Welcome back to Surf Splendor.

Today's episode is part two in our five-part series, highlighting iconic surf shops in southern California.

Today's conversation is with Bing Copeland of Bing Surfboards, who just celebrated their 60th year in business.

Imagine that.

This series was prompted by the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, whom I utilize as a

resource for research, and they also provide studio space

for me to record podcasts. So this Friday, August 6th, they are launching an exhibit entitled

Temples of Stoke, a celebration of surf shop culture. They've invited 25 iconic surf shops in California

to install shrines of photos, memorabilia,

artifacts, all that tell a story of their shop and the role that it plays in their respective

California Beach Town.

Hobie Alter once said, quote, a great surf shop is a social and cultural hub for surfers,

a place to hang out, check out boards, brag about great waves

or new spots, and laugh about a horrendous wipeout. And that's kind of why Shaq is doing this

exhibit is the idea of a surf shop being a social and cultural hub for surfers is kind of threatened

with, you know, due to a lot of the reasons that retail is

threatened as a whole. But, you know, there's just a lot of larger box surf shops now as well

that contend with, quote, core surf shops. And those larger box surf shops don't necessarily

have surfers working in them, you know, who can

educate about etiquette in the water or where the waves are good or what sandbar is happening

or the conversations that have just kind of taken place in surf shops of my youth, certainly

surf shops of yesteryear.

...