Gene Cooper

Gene Cooper is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer / shaper who is best known for his Coop­er­fish surf­board line that are based on his admi­ra­tion for tra­di­tional shapes. His most recent project has been a mod­ern take on the old school girlie cal­en­dar. Gene talks to us about his craft and his inspirations.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
Great! I grew up in the San Fer­nando Val­ley and New­port Beach. I started work­ing for my dad, who’s an old school mas­ter car­pen­ter, at a young age. I got a very early intro­duc­tion to ham­mers, Skil saws, tape mea­sures, plan­ers, etc. I think that’s how he kept me out of his hair on the job; he’d just give me some tools and an all day project. He used to tell me I was a “fusser”. He rec­og­nized at an early age that I’d never be a pro­duc­tion guy. Many of my boy­hood mem­o­ries are of the job site.

When did you get your first surf­board?
1966—an 8’6″ Greg Noll film pro­duc­tions board. Within a year, I cut it down to 6’6″ when I saw the first of the shorter boards in Surfer Mag.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
The fin was in the sand by the time I stood up, so it was kind of felt like stand­ing on the beach.

When did you start shap­ing and what prompted you to do so?
I started strip­ping down old boards, reshap­ing, and glass­ing soon after I started surf­ing. I’m guilty of mak­ing lots of really bad boards out of really good ones, but at least they were usu­ally beat before I got to them. I got more seri­ous around ’73 when a friend showed me a board he’d built in his garage. He was super tal­ented and led me down the right path.

What we’re you rid­ing in the 70’s and 80’s before long­boards came back?
Long­boards never went away for me and my friends. We made them or rode the old ones and those were cheap. Also “eggs” or what they call “hulls” now.

So when did you start the Coop­er­fish label?
1991 or so, but it was just a new ban­ner to make the same boards I’d been build­ing “one at a time” for a long time. Hav­ing a label raised the bar for me because my name was on it.

Did you work in shops or surf­board fac­to­ries before that?
Yes—California Foam in the Val­ley from ’75 until start­ing my fire depart­ment gig in ’78. Lloyd, the owner, claimed he raised his fire insur­ance the day I got that job.

You are nei­ther a full-time shaper nor a back­yard shaper. How would you label what you are (as a shaper)?
I’ve had a fac­tory for years so that kills the back­yard label. I recently retired from the LAFD after 32 years, and I’m done mak­ing and mar­ket­ing the cal­en­dar. So I guess I’m now offi­cially a full-time board builder.

How did you come up with the idea for a Coop­er­fish cal­en­dar?
Going into fab­ri­ca­tors’ fac­to­ries as a kid with my dad, there was always a cheesy cal­en­dar or two on the wall. They were part of the ambiance of the gritty envi­ron­ment and part of the great expe­ri­ence of going to these places. That was a time when peo­ple just went to their jobs to work and it was before all the work­place sen­si­tiv­ity law­suit junk that we live with today—a much bet­ter era in my opin­ion. When I opened my fac­tory, I put cal­en­dars up but the only thing avail­able was cookie cut­ter, thin paper, thought­less, life­less, “Printed in China” cal­en­dars. Also, they never had any surf­boards in them—just cars. I fig­ured we could put some qual­ity back into cheese­cake, so I talked my com­mer­cial pho­tog­ra­pher friend, Michael Moore, into tack­ling it with me and we went for it. It turned out to be a long process. I think we killed it; this cal­en­dar rep­re­sents a bet­ter time to me.

Do any of the mod­els in the cal­en­dar actu­ally surf?
The mod­els don’t surf and there’s no tide chart. It’s pretty arty. I think that with the pho­tographs that Mike took we could have left the cal­en­dar part off and most guys wouldn’t have noticed.

Can you tell us any­thing about the Black­board model you’ve worked on with Mike Black?
I’ve known Mike for a long time. He’s a good friend and one of surfing’s char­ac­ters in a clas­sic sense. When he gets into some­thing it’s all or noth­ing, and Mike’s into rid­ing pigs right now. We’re doing the model and I want to keep it true to the her­itage of the design. At the same time, I want to put my sen­si­bil­i­ties into the shape. That’s an ele­ment that I try to include in every model so I feel com­fort­able putting my label on it. We’re still mak­ing pro­to­types, and work­ing with mate­ri­als and design. The devel­op­ment process is my favorite part of mak­ing boards and I’m com­mit­ted to make a bet­ter, yet tra­di­tional pig, for Mike. I can’t wait to make one for myself. Mike’s enthu­si­asm is catching.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
George Gree­nough and Nat Young. I started surf­ing right when that thing hit and it was a big influence—all the exper­i­men­ta­tion. And Greg Lid­dle; he totally refined a sin­gle idea. It wasn’t that pop­u­lar out­side of Mal­ibu and Rin­con back then, but now his design is con­sid­ered its own genre within surfing.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
Home. I’ve had my best days about 100 yards from a warm shower.

Who/what inspires you?
My friends and cus­tomers. Also, my asso­ci­a­tion with The Surf­ing Her­itage Foun­da­tion inspires me because it reminds me of the high stan­dards that the board builders of the past held. Go visit them or another surf museum if you haven’t recently. All the ele­ments of crafts­man­ship and design can be found there. There’s also plenty from the old crew at the func­tions they have and they’re happy to share sto­ries. Surfing’s her­itage is inspiring.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
Bal­ance … but I haven’t mas­tered it yet.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
No.

What are you most proud of?
Proud to be a part of surf­ing. Proud of my years on the fire depart­ment. I’d be really proud if they’d put me on that Shapers Tree. What do I have to do to get on that thing?

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing ruined my life. Do you know how suc­cess­ful I’d be now if I never surfed?

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Surfing

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Surf schools are shap­ing the path. They should teach eti­quette and man­ners first.

What is your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
A 9’7″ Rick Noserider that I gave to Chris Vail when he grad­u­ated from high school. I like trav­el­ing in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia surf­ing along the way.

What’s your favorite meal?
Chicken and waf­fles at JD’s BBQ in Oxnard. Week­ends only.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
DK, Tom Waits, Rev. Gary Davis, Hank III, Louis Jor­dan, Dean Mar­tin, Wayne The Train, O’Jays, George Jones, Sina­tra, Ramones, lots more.

What causes/organizations do you sup­port?
Vet­er­ans Adap­tive Surf Camp out of the West­wood VA and The Surf­ing Her­itage Foundation.

What are you most grate­ful for?
Being born and raised in a good place dur­ing good times.

What’s next for Gene Cooper?
Twelve eBay auctions—one for each cal­en­dar board each month and I’m look­ing for­ward to that start­ing up. First one’s Jan­u­ary 7th through Jan­u­ary 17th. We’re also plan­ning a release party for the Black­board at the Surf­ing Her­itage Gallery on Feb­ru­ary 21st and that coin­cides with close of the Feb­ru­ary cal­en­dar board’s auction.

Also, I’ve got a bunch of board orders I’m fill­ing and that keeps me busy, but my long term plan is to stop com­ing up with crazy ideas so I can go back to being a full-time surfer.

Find out more about Gene Cooper and Coop­er­fish here.