This would be a cool place to cruise on a weekend. To watch the Galveston Surfboard maker make his boards in person.

Surf shop gives old concept new life

By Stephen Hadley
Correspondent
Published April 20, 2008

GALVESTON — More than five decades ago — well before flip-flops and the Beach Boys ushered surfing into mainstream American culture — the few guys building surfboards hit upon an idea.

Instead of shaping boards in their garages, where they were mostly being peddled to friends, surfboard-makers began looking for ways they could offer their custom designs to more people. Thus, the surf shop was born. The original shop, largely credited to the late surfing legend Dale Velzy, was a place where Velzy could sell his creations out of a small California storefront that doubled as a shaping room in the back.

Much has changed in the intervening 50 years. Nowadays, surf shops are mostly retail spaces, more known for the brands of clothing they sell than the surfboards they carry. But longtime Galveston surf shop owner and surfboard maker James Fulbright is doing what he can to revive the original concept of the surf shop.

Fulbright, owner of Surf Specialties on Seawall Boulevard, is expanding his surfboard-making operations at the corner of 37th Street and Avenue R. The expansion — which will be known as Strictly Hardcore Surf & Shape — represents the first opportunity for visitors to see his surfboard-shaping take place firsthand. They can also soak in the ambience of a bygone era when the surf shop was a bit off the beaten path and served as a gathering place for surfers of all abilities.

“It goes back to that original concept of the surf shop,” Fulbright said. “I want this to be a place where surfers learn, share and grow — a place where they can return to the roots of what surfing is all about when they’re out of the water.

“The first surf shop was a place where the surfboards were shaped out back and sold in the front of the building. There was a genuine interaction between the shaper and the shop visitor in terms of really understanding and explaining the art of surfboard-shaping. It was a place to not only purchase what you needed but also to learn and to grow as a surfer by learning from others in the community.”

To that end, Fulbright installed a window in the expanded shop that allows visitors to see inside the shaping bay where he’s usually busy making custom surfboards. In the world of surfboard-shaping, such access has been virtually nonexistent as the most skilled and experienced shapers sought to keep the spotlight off their shaping practices.

“Surfboard-shaping has been such a secretive thing for so many years,” Fulbright said. “But the reality is that it’s important we pass this art on to others so they can understand the process and what goes into handcrafting a surfboard. I wanted to create an environment that welcomes and opens the shaping process to anyone who’s interested.”

Fulbright said he’d eventually like to conduct clinics to teach aspiring shapers how to shape and paint their own boards.

While Fulbright has been shaping boards at 37th Street and Avenue R for nearly two decades, he’s also repaired and sold used boards and surfing equipment and even supplied garage shapers with blanks, fins and other board-making supplies. In fact, Fulbright opened the first incarnation of Surf Specialties — 10 years before its move to the seawall — in a small garage next to the site where Strictly Hardcore Surf & Shape is now.

That first shop, crammed with hard-to-find new and used surfboards and surf-related goods, was known by its faithful patrons as a place to swap tales of far-flung travels with the small community of surfers who found their way there.

Fulbright, who gained international fame for his role in the 2003 surf film “Step Into Liquid” in which he was shown surfing the wakes created by the tankers traversing Galveston Bay and who recently created the award-winning alternative surf documentary “Miles to Surf,” said he’ll continue operating Surf Specialties on Seawall Boulevard. He said Strictly Hardcore Surf & Shape represents a different opportunity for him to further support the thriving community of surfers along the upper Texas coast.

“My roots are here on the island, and I want to continue to share my passion for surfboard shaping and surfing with the generations of people who have found this sport through the years,” he said. “What better place than where it all began for me and my surf shop.”

I'd like to check that out. This will be a lost art someday. Boards are popping out of molds these days, and mass production has taken over. Fulbright has been around the Texas surf scene a long time, and even does boat trips out into the Galveston ship channel to chase incoming tankers, and surf the wakes they produce as they near the shoal of the channel.

Surfing in the ...SHIP CHANNEL That can't be good for you!

If you every watch Step Into Liquid,they have a chapter in the movie on surfing the ship channel..

Wished there were waves out here like out there. Just keep watching and the video will start. Awesome Tube Riding

http://surfermag.com/av/flash/my-eyes-wont-dry-2/

With all the crap that's being pumped out and drained into the water no place is really good for you, I was watching local T.V. (and talked to some locals) while out in San Fransisco last year, I still want to add a week or two and bring my windsurfing stuff next time though.


As for going out and checking this place out I think it is a definite must, really depends on how anxious I get at the last minute and have to bail.