Steve Pendarvis

Steve Pen­darvis is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer / shaper who was raised in sub­ur­ban San Diego. An inno­v­a­tive shaper since the late ‘60s, he is well known for his cus­tom Pend­oflex boards. We recently caught up with Steve to talk about his life of surfing.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
My life grow­ing up was in Point Loma (sub­ur­bia San Diego) in the mid­dle of six kids— Lit­tle League, paper routes, parochial school, sum­mers at North OB on our red and blue rafts, run­ning over the tourists in the swim­ming area. Tons of fun!

When did you get your first surf­board?
I got my first board in the 6th or 7th grade. I was 11 or 12 years old. My older brother retrieved a bro­ken balsa board from Osprey, reshaped it into a 7’11” light blue opaque with a D fin. After that, a cou­ple years later, a 6’10” green tint Gypsy G&S from Bill Andrews at PB Surf Shop. Not to men­tion some Rid­out Plas­tics brown foam adven­tures in the par­ents’ garage, $2 a gal­lon resin from Ket­ten­burg Marine, ply­wood fins. “Steve, make sure you chip the stuff off the floor” and “You can’t drive the car out of the garage.” We even­tu­ally made a shed in the backyard.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
Not really sure. I already had had a lot of water time.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
My dad, Mr. Plas­ter (a world trav­eler) and Mr. Lestina (WW1 fight­ing ace). Also, folks in the surf­ing mags. Even­tu­ally Skip­per, John Holly, Ste­vie, Ben Fer­ris, Stan­ley Plesku­nas, John Rid­dle, Larry Gephart, Louis Greco, Larry Duff, Tim Ebner, Tom Lock­wood and all board builders.

When did you start shap­ing your own boards and what inspired you to do so?
Well, a paipo belly­board board in the 7th grade in 1966. Then some Pendo Pin­ners sin­gle fins … always tin­ker­ing and build­ing things.

Were you shap­ing flex tail boards from the begin­ning or was there an epiphany which led you down that won­der­ful shap­ing path?
Well, yes, the epiphany here is hav­ing Stan­ley Plesku­nas ask me to hold a George Gree­nough shell he was work­ing on so he could Sure­form it. I’ve been itchy on this path ever since about 1969.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
Aus­tralia and Baja right point breaks … Hanalei. It’s pretty obvi­ous. They’re all down the line right points!

Who/what inspires you?
The Big Guy. And you know, lately, a lot of these younger kids, surf­ing and build­ing boards with the enve­lope get­ting com­pletely out of shape. Yeah, baby, now we’re talking!

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
We are all just one heart beating—one after another and another. This helps out a lot when its packed in the line up.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
Hind­sight and mis­takes are what they are. Gen­er­ally, push on and learn from them. I would shape some exper­i­ment and it would have this or that which needed to be adjusted. Gep­pie would say, “That’s a boy! If it was right on, what fun that would be!” (Laughs)

What are you most proud of?
Hav­ing a soft heart and plenty of smilin’.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Not a bad road to travel in this world. It hasn’t changed my life … it is my life! Cowa-flexit!

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Fam­ily and wife at the very least, Not to men­tion that stand-up bar­rel the other day after Thanks­giv­ing with­out a drop out of place. Still liv­ing that one! Owoooo!

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Whoa! So many things are get­ting looked at by those young and old. There is a long list.

What is your favorite board?
My lit­tle Fourth Gear Flyer fits that thought. Tri fins, twins, quads, sin­gles, slid­ers and duck­ies. I sort of run the gamut with some fun ideas cur­rently get­ting played with.

Your favorite surf spot?
My favorite spots are gen­er­ally Mex­ico, El Cap and Sun­set Cliffs.

If you were stuck on a desert island with a point break on one side and a beach break on the other, what is the one board you’d want to have with you?
The one I’m into at this time is a 6’3″ five fin set up. It would cover most of the bases—not to men­tion some swim fins and a good breath of air for get­ting din­ner off the reef.

What’s your favorite meal?
My favorite food? I like it all. Of course, a nice fat banana before a surf so that the potas­sium burst will help me stay out in the water longer.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod? Music?
KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM. Cur­rently I’m iPod-challenged. I have a great time just lis­ten­ing to the world around me, radio off and the sounds of life. Oth­er­wise, the jazz sta­tion, lots of Makaha Sons and the like, All­man Broth­ers, San­tana, Ste­vie Ray Vaughn, Hen­drix, Johnny Win­ter. Reg­gae sounds are a kick too.

What causes/organizations do you sup­port?
Here are some wor­thy causes that we sup­port: The Groundswell Soci­ety, Rell Sunn Edu­ca­tional Fund, Ocean Beach His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety, Wild­coast, Surfrider, Sun­set Cliffs Surf­ing Asso­ci­a­tion, Tony Mez­zadri Spinal Cord ben­e­fit, Pro Pen­nisula, Patagonia.

What are you most grate­ful for?
Besides this life in the first place, I’m grate­ful for all of the fun work and play, for every day and the con­scious effort to con­vert that heart­felt energy out to every beat­ing heart in this world.

What’s next for Pendo?
Who knows, I know He knows, but I don’t know. (Laughs) One step at a time… always tin­ker­ing. Peace out. Cowa-flexit!

FYI: At Sun­set Cliffs we wore black wet­suits and were cam­era shy, so we did not take many pho­tos while surfing.

Find our more about Steve and Pend­oflex surf­boards here. All pho­tos cour­tesy of Cher Pen­darvis.