Hobie Surfboards History in Hawaii
Hobie Surfboards is without question the most enduring brand in surfing. Dale Velzy may have been the first to open a board shaping brick and mortar (1949-50) but Hobie Alter is credited with opening the world’s first official surf shop in 1954. While every other from the era folded with the shortboard revolution of the late ’60s, Hobie Surfboards has been able to sustain. To this day they have three impressive locations, including one in Laguna Beach, another in Dana Point, and the most southern down in San Clemente CA. At press, they have a fourth destination in progress for San Juan Capistrano, a space to be shared with Vissla, Patagonia, and Hawaii’s own Florence Marine X.
While Hobie Alter is responsible for a number of innovations and contributions, many of which persist in the Hawaiian islands, it’s important to shine a light on how Hawaii helped shaped his legacy as well. Of course, no board builder, shaper, nor surf brand would exist if it weren’t for the archipelago giving birth to surfing, so in that sense Hobie Surfboards history is tethered to the islands in the same manner as any. All of that aside, Hobie and Hawaii have a special relationship that SMH hopes to help readers learn more about below.
Timeline of How Hawaii Helped Shape the Enduring Legacy of Hobie Surfboards
Hobie Goes Hawaiian
In the same year Gidget went Hawaiian (1961) Hobie Alter did too. Prior to his visit, George Downing had been renting and selling Hobie’s boards on the beaches of Oahu. However, sales didn’t meet the ambitious (and amphibious) businessman’s expectations. This motivated him to pack up with Hobie Surf Shops co-founder Dick Metz in tow to head across the Pacific from Dana Point HQ to Honolulu. The mission? To firmly establish the Hobie brand in Hawaii.
Hobie Opens Shops in Honolulu and Lahaina
Images: Courtesy of Dick Metz @ SHACC
Alter leased an empty store across from Ala Moana Beach on Kapiolani Boulevard and opened the North Pacific’s first Hobie Surfboards in 1962. He left Dick Metz in charge and returned to Dana Point to tend to operations on the mainland. Opening day inventory at the Kapiolani location consisted of 18 surfboards, which sold before they made their way into the shop’s virgin racks. Alter shipped another half-dozen or so, and began building a stockpile for the eager Hawaiian consumer base. An equally ambitious Metz recognized the need to establish a satellite on Oahu’s North Shore and pretty soon Hobie Surfboards had bookended the island. A shop in Maui’s Lahaina Town soon followed.
Hawaii had welcomed Hobie Surfboards with open arms.
Hobie + Phil Edwards + Pipeline
Around the same time that Hobie Surfboards was establishing roots in Hawaii, a shaper and surfer who had been in Alter’s employ in Dana Point also made a pilgrimage to Oahu’s North Shore. On a self-shaped longboard single fin (the craft of the time) Phil Edwards paddled out at Banzai Pipeline and became the first documented surfer to ride the world’s most infamous wave. The ride is featured in 1961’s Surfing Hollow Days, and made Edwards a household name in the quickly populating surf world. The surfer’s star rose even higher when he made the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1966.
Capitalizing on this exposure and the mystique of Pipeline, Alter and Edwards collaborated to create the Hobie Phil Edwards model surfboard. It was the first time that a “celebrity” surfer lent his name to a label, and thus it became the first signature model surfboard. Pipeline’s role in shaping Hobie Surfboards history (and vice versa) didn’t end there, as when surfer John Peck was photographed doing the first ever rail-grab (pig-dog stance) at Pipeline, he was doing so over the diamond-shaped Phil Edwards logo.
The model was introduced in April of 1964 and remained in production until 1967. Images of an original Hobie Phil Edwards model below were snapped (by yours truly) for the WSL’s “Pioneers of Pipeline” series (see video after) that was filmed during the 2022 Billabong Pro Pipeline.
Images: Property of Surf Museum Hawaii
Hobie Brewer Model
In 1965, the most influential surfboard builder of the era joined forces with the most influential surfboard brand of the time. Hobie Surfboards announced its collaboration with Surfboards Hawaii founder, Dick Brewer, within the pages of Surfer Magazine:
The Hobie Surfboard Shop is proud to announce the addition of Dick Brewer to our staff of shapers. Dick has earned the reputation of being one of the top big-wave board builders in the world, and most of the big-wave boards ridden on the north shore of Oahu last year were shaped by Dick Brewer. This year Dick will be building a board with some new changes in design. We call it the Dick Brewer Model Hobie Surfboard. Unlike other Hobie Surfboards, this board will be built in a special shop that has been set up on the north shore. We think that the only way to build a big-wave board is to build it right where the big waves are, where surfers like Buzzy Trent, Dick Brewer and others not only ride the big waves, but live, talk and think of nothing but big waves and the type of equipment to ride them with.
Building boards in this environment has helped Dick Brewer’s big-wave boards gain the personality and prestige they now hold. With the combination of Dick Brewer and the Hobie Surfboard Shop, we feel that the Dick Brewer Model Hobie Surfboard should be one of the finest big wave boards ever built. These boards may be ordered through your local Hobie distributor and picked up there, or delivery may be made at the Hobie Surfboard Shop in Honolulu for those going to the Islands for the winter.”
Surfer Magazine, 1965
From the collection of SMH consultant Greg Lui Kwan
The label was made famous by Jeff Hackman, who won the inaugural 1965 Duke Kahamamoku Invitational Contest riding a 9’4 Hobie Dick Brewer model gun. However, other innovations followed the brief but impactful collaboration. Brewer experimented with a significant reduction in the weight of one of the boards. He accomplished this by reducing the size of the offset wood stringers to 1/8 inch which were a departure from the 1/4 inch redwood stringer that ran down the center of the board. This served as an example that other board builders would follow. One Hobie gun produced by master-shaper Terry Martin closely resembled a Hobie Brewer, but also mirrored elements (namely the fin) of the Hobie Phil Edwards model referenced above which brings us back full circle.
It was originally thought that DB shaped a total of 88 boards under the Hobie Dick Brewer label, but SMH consultant Randy Rarick confirms that 98 were produced. Regardless, they are among the most sought after on the vintage surfboard market.
Hobie Closes Up Shop in Hawaii
Ironically, Dick Brewer may be partly responsible for the closure of Hobie surf shops in Hawaii. His mini-guns kickstarted the aforementioned shortboard revolution, rendering longboards that Hobie was synonymous for without much demand on the islands. This shift persisted through the late 1960s and into the 1980s. Ultimately, Hobie retail operations retreated to the proven market of Southern California. However, there is a strong demand for the iconic name today in the islands. At the June 22/24 Dana Point film premiere of “Business as Usual” featuring the Hobie surf team, we asked co-owner Jake Schwaner if the return of a shop in Hawaii might be in the forseable future. Schwaner indicated that they have no plans to do so. A gaping hole has been left that is now filled by a Target.
Former location of Hobie Surf Shop in Honolulu
Where to Find Hobie in Hawaii Today
Every serious surfer should own a piece of Hobie Surfboards history. Surfboard Factory Hawaii in Kapolei (get directions) has both new and vintage Hobie Surfboards for sale. Otherwise, they are a bit of a retail rarity here in the Hawaiian islands. If you find someone riding a Hobie out in the wild when surfing the likes of Canoes or Queens in Waikiki, be sure to throw them a shaka.
