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Brewer

Brewer, a self proclaimed shaping guru, served as a teacher and an inspirer of a radical band of young surfers during the 60s. His home and shaping bay is near Hanalei on Kauai are a long way from his birthplace in Bimidji, Minnesota. Brewer moved to Oahu in 1960, earned his credibility in the winter waves at Waimea, Sunset and Makaha. Then he opened a surf shop in Haleiwa. Surfboards Hawaii, the first on the North Shore and began to shape boards. Bob Shepherd was his real teacher, Shepherd was all about natural curves and concaves. Brewer acknowledges Pat Curren as an influence as well. Synthesizing the best available wisdom with feedback from his test pilots. By the winter of 1962, the Brewer Surfboards Hawaii gun was the most in demand big wave equipment on the North Shore. He signed a contract with Hobie Alter in Dana Point to produce a series of signature models, the Hobie Dick Brewer guns. He shaped 88 of them, then went on to do production and signature work for Harbour, Carbonel, Surfline Hawaii, Bing and others. Brewer's foiled rail design and his advocacy of lightweight boards, even for big waves, set him apart from most other shapers of the time. In 1966, Brewer shaped Bing Pipeliners, Island Semis and Big Island Guns. He was showcased in Bing ads in 1967 and 1968 as the master who created David Nuuhiwa's lightweight pintail-model boards. In mid-1967, Brewer relocated to Maui and set up business as Lahaina Surfing Design (LSD), where he set to work developing shorter, lighter guns and then "mini-guns". The Brewer mini-guns featured teardrop outlines, down rails, flat bottoms with subtle foils and vees and narrow pintails. Among the first shortboards in 1967, they were a sensation and proved to be more lasting than the square-tailed Australian vee bottoms. He associated with the surfing experimental drug scene in the '60s and '70s as an advocate of Eastern meditation, vegetarianism and psychedelic exploration. Brewer continued to innovate throughout the period, including the hyper-kicked nose (1969), the tri-fin surfboard design (1971) and the modern big-wave gun, introduced in the mid-'70s.