BY RUSTY PREISENDORFER ’ 78

I LEARNED TO SHAPE SURFBOARDS by having bought a beat-up secondhand board and fixing all the dings in it . By the early ’ 70s , I was making a little bit of a name for myself as a shaper . I worked for some brands and started a couple myself . I was signing my boards : R . Preisendorfer , and the Rusty logo came from that — it seems simple but took a lot of work , actually . I was playing around with the dot and eventually lifted it up a bit . And at first the R-dot was fairly small , but a friend of mine said , “ Let me blow it up for you .” He did , up to eight or nine inches , and that ’ s what gave it those rough-textured edges .

I started working for Canyon Glass Shop in 1978 — it wasn ’ t really a surfboard label but I blew it up . Toward the ’ 80s , my reputation as a shaper had led to me judging surf contests around the world . I started making boards for some pros I liked , and then other pros and their companies began asking me to make boards for them . That was a turning point for me , and I decided to start my own brand . I gave notice July 4th 1985 . I wasn ’ t sure what to call my company , but Pete

Townend , then the advertising director at Surfing magazine , was the one who suggested using my name —“ That ’ s what everyone will call it anyway ,” he said . I had months worth of Canyon surfboard orders even before I began . In November ’ 85 I was off and running . At one point , at least half of the top surf pros were riding my boards . But I had art in my veins too — that was my major at UC San Diego , after I switched from psychology . So along with the shaping , I was doing graphic design work , airbrushing boards and making designs with the logo . When I started offering T-shirts along with board orders they just blew up , especially the first one — the logo over a blue / purple / red spectrum . The demand was daunting at first , but it was a great complement for the boards , the margins are far better , for example . Clothing really helped the company overall , once we figured out how to produce it at scale .

Once we got into clothing , though , that complicated matters a bit with the boards . Namely , the pros who rode Rusty boards had existing sponsorships from apparel companies , and it created a conflict of interest . That ultimately blew over , but it tested relationships for a while . Then , gradually , as the Rusty brand grew with more investors and licensees , I was slowly losing control over what was being made . This was especially hard because it was my name out there . It was me .

So , while it ’ s generally said not to be healthy to split a brand and ownership of a trademark , I think it was in my case . I split off the apparel side , and now I ’ m focused all on Rusty Surfboards — a lot like how it all began , actually . We even do our shaping right down the road from UC San Diego . In my lifetime , I ’ d have to say I ’ ve hand-shaped around 50,000 surfboards . I ’ ve loved all those years of shaping ; I love the brand , too . It ’ s been an amazing journey altogether — to make surfboards and live a life I love , it ’ s a wonderful thing .

— Rusty Preisendorfer ’ 78 was an art major at UC San Diego before starting his eponymous surf brand . He still shapes surfboards along with his son in the Miramar area of San Diego .

56 TRITON | WINTER 2021