Dan Forte

Dan Forte is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer/shaper/musician and is the owner of Dano Surf­boards. Equally tal­ented with both a planer or gui­tar, Dan serves up beau­ti­ful shapes and sounds. We spoke with “Dano” to learn more.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
Pretty easy. I grew up in New York… Brook­lyn, New York ‘til I was 12 and then I moved to Cal­i­for­nia. It’s been good.

When did you get your first surf­board?
When I was prob­a­bly 13. I bought an eight foot yel­low sin­gle fin gun from Infin­ity. At the time, Terry Sen­ate was actu­ally work­ing there sell­ing boards. That’s who sold me my first board.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
“Holy s**t!! I’m doing it!”

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
Oh, my dad 100%. Surfing-wise, grow­ing up surf­ing Salt Creek a lot, there were a lot of under­ground guys that kind of ruled the place—Kevin Billy, Mike Cruik­shank, those kind of guys. And then, on the inter­na­tional thing, guys like Rab­bit, Mark Richards, Terry Fitzgerald.

When did you start shap­ing your own boards and what inspired you to do so?
I think it’s been about 23 years now or some­where around there. But, I actu­ally bought a blank for a neigh­bor kid to do a school project and he never used it. It sat in my garage for months on end. Then, one rainy day when the surf was bad, I just decided to go for it.

How did that turn out?
Not so good. (Laughs)

When do you think you became truly pro­fi­cient at shap­ing surf­boards?
I’m still try­ing. (Laughs) Oh, I think it took a cou­ple hun­dred until you actu­ally had a con­sis­tent thing going. I started… about my 10th or 11th board, I already had a cou­ple of shop accounts and started going for it. There were a cou­ple of shops down in the Dana Point area and then Surf Plus up here in Newport.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
Aus­tralia. The waves there are really, really fun and the peo­ple are good. They have a lot of life to ‘em. It’s pretty cool. Def­i­nitely like going to Kauai. I try to do that once a year with my fam­ily. The North Shore of Kauai is prob­a­bly one of my favorite places.

Who or what inspires you?
I def­i­nitely am inspired by things from the past. I like old boards, the cul­ture around them, the lifestyle that they lived back there and just am kind of super into old stuff.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
Live each moment to its fullest.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
No. I think it’s all been good; it’s all turned out pretty good so far.

What are you most proud of?
My fam­ily for sure. Also, just being able to run a busi­ness, come to work and just be a good per­son. I try to be as good a per­son as I can be.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing… I find just to be a good escape from a lot of things. Being able to go out there every morn­ing, kind of do your own thing your own way… you see every­one going to work in their suits and ties, and you’re going in the oppo­site direc­tion to go jump in the water.

I think the whole mean­ing of surf­ing is to be an indi­vid­ual and do your own trip. That’s prob­a­bly one of the coolest things about the whole surf scene.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Oh! My kids!!

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
It’s been a good few years where just any­thing goes. Peo­ple are just shap­ing stuff that’s like… you can’t even keep up with the trends: no fins, pieces of wood, mat surf­ing, hand­planes. Every­thing goes. It’s actu­ally a really cool time to be a shaper. Peo­ple come to you and are like, “Hey I want to do this!” And you say, “Alright! Let’s do it!” It’s cool.

What is your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
Favorite surf spot? I’d get in trou­ble if I say. It’s a very long right and it’s not in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. Favorite board? At the moment, I’ve been rid­ing an 11 foot hog that I shaped. I’ve surfed it off and on for the last three years. I’ll make myself some­thing, ride it for awhile and then go back to that one. I always ask myself, “Why haven’t I rid­den this one the whole time?” I really enjoy rid­ing a bit longer board and kind of pig shapes.

What’s your favorite meal?
My wife makes veg­e­tar­ian jam­bal­aya. That’s prob­a­bly my favorite.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
I just lis­ten to a lot of old blues stuff. I’ve been turned on to a few, like Bo Carter, Doc­tor Ross—the kind of stuff that I stum­bled across on other people’s web­sites. I’ve been really happy to find some new stuff.

Which blues­man or woman from the past would have made the best surfer and why?
Oh, man!! You’ve got to think prob­a­bly Muddy Waters would be a pretty cool char­ac­ter out in the water. He always had good com­po­sure. He’d prob­a­bly be a pretty good longboarder.

In your next life, will you be a pro­fes­sional musi­cian who shapes on the side or will you come back as Dano, a shaper who does music on the side?
I’m pretty much a shaper who does music on the side now, so we’ll try it the other way next time.

What causes/organizations do you sup­port?
I like to sup­port stuff that helps keep the ocean clean and things that help the envi­ron­ment. If you say an orga­ni­za­tion, every­one jumps on you that you should be in another one. I have events every other year, and I get Surfrider involved. I like to do what I can to help them.

There’s an orga­ni­za­tion called Grace­works Kenya. When I have those par­ties, I actu­ally have my sons class draw paint­ings. We sell them and donate the money to the kids that have been orphaned in Africa from the AIDS epidemic.

What are you most grate­ful for?
Every­thing I have.

What’s next for Dano?
I don’t know. I haven’t really been think­ing about that. I’m at a loss for words for once in my life. I guess what’s next for me is fin­ish­ing the back­log of boards and play­ing some music.

Find out more about Dan Forte and Dano Surf­boards here. Action pho­tog­ra­phy by Jason Hall. Board and por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy by Ken Samuels.