Paul Strauch is a Hawaiian-born surfer who is best known for his Cheater Five and smooth, grace­ful style both in and out of the water. Now based in Cal­i­for­nia, Paul shares with us his phi­los­o­phy and how impor­tant it is to surf through life with aloha, no mat­ter the con­di­tions.

What was it like grow­ing up in the Islands?
I was blessed to be born into a part Hawai­ian fam­ily. My mother was 3/4 Hawai­ian and 1/4 Eng­lish and my Dad, 1/4 Hawai­ian and 3/4 Ger­man. So I learned the cus­tom­ary, tra­di­tional Hawai­ian prac­tices in terms of ethics and a nat­ural appre­ci­a­tion for the ocean, land, and peo­ple. I was lucky and for­tu­nate that my father had a strong affin­ity and rela­tion­ship with the ocean – both surf­ing and fish­ing when he was young. He was extremely patient and an inspir­ing teacher to me.

When did you start surf­ing?
I started surf­ing at the age of 4 on my Dad’s red­wood board. It was more like stand­ing up on a large boat because at that early age it was almost impos­si­ble to move and turn on my own. He took me to the ocean because I was born with an under­de­vel­oped chest and he felt surf­ing would increase my appetite and aid my mus­cu­lar devel­op­ment. I remem­ber being pushed into waves and learn­ing the hard way… You know, swal­low­ing water con­stantly, pearl-diving and hop­ing to keep the bruises and lumps down to a minimum.

What was the feel­ing you had when you got up on your feet?
It’s a feel­ing that is impos­si­ble to accu­rate describe. It was a total sen­sory expe­ri­ence while being pro­pelled across the sur­face of the warm, crys­tal clear ocean where the water was like a giant acquar­ium – you could see the reef and the fish dart­ing by, and the sea­weed… It was very spe­cial and mag­i­cal. A feel­ing I have lived and dreamed over and over and over again.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
I was taught to surf right on Waikiki Beach. And there was a hier­ar­chy. You learn who is at the top, and to work your­self into this sys­tem, you must have respect for those who have senior­ity. My dad was very close to the Waikiki Beach boys like Blue Makua among many oth­ers, and I got to know them per­son­ally. They kind of fathered me in the ocean when my Dad wasn’t around and were very help­ful. Another beach­boy who I admired as a men­tor was Ed “Black­out” Whai­ley (older brother of Momi, Buf­falo Keaulana’s wife) who was a clas­sic surfer who stood very erect with a very smooth style. Of course, George Down­ing, an amaz­ing surfer, shaper, water­man, close men­tor and per­sonal friend since I was 10 years old. Rab­bit Kekai and his brother, Jamma, were also great surfers who I admired as well grow­ing up.

Tell us about your first surf­board
My first balsa board was made in 1954 by Tom Blake and he made it at our house. He was a very quiet man. I got to know him slowly by sit­ting in the shad­ows and watch­ing him work. I asked a lot of ques­tions and he gave me his insight on all the facets of surf­board design like out­line shape, bow or nose lift and what worked well and why. On my board, the balsa came hewn and we picked out the lighter pieces which mea­sured just under 9 ft. by 4” by 6”. Tom cut about 3 ft. of one end of each plank on the diag­o­nal and then glued the cut piece directly on top of that sec­tion on each of the four or five balsa planks, and then glued them all together. That’s how he would get a nat­ural nose curve or bowlift.

When he shaped my board he also put a “swal­low tail” on it. I had never seen this tail shape so I asked him why he did  this and he told me, “You’re small and light so in order to increase maneu­ver­abil­ity I put two points on the tail which would make it eas­ier for you to turn. He did every­thing him­self, from pick­ing out the balsa wood from the local sup­plier, glued the pieces together, shaped the board, fiber-glassed the board and even made my fin from a mold – all in our back yard garage. It was my first real les­son in surf­board design and fab­ri­ca­tion and I learned so much from observ­ing and ask­ing ques­tions. It was a price­less learn­ing experience.

