LOCKED IN SURF SHOP by Lauryn LeClere

       On a trip to Galveston one summer day in '64 my stepfather, Bob Roy and my mother, Ruth and I saw a guy floundering on a surfboard out on Stuart Beach.  We all agreed we needed to get one of those things.  That's how it started for us.  We found Henry Fry in the phone book and had him make us 2 boards.  Bada-Boom !  We were in.

      It didn't take long to realize that this surfing thing was more than just a beach activity.  There was a growing subculture that was gathering steam and we were on the ground floor.

       My mother was a great seamstress - always making some kind of garment for someone.  She gets the idea to start making custom bikinis and surf trunks for the new surf culture.  First she sold the goods to Foley's, and a few sporting goods stores but it was growing so fast she began to explore other ideas.  I remember we went back to Henry Fry's shop and asked if he would like to carry our line of baggies and bikinis and it was Henry that suggested that we start our own shop.

      Around the summer of '65 we rented a small store (previously a real estate office) on Katy Freeway East of Bunker Hill. 

       I think as soon as we moved in there it was apparent that this little shop warranted more than just surfwear.  About that time Mickey Munoz had come to Houston doing sales for Hobie Alter's new invention the Hobie Cat.  My stepfather, Bob Roy being quite the entertainer, had him over to the house for dinner and drinks and ended up with a dealership.  At that time Mickey was making his own boards under his name.

      In less than a year we outgrew that little shop and moved into a new building on the southwest corner of Bunker Hill and Katy Freeway.  This shop would grow by leaps and bounds for the next10 years.

      We met John Price who owned Surfboards Hawaii at the time, started a great friendship with those guys and sold thousands of their boards.  It was the same with Rich Harbour.  We were the first Harbour dealer outside of Seal Beach and ended up selling more of their boards than they were selling in California for several years in the mid 60s.  It was an amazing time for me growing up as a teenager and hearing my mother every day on the radio doing a live surf report. 

      Some of my greatest memories were the contests we put on at 37th St. in Galveston and the fashion shows at the Summit at half time during the Hockey games.  That's right.  We rolled out a red carpet onto the ice and as my mother was narrating on the mic, the Locked In Girls Surf Team proceeded to model our latest bikinis.  It brought the house down.

       By the early 70s the surf shop had become an actual sporting goods store.  We had Rosignol and Olin snow skis, the latest skiing fashion, a full dive shop including compressors for filling tanks.  Locked In Sports would flourish into the late 70s but the sport that ignited the flame for us all was surfing.