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Interview with Bob Skalak by Tom Takao
Growing up in the Torrance area Bob Skalak started surfing in 1960. Within a year he was repairing boards for his friends. “My first surfboard was a Hobie that my dad bought at a garage sale. It had a 1” balsa stringer made of 3 or 4 piece and the sticker was made of tin foil with the number 711”.
Surfing the South Bay Bob would make trips with his friends up and down the coast. In 1965 Bob moved to Maui and went to High School there. There was a lot of surf spots back then that whoever was in your car that was the crowd. The board that he rode for a couple of winters was a Roberts Surfboard. Bob had been on the Roberts Surf Team before moving over.
After a couple of years on Maui, Bob returned to Hermosa Beach but that would only last a few months. Bob decided to return to Hawaii and once there he met up with Joe Lynch whom he knew from Hermosa Beach.
Joe Lynch introduced Bob to Joe Kuala. Joe Kuala had a glassing shop by the Ala Moana Shopping Center. After telling Joe he had done ding repairs Bob got a job of doing just that. Then he started sanding and after that Joe taught Bob the whole 9 yards in glassing and shaping.
For about 6 or 8 months they were glassing Surfline Surfboards when Gerry Lopez, Jack Shipley and Chris Gardner came by one day. They asked Joe if his shop would do the glassing for their new surf company Lightning Bolt Surfboards. The year was 1968 near the end of summer. Gerry was a shaper for Surfline and Jack was the sales manager. They got together and departed from Surfline and the rest became history.
Joe’s shop was located on 404 Piikoi St. where you would drive down the side road that led to the rear of a large warehouse. Once at the rear entrance of the old warehouse that seemed to have been some kind of a manufacturing facility. The stairway was not far from the parking. Wide enough for someone with 2 or 3 surfboard blanks to walk up on as would have been the case for Joe or Bob or Gerry or Reno or cast of other well known shapers of the time.
There was a landing halfway up to the second floor to re-grip your blanks if need be. After getting to the second floor landing the entrance to Joe’s shop was to the left as the stairs continued up to the third floor, which was the top floor.
The shaping room was just right of the entrance and the bottom of the stairs was part of the room. The shaping room at it peak would have 6 or 7 different shapers scheduled to shape their boards daily. After they finished they would take it around the corner where the finished shapes were lined up against the wall and waited to be glassed.
The shaping racks at Joe's shop
To name a few of the shapers, there was Colin Chang, Wayne Santos, Chris Gardner, the Dumphy Brothers, Nat Young, Joey Cabell, and Joe Quigg,
Besides the regular shapers who would shape at Joe’s, they were glassing for George Downing, Ben Aipa, some of the early Craig Sugihara boards at Town and Country and Surfboards Makaha. There were a lot of different shapes that Bob would pick up on it, a little here and little there.
If Gerry weren’t surfing Ala Moana he would be shaping at Joe’s. By watching Gerry and copying his shaping technique from A to Z Bobby soon developed his shaping skill. Bob credits Joe for teaching him all he knows about board building and Gerry for fine-tuning his views on shaping. Bob was very busy sanding at nights since the shaping room was also the sanding room.
Reno Abellira backside surfing influenced Bob more than anyone else. After shaping a board or two Reno and Bob would go down to the beach in Reno’s orange VW Bug. Out in the water while paddling out Bob would see Reno taking off in a low stance before beginning his backside bottom turn with his left arm extended downward as his hand touched the water. Pushing down on his right leg while coming off the bottom, pivoting up for a lip bash on his 6'3" Brewer that had a center fin and two small trailer fins in the shape of half moons.
Back down the face and another bottom, climbing and dropping, climbing and dropping, picking up more speed for the bowl section in front of him. Into the pit of the bowl. Sling shotting out into a sweeping frontside round house cutback at the tail end of the ride. As the wave moves into the deeper waters of the Ala Wai channel the white water rolls over an exposed coral head. A typical ride the crowd out in the water has come to expect and admire. There was the Bolt gang and Bob was part of the early crew.
Rob Burns was shaping for Lightning Bolts before starting Local Motion. Then you had the guys out in the Country shaping for the Bolt, Don Koplien, Tom Eberly, Bill Barnfield, and Tom Parrish to name a few.
By 1972 Bob had moved to Maui and was glassing, shaping and working different jobs. In 73' he would visit friends on Kauai and Oahu, shaping and glassing and doing other jobs for a short while.
Returning to Maui he continued to build boards. In 1974 Bob went to El Salvador with Steve Bingham and a couple other people. Steve would be filming the surf trip and would show some of it at a friend's party when they got back. At the party you could find Steve discussing the trip with Dana Edmonds as Jimbo Haywood would be talking to Bob about it also. Surfing without crowds and the day to day life of a third world environment.
After the trip to El Salvador Bob managed the Lightning Bolt shop in Kahalui. When he go surf good Honolua Bay, ho it was an all day thing you know. Taking 3 boards just in case one them broke in half. Taking off at Coconut Groves over bath tub's and around the Point. Surfing it since the mid 60's he can't recall a favorite ride, just too many to remember.
Honolua Bay with Coconut Groves around the corner
Bob did a 180 degree turn in his life style during this time period and accepted Jesus Christ his Lord and Savior ever since and got married. Moving to Haiku, Bob did work as a carpenter and built boards in his backyard shack. Friends and friends of friends wanted his boards.
Board building got so busy that he started Aloha Glass Works at the Haiku Cannery. Doing contract glassing for the established shop and backyard shapers. Bob and wife had 3 children and things were going good. His wife wanted to move to Idaho in the latter part of the 1980’s and Bob built a house there. After a couple of years they drifted apart and got a divorce.
Starting over he went into boat building in Seattle and sailed the Puget Sounds on weekends. After a few years he moved back to Southern California and worked varies jobs before getting a job at a boatyard in Orange County. Having been through the cycle of marriage, divorce and child support. Bob takes things in stride as the afternoon winds shift, he tacks another course on the coastal waters of his memories aboard his 37 ft. sloop sailboat.
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© Takao Copyright 2003
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