President's Surfboard
THE STORY OF LEGENDARY GLASSER
DANNY BRAWNER
There have been many events in the surfboard industry that have occurred since the time Danny Brawner made his first surfboard for himself. Polyurethane foam was developed and balsa faded as the core of choice for surfboards, just like redwood had done years previous. Longboards became short, and single fins became twins, and then tri’s. What this adds up to is that Dan can say he saw it coming, was there when it happened and can look back on it with fond memories.
(L-R) Danny with the board he made and Rex Danny in the Velzy glassing room photo Bruce Brown
Danny began surfing in 1951 at Doheny Beach and met Rex McMullen whose father was a Park Ranger there. Having a dad who was a Ranger meant that Rex and his family were living there. The Parks Department would house the Rangers at the campgrounds in designated cottages. It was a wonderful time to live near the beach.
The coastline had plenty of marine life back then, Starfishes, Abalones, and Sea Urchins. The possibility of stepping on a sea urchin was very likely if you weren’t careful while walking out or stepping off your board to walk in. There were Sea Urchin in between or on the river rocks that line the coastal waters from Doheny Beach to around the cove to Dana Point.
The San Juan Creek also known as the San Juan River flowed out at Doheny Beach. Through the centuries rocks from the Santa Ana Mountain tumbled to the sea. Having river rocks lining the beach and some distance from shore meant a bottom that didn’t change much, so the waves broke the same most of the time. One of the characteristics of a long sloping shoreline is that the waves would break and reform quite a few times before disappearing on the beach.
It was 1954 and Balsa surfboards ruled the coast. By this time Danny had shaped and glassed a few balsa boards for himself and his brother. The boards that he made were OK, considering no prior experience in surfboard building. And having surfed a few years, his experience were developing and the boards that he made rode alright as far as Danny was concerned
After making those boards, Danny decided to get a balsa surfboard at Hobie Surf Shop, which was west of Doheny and up the bluff a quarter mile on Coast Highway. The board cost him $50.00 and back then that was a lot of money. Considering gasoline was 10 to 15 cents a gallon. While in High School Danny got a job at Hobie’s repairing balsa board.
Since surfing was becoming popular among the youth and young adults who lived by the ocean. Parents started buying surfboards for their kids and took them to the beach. The older guys who had cars started traveling up and down the coast in search of surf. The demand for surfboards was on the increase and so was the increase of dings.
One day in 1958 Danny stopped by Dale Velzy shop in San Clemente which was a 15 minute drive from Doheny traveling south on Coast Highway. And so he was talking with Dale and the conversation turned to board building. As they talked Danny mentioned that he had glassed a few surfboards. Dale kept an open mind regarding help and knowing he would need help in glassing his boards had Danny glass some boards, so Danny did just that and became one of the crew.
Dale Velzy had shops in San Clemente, San Diego, Hawaii, Manhattan Beach and Venice. Dale had a crew of notable craftsmen working for him already. There was Al Nelson, Carl Ekstrom, Rennie Yater, Sandy Banks, Harold Igge, Donald Takayama, Del Cannon, Bill Cooper, Bob Cooper, George Kapo’o, Bobby Patterson and others.
Many of those craftsmen would go on to work for other surf shops that were operated by Hobie Alter, Bing Copeland, Dewey Weber, Greg Noll and the other name brands surfboard builders of the 60s, and some would start they own shops.
In 1960 hard times came upon Velzy, unable to pay his taxes after his divorce from his first wife he closed all his shops. After a few years in Arizona Dale would return to Southern California and open a shop in Newport Beach near the Coast Highway.
When Velzy closed his shop in 1960 , Danny went to work for a company named Bohemian, making pop out surfboards. The foam was brick hard and had to be sanded before any glassing could be done. The boards had a layer of 20 ounce fiberglass on the top and 20 oz. on the bottom. After working for Bohemian for 9 months, Danny went to work for Holden Surfboards in 1961.
Things didn’t work out at Holden’s so Danny went to work for Velzy at his Newport Beach shop, as a temporary glassing instructor. During this time Velzy’s had started a surfboard building class and Danny taught glassing. A couple guys had signed up and Danny taught them how to glass while George Kapo’o sanded those boards. One of those individuals was from the Middle East and whose name was difficult to pronounce. So Dale just gave him the nickname of Accu Ba Ba and let it go at that. Accu Ba Ba would go on to another field of work and supported his son through college.