How did you come up with the famous Strauch Crouch (Cheater Five)?
It was the direct result of trim­ming a heavy balsa board on a big wave. It was nat­ural for me to crouch down and move for­ward toward the nose in order to go faster, hold in the wave and keep a tighter trim. And It just worked … log­i­cally. This “Strauch Cheater Five” maneu­ver became very pop­u­lar through the surf mag­a­zines in the 60’s espe­cially with Cal­i­for­nia surfers on smaller waves which came as a total sur­prise to me to see so many surfers run­ning up to the nose, crouch­ing down and stretch­ing their front foot to the nose.

You’ve influ­enced a num­ber of tal­ented surfers (Skip Frye, Gerry Lopez) who con­sider you their idol. How do you feel about that?
Not only are they heroes and extremely tal­ented surfers – but they are peo­ple that I also look up to as well. I’m very flat­tered that they sep­a­rated me in terms of style from oth­ers. BTW, their indi­vid­ual surf­ing styles are noth­ing short of pure grace and con­trol in motion, and so inspir­ing to watch.

When I was grow­ing up, espe­cially in Waikiki, smooth­ness and style were extremely impor­tant and demon­strated expe­ri­ence and con­trol. Once you were able to mas­ter chang­ing direc­tions on a wave, increas­ing speed and trim­ming, it became very impor­tant how you rode the board In terms of look­ing smooth and con­fi­dent, surf­ing relaxed and as nat­ural as pos­si­ble. All the expe­ri­enced surfers at that time surfed this way, and I learned from them that “style” was a key ele­ment to focus on and develop. It also got you respect and a lot more waves, too.

Who were some of your idols?
Besides the surfers I already men­tioned and many oth­ers who I admired and haven’t men­tioned, there were two oth­ers who in the late 50’s who were very sig­nif­i­cant to me… Dewey Weber and Phil Edwards. I didn’t know who they were when they first came to Hawaii in 1958 as there were no surf­ing mag­a­zines back then. I got to see them surf­ing at Makaha dur­ing the win­ter. They were very good although they both surfed dif­fer­ent from each other in terms of their body move­ments and style. But they both used their upper torso, shoul­ders and arms to turn and change direc­tions on the wave so effort­lessly. I remem­ber watch­ing them and going out to mimic their turns and move­ments. At that time, there was only one other per­son who could surf with the same abil­ity and style, and it was a Hawai­ian surfer named Con­rad Canha. Wow, he could really turn and flip his board around like a feather… An extremely gifted surfer of the time and def­i­nitely one of my idols.

What period of surf­ing holds the most cher­ished mem­o­ries of surf­ing for you?
I would say my tran­si­tion from rid­ing small waves to big waves in the late ‘50s. Basi­cally, I tried to surf big waves the same way I surfed small waves. The power of big surf forced me to ana­lyze every­thing on a dif­fer­ent level and really fas­ci­nated me. Your judge­ment had to be quicker, there was so much more water you were deal­ing with and the increased speed made the con­se­quences much more severe. It was more excit­ing, thrilling and just more com­plex. Your equip­ment became more impor­tant– surf­board design was more crit­i­cal, your judg­ment and tim­ing were so impor­tant; you had to be alert all the time.  Try­ing small wave maneu­ver­ing or “hot-dogging” as they called it then, was what I found so much eas­ier to do on big­ger waves. Iron­i­cally, I see today’s surfers approach­ing big waves with the same mindset.

What code do you live by?
I believe it all comes back to you. My par­ents taught me to always have respect for other peo­ple. I think it is the Hawai­ian tem­pera­ment I was raised with and have been able to carry on in my life. I learned it’s just so much eas­ier to look at life with a smile, and be happy than it is to be unhappy. I guess I’ve been very for­tu­nate with this back­ground and lucky to have things open up for me, naturally.

