The Endless Summer of Lance Carson

By GABRIELLA AYRES | Reporter

Reporter

Every culture has its own hero. The gallant victor or the knight in brazen armor. A humble president, or your favorite teacher—that helpful serving of tangible ethos. For the many surfers around the world, that luminous hero is Lance Carson.

A myth in the making, Carson is known across the globe as the master pointbreak artist who helped shape Malibu surf culture of the late ’50s and ’60s. In addition to his early-earned notoriety, Carson, to this day, has been largely linked to the resurgence of longboarding—an industry that nearly died out in 1970s.

The Palisadian-Post had the honor of sitting down with the living legend himself as he recollected upon a most fascinating lifetime.

“There’s a popular saying among surfers,” Carson began, with beaming eyes, “‘You should have been here yesterday.’”

Born in 1943, Carson has called Pacific Palisades home for nearly his entire life.

Diagnosed with spina bifida—a birth condition in which there is an incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord—doctors recommended that the newborn’s parents exercise him regularly in water as a way to promote bone growth. So, at age 5, Carson began his surf legacy on a board fashioned by his father.

“I’ve always loved the weekend,” the natural storyteller told the Post. “We would all pile into the old Packard and my father would drive us up to Malibu Cove. I’d look out at the ocean and watch the few surfers in awe. I very vividly remember telling my dad, ‘I’ve just got to do that.’”

Carson’s father, an aircraft engineer, shaped the eager boy’s first three boards in the family’s garage. A natural self study, Carson would spend every weekend watching—and learning—from the “old-timers” out in Malibu. It was on his second board, at 7 years old, that the young gun stood up for the first time.

During the ’40s and ’50s, Malibu and the surrounding coastline were rural areas that had not yet been developed for public use. To Carson, it was a time that can never again be revisited.

“Malibu was a pristine, magical place,” Carson recalled. “There was a strong sense of community with plenty of waves to go around. And, if it was kind of flat that day, we’d just sit on our boards and watch the various sea creatures float by. Back then the reef was entirely visible.”

Over the next 15 years, Carson—along with the celebrated Miki Dora—would go on to define the Malibu surf scene.

Recognized all throughout Southern California for his rollicking personality, Carson mastered noseriding, colloquially known as “hanging 10,” and deepset turns by his teenage years—a feat that earned him an early spot on the prestigious Jacob’s Surf Team.

“The ’60s were all about fun,” Carson remembered with fondness. “We’d surf all day before heading over to the drive-in theater. We’d go on dates with the day’s salt still stuck to our skin.”

In 1966, Carson and Dora were both heavily featured in Bruce Brown’s “The Endless Summer”—a classic surf documentary that heavily contributed to the sport’s surge in national trend.

Carson would later go on to serve as the inspiration for characters Lance B. Johnson—a charismatic surfer in “Apocalypse Now”—and Matt Johnson in “Big Wednesday.”

Then, in only a season’s time, surfing was forever changed.

In what Carson calls “an overnight sensation,” the Australian-born shortboard came crashing onto the California scene. It was official—the relaxed surfing style of the ’60s was over—longboards were out and shortboards were in.

“There was a lot of ego,” Carson recalled with a grimace. “Because shortboards were easier to maneuver, surfing quickly became all about tricks and showing off.”

It was a revolution that Carson wanted no part in.

The once underground “way of life” quickly transformed into a worldwide phenomena.

Surf-exclusive shop fronts began popping up all over both sides of the North American coast. To Carson, the ’70s were an overzealous “wave parade”—the culture he knew no longer seemed to be about freedom.

“To me, surfing was about cutting loose and having fun,” Carson said. “Then, all of a sudden, the beach got competitive. I still surfed, but when I paddled out on my old longboard—man, the other guys would blow raspberries at me. They’d flippantly ask, ‘Carson, why are you still riding that old tanker?’”

So, in his own act of rebellion, the “longboarding mutineer” turned to rock ’n’ roll.

Carson, who said his career in music started while singing to his older sister’s doo wop records, taught himself to play the drums as a teenager. By 21, he was drumming and singing in local clubs across Los Angeles and Malibu.

A true rhythm and blues aficionado, Carson surprisingly never cared much for the “surf music craze” that swept through the ’70s and ’80s. Interestingly enough, two of the musician’s best friends were surf music pioneers—namely Bruce Johnston and Mike Kowaiski of The Beach Boys.

In 1976, set out to preserve the “bona fides” of time-honored longboard wave riding, Cason founded the Lance Carson Surfboards label and began shaping and selling his own crafted longboards to surf shops in Santa Monica.

“Things mellowed out during the late ’70s and ’80s,” Carson said. “Everything—and not just surfing, but society as a whole—kind of matured after the Vietnam War. Surfing became less ‘fashionable,’ and I made a comeback of my own.”

Over the course of the following four decades, Carson would go on to construct quality, custom longboards for surf enthusiasts all over the world. Most recently, Carson crafted a beautiful balsa board bearing the logo for the classic band Chicago.

And when he’s not surfing or shaping, the Palisadian is conserving. Established in 1984, Carson helped launch Surfrider Foundation—a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to protecting the world’s beaches.

Carson, who has called the same Pacific Palisades condo home for the last 45 years, said that he’s not planning on retiring any time soon. When he’s not preserving our ocean and creating custom dream boards, you can still catch this living legend singing and drumming in various Malibu clubs. His band, Lance Carson and the Malibu Allstars, is known to draw crowds from all over Southern California.

“I’m very grateful,” Carson told the Post in earnest. “I got to live during some of the most fascinating eras while making a living doing what I love. You really can’t ask for more than that.”

Lance Carson—a man who has done it all, and isn’t close to finished yet.

Check out lancecarson.com for information regarding upcoming show dates. The man is not done rockin’ yet.