In 1962 Danny got married and an opportunity to work for Hobie at his new 5000 sq. ft. building came up. Danny would glass for Hobie from 1962 until 1989. Some memorable times at Hobie Surfboards were during those years. Beside glassing and surfing Danny had a musical background. His father was a well known drummer and Danny took up playing the drums. He had played with a trio in 1961 and would join another band in 1962. The name of the band was Sandells and their music would become the sound track for Bruce Brown’s movie The Endless Summer.
(L-R) John Gibson, Gaston Georis, Walter Georis, John Blakey in back and Danny Brawner
When the film first came out the band would play the music, while Bruce did the commentary. Not too many people knew of this, but the original album cover for The Endless Summer album had a motorcycle on it. Originally a motorcycle sort of album, but turned out to be an album relating to surfing, same songs but a different cover.
An article was written about the band by Cathy O’ Toole an Orange County Register Staff writer in 1964 called:
Popularity Rides on the ‘Beatle Beat’ Coattails
San Clemente—There’s one too many and their hair’s too short to be Beatles but their Orange County brand of rock and roll will bug you just the same. By adding a cha-cha beat, a South American swing and the haunting tones of the claviota to their version of rock and roll, this city’s “Sandells” during their eight month existence have snared resounding applause from adults as well as teenagers.
A successful debut before an adult audience (Orange County League of Cities) has been repeated at Balboa Island’s Rendezvous Ballroom, Anaheim’s Harmony Park, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Long Beach Municipal Auditorium and Riverside Civic Auditorium, the latter a double bill with Nelson Riddle.
The local five-man combo, consisting of Walter and Gaston Georis, John Blakely, Danny Brawner, and John Gibson, are finding recent bookings include an increasing number of adult dance as well as teenage hops. Other successes include the sound track for Bruce Brown’s surfing film, “The Endless Summer,” and two albums, “Scambler,” already released and selling well, and another scheduled for release next month and yet unnamed by World Pacific records. Their new album features such colorful numbers as California Sun, Pink Panther, and Walk on the Wild Side.
The young musicians claim “to present a different rock and roll…. clean cut … with a slight European touch…. and more musical theory.” In blending their voices with the music, they maintain, “Pure instrumentals have gone out in Southern California. The kids are tired of hearing them.” “The Beatles use the same technique,” they add.
Although they formed the “Sandells” eight months ago, the young musicians have been playing together since grade school days in this city’s Concordia School. The group was actually born when John Blakely saved his quarter a week allowance in the fifth grade for a year to buy a guitar. After he taught himself to play, he began teaching schoolmates John Gibson and Walter Georis.
The only formal musical education is possessed by Gaston Georis, 23, who took piano lessons for five years and music theory in college. Gaston, who alternates between a variety of rhythm instruments, is a high school teacher in Riverside and studying at San Diego State College for his master’s degree in literature.
His brother Walter, 19, who plays the rhythm guitar and harmonica, graduated from Capistrano Union High School and plans to attend Riverside City College, majoring in photography. John Blakely, 18, who graduated with Walter, will major in psychology, when he starts at University of California at Berkeley next month. John Gibson, 17, still a high school student here, plays bass guitar.
Danny Brawner, 24 year old drummer, is following his well known drummer father’s footstep. Known as one of the southland’s top surfboard makers, he make his home in Capistrano Beach. (End of Article)
Danny would quit the band in 1967 because practice sessions were out in Riverside and his wife was expecting their second child. He didn’t to want travel that far from the home to practice. The band got another drummer who unfortunately died in a foggy car accident commuting to practice.
In April 2002 the band had a reunion in Santa Ana, California, which brought back memories to all who attended. Besides laminating, Danny glossed at Hobie’s. In the sixties he considered glossing as an art, the tints, the solid colors were in the gloss. One time Danny and Raymond Patterson painted a short stocky Batman with different color pigments on one of the boards.
In the mid 1960s, Danny and a few of the guys who worked at Hobie’s would go to Doheny for a surf session during lunch breaks. During a big south swells which occurred during the summer months, Danny would go to Killer Dana. Everybody was there, at least 10 people and back then that was considered crowded.
