What was your inspiration for this piece?

In 1989, I received a phone call from one of my former students, Brian Curtis regarding a national competition in Santa Cruz for creating a surfing monument. Brian and I teamed up and created the piece together. I designed the sculpture and Brian designed the pedestal. We ended up winning the competition. The figures in the piece were inspired by an image of the Santa Cruz Surf Club in 1936.

What was the biggest challenge/success you encountered when creating this piece?

Getting the design approved. The mayor at the time didn’t like the concept and we ended up having to make a few different designs. But eventually everything was approved, which ended up being one of my biggest successes. Aside from the political problems, the Loma Prieta earthquake happened about halfway during the creation of the sculpture. The disaster created a bit of a delay in the process.

What was the process of designing and fabrications like?

Brian and I designed separately. The figure was 11 feet tall and the pedestal was 7 feet tall. The sculpture was made mostly of bronze and weighed about 2 tons. I asked two members of the Surf Club, Buster Steward and Bill Grace, to design and shape a redwood board like the kind they would have used. In order to stabilize the piece, there were numerous steel bars placed in the center of the sculpture. This was done partly in response to the Loma Prieta earthquake.

What kind of public art would you like to see more of in Santa Cruz?

I’m not a Santa Cruz resident, but in general I think that communities and cities should have more public art overall. There is often a lack of public art because of the complicated process that it takes to get a piece commissioned or approved. He would encourage private business to commission artists to create work for them and overall beautify one’s community.