Sothern California surfing legend Bill Stewart had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do with his life when he set off in a 1963 Ford van bound for Southern California. In the early days, he surfed up and down the coast until he landed in San Clemente at a surfboard factory. In time, he became known for his unique painting and board shaping abilities in addition to surfing competitively.
By 1978, Stewart opened his first shop in Laguna Beach where he painted and shaped surfboards and sold airbrushed T-shirts and hats. In the mid-1980s, he came up with a distinctive surfboard design: a faster and more nimble longboard than anything produced prior. In fact, the beveled rail Hydro Hull is the proven design standard for most modern longboards.
Stewart is still a fixture at the shop and his longboard designs have helped surfers of all ages experience the exhilaration of catching a wave. It doesn’t get much closer to the California dream than that, does it?