A to Z
You ’ ll find everything you need to live the wave-rider lifestyle right here in Laguna Beach .
BY VICKI HOGUE-DAVIES
COURTESY OF CATCH SURF
Opened earlier this year , Catch Surf offers the gear and apparel needed for riding the waves . hen the first surfers took to the water on is the perfect place to be creative .” longboards for the inaugural Brooks Street Surfing
Indeed , Laguna ’ s rich history as a surfing mecca often
WClassic in 1955 , a sea change was coming for intertwines with its artistic roots . For years , surfer artists surfboards . The following decade would see boards begin to have designed T-shirts for the Brooks Street contest , and transition from wood to polyurethane foam and , in the late some surf shops in town have looked to local artistic talent 1960s , shortboards would gain immense popularity . to decorate their walls and design their products .
Today , shortboards , longboards , paddleboards and
“ Local artists do art for our T-shirts , hats and sweatshirts ,” says Nick Cocores , owner of Thalia Surf Shop . “ We skimboards all share Laguna ’ s waves . The unending quest by surfers to build a better device for riding waves has sometimes work with [ Laguna College of Art & Design ] transformed board-building from a garage endeavor to a in the canyon to design T-shirts , and a small percentage multibillion-dollar industry , and local surfers , shapers and of the proceeds go back to the school . We opened to be crafters have always been on its cutting edge . a specialty shop , so we have a lot of private label and we
“ Building surfboards is a creative endeavor ,” says really focus on trying to tell our own story .”
Laguna native Rod Greenup , owner of CA Surf N Paddle . “ I
Laguna ’ s surf shops all have different stories to tell . Here feel lucky to do it in a place like Laguna Beach . An art colony they are , from A to Z .
22 SUMMER 2017 CITY GUIDE