Eric Rinkoff                           

      Bay Surf Shop was the cornerstone of Texas surfing between 1965 and 1972. With locations in Houston, Galveston, Beaumont and South Padre Island, Bay Surf Shop sold more boards than any other surf shop in the entire U.S.  Influencing Texas surfing, Bay Surf Shop won more team trophies, competed in major surfing contests and brought in more famous surfers than any other surf shop during it’s time.  I believe the reason for my success was due to my love for the sport of surfing, the thrill of being one with the ocean, once the surf bug biteeded me, I was never the same. I was lucky to combine my love of surfing and make a successful living.

      It all began when I was 19, a college student and working part-time at Foley’s department store, for ninety five cents an hour. I did not have a plan but I knew I could not continue on this path. So I quit and headed to California to buy some surfboards for rental back home. All I wanted to do was surf, so why not rent boards, make money and surf?

      Within a couple of months it was apparent that ten boards weren’t enough. By the summer of 1965, I had ordered over 50 boards for rental and soon I was selling boards. At the time, my dad had a toy store in Houston’s Rice Village and gave me 1,000 square feet space for my shop.

      By the summer of ’66, the little toys had all but disappeared and the space evolved into 3,200 square feet stocked with some of the finest surfboard brands on the market: Con, Bing, Rick, Jacobs, Hansen and Gordon and Smith. Bay Surf Shop kept over 400 boards in stock in at all times, and was known as, “The Candy Store” were surfers could select from the best brands on the market at that time.

      At each of the other satellite locations, surfers could choose from 30 boards. In later years, Bay Surf Shop expanded, carrying even more brands like Tom Overlin and Challenger.  Surfers would drool when they cruised the aisles of premium surfboards, racks of swimwear by Katin and Birdwell, or plowed through the huge collection of t-shirts and accessories. Remember the “Aloha surf racks,”?   Bay Surf shop was the distributor for the Gulf Coast. I had my own silk screening shop that supplied my t-shirts.

      Some of the best surfers in Texas surfed on the Bay Surf Shop “team”.  Many of the surfers from Galveston’s Treasure Isle Surf Club surfed for Bay.  The Surf Team was one of my most successful moves. We won every team trophy for over 5 years. Business was good, everyone wanted to ride a board like the winners rode, so after every contest boards would fly out of the shop. I was having a blast, the Bay Surf Team was winning and surfing just got more popular in Texas.

     Due to my shop’s popularity and because I was selling so many California boards, many famous surfers wanted to know what was going on in Texas.  So it was not long before I was able to host many of the greatest surfer of that time, surfer such as Robert August, Mike Purpose, Jim Lester form Jacobs Surfboards, Rick Stoner and Drew Harrison form Rick Surfboards, David Nueiwha, Donald Takayama, Australians Kiwi White and Keith Paul from Bing Surfboards, Mike Doyle and Rusty Miller from Hansen Surfboards (http://hansensurf.com).  Life couldn’t have gotten much better, I was in my twenties, making money and surfing with some of the greatest surfers of that era. 

      On my many buying trips to California I got to meet the greats, Con Colburn, Claud Coggins, Steve Beigler, Bing Copeland, Donald Takayama, Dick Brewer, John Lenninger, Hap Jacobs, Don Hansen, Larry Gordon, Skip Fry, Mike Hensyn, Mike Diffenderfer, Tony Shannon, George Greenough, Tom and Jim Overlin, Billy Hamilton, Steve Tyau and the list goes on.  I not only got to meet them but got to hang out with them at the beach and in their shaping rooms. These were the influencers, the greats and they were all as much a part of our lives as catching the next wave. I learned from the pro’s, they taught me surfboard design and the “how to’s” of board riding, I could not soak up their knowledge quick enough, I loved surfing and learning more just made me more passionate about surfing while I made a living doing what I loved. I had to pinch myself sometimes to see if this was “da real ting”.

      Late in 1968, a major change took place in the surfing industry. The Australian short board revolution hit the California Coast and the longboard was doomed.  No one knew, but the early short boards were all experiments and they did not work well in our Texas surf. It was only a few rare souls who could make the short boards work, those were the gifted surfers.  The everyday surfer quickly became disenchanted with fewer and shorter rides.  It altered our world.  Most of the surf boards I carried had to be cut down.

       Everyone retired their longboards and bought short boards.  It was great for business.  I had Steve Tyau, a great friend who made Surfboards East of Hawaii, cut down over 400 longboards just to recover my costs and I was able to replace all longboards with the short boards.  If I only had a crystal ball to see into the future, I would have saved those boards from a deadly “cut down” death.   

      As the landscape of surfing changed, in the fall of 1972, I phased out surfboards and founded Warp n’ Woof Clothiers.

       So many things have changed since the years of Bay Surf Shop, but my passion for surfing hasn’t wavered. That was 53 years and thousands of waves ago. I want to acknowledge every surfer who has shared a similar passion for surfing and who has supported Texas Surfing.  I also want to thank everyone who purchased surfboards from Bay Surf Shop, my surf team, and my parents Betty and Sidney. This year I celebrated 53 years of catching waves and I do not plan to stop.

       My life today is still about surfing, always chasing a good wave.  I am fortunate enough to travel extensively with my wife Diana.  We spend a lot of time in Hawaii, surfing and visiting old surf buddies. I wish my collection of surf boards was more extensive, if only I would have kept a few of my favorites, but who knew.  I have caught waves in California, Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, Australia, and Peru in the last few years, and I am hoping to continue to surf for a long time. My other hobbies are guitars and fast cars, I have built two 32’Hot Rods and drive an AMG. I love designing new boards and have a quiver of eight boards to pick from.  I am enjoying retirement and love playing with my grandchildren. Life is good.

      Extending a big Mahalo for the time we have shared……         Aloha.

Eric Rinkoff