Terry Martin and Danny Brawner with a board that Terry shaped and Danny glassed
Hobie surfboards were very popular on the West and East Coasts of the US in the 1960’s.
On Father’s Day 1969, Richard Nixon received from his daughters a Hobie Surfboard for his birthday, actually a miniature surfboard. The story behind the miniature surfboard came about on the day before he was to receive a full size surfboard.
Julie Nixon and President Nixon with miniature surfboard. Surfboard One on the beach.
While his full size surfboard waited to be picked up by the secret service for the next day’s presentation, something happened. For an unknown reason, the surfboard fell from the board rack. The board had the Presidential Seal, the Hobie decal, some snackles and a ding. It was unacceptable to give a used surfboard to the President of the United States, since they paid for a new one. An alternative plan was in order.
Well, things became hectic. Having less than 24 hours before the presentation, something needed to be done. Hobie’s solution was a miniature surfboard to fill in for the original board, until another one could be made. So Danny and a couple of other guys would work into the night to produce the miniature surfboard. The outer edges of this story were blurred due to the years that have passed, but the center of the picture was reconstructed for a glimpse of what it must have been like.
A template needed to be done somewhat to scale, a piece of foam was needed, a overall color scheme and a decals location. A rough estimate in the amount of time, and who would do what was taken into consideration. Once things got under way, everyone on the project knew the important concept to keep in mind, and that was to think small.
Most of the shapers at the factory had orders they were doing or they had left for the day. So Danny doesn’t recall who shaped the miniature surfboard that afternoon. Whoever that ghost shaper was, it would have been unimaginable for him to be using his planer. But if he did, it would have been unreal. Like a Titan from a Greek mythology story, the ghost shaper towered over the president’s miniature surfboard. Using the tips of the thumb and index finger to feel the rail contour. Twisting it with one hand to look at the top and bottom contours, all 26 plus inches. With a careful eye and a sensitive touch, everything started to blend towards the final shape. After the fine sanding it was ready to be glassed.
Into the laminating room and the modified glassing rack. While the fiberglass laid on this miniature surfboard, Danny was in the background preparing the resin to be poured. In another room someone else was making the foam fin with a wooden inlay, rushing to keep on this unexpected schedule of presidential importance.
After the curing of the resin on the laminating coat, the board was ready for the fin and decals. After the decals, the fin was tack on with a little resin and leveled perpendicular to the bottom surface of the board with masking tape, as the minutes ticked away.
A small amount of fiberglass rope was placed on both sides of the base of the fin and then the fin was covered with a layer of cloth, cut out in the shape of the fin with some excess at the base.
All along the way the ratio of catalyst to resin was carefully converted. Into the early morning hours the hot coat kicking off as its milky transparent skirt of resin hung on the masking tape border. After 2 hours the miniature surfboard was ready to be sanded.
It was hand sanded before being sent to the glossing room. After the curing of the final coat, the very small surfboard awaited the polisher in the morning.The board was finished on time and guarded against any mishap until the Secret Service picked it up. The miniature surfboard was presented to President Nixon for Father’s Day. After receiving the gift, it was anybody’s guess what the President was thinking. Another full size board was built a short time later and was picked up to end the story of The President’s Surfboard.
After the unknown historical surfing moment in United States history, Danny continued glassing for Hobie into the 70s and 80s, where in 1978 he went to the East Coast trade show and was caught on photo with some notable at some booth during the show. There was a contest to see if anyone could determine the real Gerry Lopez signature out of one hundred. Gerry signed his name once and Danny did it ninety-nine times. The prize was a surfboard. Someone did find the correct signature and the board was given away.
(L-R) Gerry Lopez, Peter Pan, Danny Brawner, Chip Post, jack Shipley and Mark Levy
The 1980s took off with the 3 fin thruster movement and the longboard revival. After which in the 1990s and into the 2000s Dan would be restoring old surfboards. Danny is one of the legendary glassers in the surfboard industry. The history that flows from his squeegee is over a half century and with it, all that resin that has dripped onto the floors of the shops that he has worked for. Very few in the industry can match the number of glassing shoes worn by Danny Brawner.