Who/what inspires you?
There are a lot of peo­ple who inspire me and for many dif­fer­ent rea­sons. I remem­ber peo­ple who are so enthu­si­as­tic and ener­getic that it’s infec­tious, yet who are also sen­si­tive, to oth­ers and every­thing around them. And when I have had the oppor­tu­nity to get to know them per­son­ally, I found that they seem to radi­ate their energy and sen­si­tiv­ity in all walks of their life, and seem very con­tent and happy. I like pos­i­tive peo­ple and have always been drawn to them. Peo­ple who have their life in order, are in con­trol and enjoy­ing every aspect of it.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
It would have to be con­tribut­ing to some­one else’s hap­pi­ness. Because if you do that, it lasts for­ever. And no one can take that hap­pi­ness away from you.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
None.

What are you most proud of?
I guess I would have to say that I am from Hawaii, and to have had that expe­ri­ence of the cul­ture, music and the peo­ple. I am thank­ful I was born and raised in that lifestyle, par­ents and fam­ily. I was blessed and wish every­one had a basic, nat­ural will­ing­ness to strive to be happy.

Who do you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
I love what I am see­ing now espe­cially the young, progressive-minded long­board surfers like Alex Knost, Tyler War­ren, Kai Sal­las, and oth­ers who are rid­ing dif­fer­ent long and short­board shapes for dif­fer­ent types of con­di­tions and surf­ing. They are using boards from the past, like the Fish, Quads and Ala­ias as well as super-longboards in the 11’0” range as well. It helps to cre­ate a wider per­spec­tive to your surf­ing. These surfers are becom­ing more uni­ver­sal in their approach and more adapt­able to dif­fer­ent con­di­tions, waves and I’m sure are more ful­filled, too.

I believe that tal­ent isn’t just a gift from God, it has to be devel­oped. Every good surfer needs to be in supe­rior phys­i­cal con­di­tion, have excel­lent tim­ing, good judg­ment and great equip­ment, and spend a lot of time in the water. I feel most impor­tantly though, the expe­ri­ence should bring you great per­sonal ful­fill­ment and satisfaction.

What is your favorite board in your quiver?
I’ve actu­ally been going back to what I rode in the ‘50s. Right now I’m revis­it­ing the Pig shape with some mod­ern improve­ments like hard rails in the tail sec­tion for quicker release on turns, a nar­row nose nar­row and width moved back from cen­ter. I’m amazed at how easy it rides, turns and nose rides. It works per­fectly in the south­ern Cal­i­for­nia surf, too. I guess Dale Velzy really knew what he was doing back in 1957.

What is your all-time favorite surf spot?
That’s easy – it has got to be Sun­set Beach– what a chal­leng­ing lineup, per­for­mance wave with all the ele­ments that truly test your ocean knowl­edge and skill. Num­ber two would have to be Makaha for its diver­sity between small and big waves because when it’s over 20 feet it’s an entirely dif­fer­ent ball game.

What’s your favorite meal?
I love Hawai­ian food espe­cially the Laulau. It’s basi­cally luau leaves from the Taro plant, wrapped in Ti leaves with fish (although But­ter­fish is best to me!) and sweet potato and steamed. With poi and Lomi-lomi Salmon, it is prob­a­bly my all-time favorite dish.

What kind of music are you lis­ten­ing to these days?
I like all kinds of music. I love the old Hawai­ian vir­tu­osos both instru­men­tal­ists and voice like Gabby Pahinui, Jessie Kalima, Genoa Keawe, The Sons of Hawaii, but I also like a lot of jazz, blues and reg­gae, too.

What causes/organizations do you sup­port?
The ocean has been such a large part of my life, that I am 100 per­cent in sup­port of orga­ni­za­tions that pre­serve the ocean’s health and main­tain them for the future gen­er­a­tions. Also, orga­ni­za­tions that pro­vide rights of access (to beaches) and those that believe in human­ity as a whole – and that also includes animals.

What’s next for Paul Strauch?
I plan to main­tain my rela­tion­ship with the ocean and enjoy it as long as I can. And also to encour­age and nur­ture oth­ers so that they can find the joy and tran­quil­ity that the ocean has brought to me and my life.

First photo by John Sev­er­son, third photo by Jeff Divine. Bot­tom pho­to­graph by Eric Jor­dan. All other pho­tos cour­tesy of Paul Strauch.