While Renny Yater prefers to maintain a low profile, he was featured in several surf movies during the early ’60s, including Big Wednesday (1961) and Walk On the Wet Side (1963). And look closely if you happen to see Apocalypse Now, the 1979 Vietnam War movie starring Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall. Duvall plays the part of Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, who is filmed wearing a Santa Barbara Surf Shop t-shirt while on duty. He also has a Yater Spoon among his belongings.
While his son Lauran has been shaping for the Yater name since the early ’80s, Renny still actively shapes today. A true living legend, Reynolds Yater has been positively influencing the sport of surfing in a cool, quiet manner for over fifty years. Although reserved, Renny will still talk surfing to customers at The Beach House in Santa Barbara. Owned by Roger Nance, the store has been Yater’s retail showroom since 1991. www.surfnwear.com is The Beach House website, and you can find out more about Yater Surfboards at www.yater.com.
Below is our third and final segment of our interview with Renny. When you watch our film BoardRoom you can see how much of an influence he had on our story.