance.
Realizing that the first people ever to ride waves in California were Hawaiian royalty, and that they did so in his hometown of Santa Cruz, Bob flew to Hawaii to investigate the matter. What he found there, tucked away deep in the Bishop Museum basement, were the very first surfboards ever known to ride waves in California.
Bob, being Bob, didn’t stop at simply looking. Instead, he took exact measurements of the boards, and made replicas of them.
The boards had been made from locally available redwood by three Hawaiian princes while they were attending St. Matthew’s Military school in San Mateo in 1885. By surfing the mouth of the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz, they became the first known surfers in our state. A few years later, Princess Ka’iulani, heir to the Hawaiian crown, was studying in Northamptonshire, England, when she launched surfing in the British Isles by riding waves there.
Dealing with colder air and water and probably inferior surf conditions to their home breaks, the need to surf is well illustrated by these pioneering surfers.
The surfboards that Pearson made, which weigh up to 240 pounds, have been surfed in small waves in Santa Cruz by their maker and some of his team riders.
According to Pearson: “Trying to surf the 16-foot Olo boards is like riding a rodeo bronc; and even some of the best surfers on the coast are unable to ride them for more than eight seconds. Actually, you don’t really ride them, and they don’t turn. They basically go where they want to go and take you along for the ride.”
There is talk of these historic surfboards being test-ridden in Oceanside this summer. If you would like to take a ride into surfing’s distant past, stay tuned to this column for details.
The aforementioned replicas of Royal Hawaiian surfboards are currently on display for all to see at Oceanside’s California Surf Museum (CSM.) They are stunning to behold and must be seen to be appreciated.
To learn more about this display, please visit CSM’s website.
