284 - Harbour Surfboards: Robert Howson
Surf Splendor
David Lee Scales
4.8 • 669 Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2019
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Beginning as a team rider for Rich Harbour in 1980, Robert Howson has helped transition Harbour from a surfboard manufacturing facility into a thriving retail destination. He discusses the importance of honoring suppliers and how to retain saltiness and protect a legacy while incorporating modern business practices.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, welcome back to the show. |
| 0:12.2 | If my voice sounds weird, it's because I'm persevering a cold. |
| 0:16.1 | I tried to postpone recording this until it passed, but to no avail. |
| 0:19.9 | I am in the throes. |
| 0:21.6 | Anyways, this is episode three of five of our Temples of Stoke series presented by the |
| 0:26.5 | Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, whose Temple of Stoke exhibit is on display through |
| 0:31.9 | October 29th. So for the next two months, I suppose. |
| 0:57.3 | The exhibit features 22 iconic California surf shops, their stories, and memorabilia from over the decades, some as many as six decades, like today's subject, Harbor Surfboards in Seal Beach, California, a mere 3.7 miles from where I sit recording this and from where I grew up. |
| 1:03.1 | The goal of this series, in addition to just telling rich individual stories, was to represent a variety of business practices and different sizes of business. Episode one with TK. at the Froghouse |
| 1:10.4 | was a story about kind of a colorful surf shop |
| 1:13.8 | without a local surfboard brand attached to it, mainly just focused on soft goods and operating |
| 1:20.2 | as a fun community clubhouse for surfers. Episode two was with Bing Surfboards, a 60-year-old surfboard manufacturer that has transitioned |
| 1:30.6 | ownership while still honoring the original legacy. Episode three, today's episode is with Robert |
| 1:36.6 | Hausen of Harbor Surfboards, and Robert covers some new ground here. The brand identity is still |
| 1:43.4 | centered around quality |
| 1:44.8 | surfboard manufacturing and those are still shaped on-site behind the retail |
| 1:49.4 | store but Robert is responsible for successfully transitioning a surfboard |
| 1:54.5 | manufacturing facility into a destination retail store that people visit just to get closed with their iconic harbor triangle logo. |
| 2:05.3 | Seal Beach itself was founded in the mid-1860s and was originally known as Anaheim Landing. |
| 2:12.5 | It sits on the westernmost edge of Orange County just across a bridge from Long Beach and Los Angeles County, |
| 2:18.9 | the population is just under 25,000, and even though the stretch of sand is only about a mile |
| 2:25.3 | long, it sees tremendous diversity in waves throughout the course of the air if the sandbars |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Lee Scales, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of David Lee Scales and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.