The Family Begins

Patty and Cory at Padres Game

Patty Whitlock – Family Matriarch

There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the driving force in any family is the mom, the matriarch, the head or ruler of a family. Patty Whitlock leaves no doubt that she is, indeed, the driving force in this family. Divorced for many years, Patty and Rusty have two very distinct roles in the dynamics of the family personality and the family business.

It is this writer’s impression that Patty has been the glue that has held the family together through some difficult times. Not unlike many families, the Whitlock’s have had their difficulties. Trying to build a board shaping business in the late 60’s and early 70’s on Oahu was challenging. Rusty and the kids may have been living in paradise, but Patty was tasked with keeping the whole thing together. While Rusty was surfing, competing and building a board shaping business, Patty was having and raising kids and managing the money. Those are all stories we will explore as we get to know this family. But, first, there was a love story.

 

Surfer Girl Meets Surfer Boy

Her eyes take on a soft, faraway luminescence as the memories move her back through time. Her face is transformed, time and stress slipping away. The beauty and youthfulness of a young girl hums around her as she tells us ‘I was 17 when I first saw him. He was walking out of the ocean after a competition.’ She smiles at the memory and said, ‘I knew at that moment he was mine. We did not talk until later that evening. When we did, we were never apart again. ‘

I don’t know about you, but that story took my breath away. The look in Patty’s eyes told me, without a doubt, the truth of that moment in time, about 45 years ago.

The Story

Those first moments were magical, sparking the beginnings of a family that would span 3 generations in the surf world.  The story will broaden, covering this family’s joys and tragedies, woven through the world of surfing from the days when the brands and competitions we all know today were just forming. Their family story closely linked to the transformation of a simple surfing lifestyle into the high powered, fierce, competitive world of professional surfing, as we know it today. This family was there, at the beginning. This family is there today, even now shaping the way we surf.

Always Make Time to Surf

Cory Whitlock and the Shop

Cory getting ready to test a new Kevlar board

Cory Whitlock was one busy man when we invaded his shop. Cory is the king of mutli-tasking, running all the facets of RW Surf Shop. He was in the middle of a huge tee shirt print order, giving surf lessons 10 and 12 people at a time, designing and shaping boards, creating custom boards for surfers who walked into the shop and running a crew of 7 people to accomplish all these tasks. In the middle of it all, Cory was working on moving the whole shop from Carlsbad to Oceanside. He never actually sat still; he was always working on something. Even so, his Aloha spirit was always there, barking orders, laughing and smiling, putting up with our film crew all over the place.  He is an amazing man to watch.

Still Time to Surf

Rusty, Skylar and Cory in the Shaping Bay

Being the subject of our second day of interviews, I became an annoying shadow. Well, at least I felt like an annoying shadow. Cory never seemed to mind. He took time to explain the business. He took time to show us the new Kevlar boards he was working on. He is experimenting with the positioning of the Kevlar, trying to get the shape just right for optimum spring and flex. He described it as “getting enough movement in the board without getting the spring of a diving board”. There are others experimenting with the material, but, as it’s always been with RW Surf, they are on the cutting edge once again.   

While looking at artwork on the boards, Jeff Meyer came in to paint the Hawaiian Islands on a SUP board. Jeff has been painting boards for as long as Rusty has been shaping them. He is a true artisan and paints some amazing boards.

 

The end of a long day in the Shaping Bay

With all this work going on, Cory still made time to surf. The waves were good in the afternoon so Cory, along with documentary Director, Cory Patterson and a few of the shop guys, they were off. I remember thinking how amazing it would be to have a job that would let me work on the beach, hit the waves then come back to work without doing anything but rinsing the salt and sand off.

50 Years of Shaping Interviews Begin

                                                                                 Beginnings

Rusty Whitlock

 Cory Patterson, Keith Halterman and the BW crew were in Carlsbad, CA last week to begin interviews for the documentary, 50 Years of Shaping, The Journey of a Surf Family. In true Aloha spirit, the Whitlock family opened their homes, their shop, RW Surf, but most of all, their hearts, to us. 
                                                   

Pic of the back of the shop

Cory Patterson, the project’s Director, has spent hours over the past year filming – work in the shop, board shaping, surf lessons, and, of course, lot’s of surfing. But this trip was about the story. Rusty, the centerpiece of the story, was not feeling well, but he came up to Carlsbad from Mexico, anyway. I’ve spent hours with Rusty on the phone, but this was my first face to face. And, yeah, I was a bit awed. It’s not every day I get to hang out with surf royalty.

 

 

 

 

Interviews and More Interviews

 We spent most of the first day with Rusty, piecing together his story, taking him back in time with hours of questions. We heard stories about a time when the surf industry was in its infancy. The pioneers of the 50’s had opened the doors for young adventurers like Rusty and his friends. He grins
a little as he tells us ‘we just wanted to surf’.

 

They were just a bunch of young surfers who went on to become surf legends that we all know today…names like David Nuuhiwa, Herbie Fletcher, Jackie Baxter and Randy Lewis, to name a handful. One of my favorite stories Rusty shared that first day, was about ‘stealing our boards back from Camp Pendleton’ after they had been confiscated by the Military for getting a little too close to the beach. Seems like the Marines kept a chicken coop full of boards they were confiscating from the local boys. You’ll have to watch the documentary to hear that one! And, we heard some great stories about Bob ‘The Greek’ Bolan, Rusty’s first sponsor. It was a brand new Greek board that Rusty had to ‘repatriate’ from the chicken coop! Bob and Rusty are friends to this day.

Rusty’s story is set during a time when the industry we know today was growing. The innovators of the sport and the growth of competition were evolving. Rusty was an intimate part of that growth. We look forward to sharing these amazing stories with you.   

 

Selection of RW Boards