BoardRoom Interview - Dick Metz Part 4

Here is the final segment from our interview with Dick Metz.

Purchase your copy of the film at www.boardroomfilms.com

For those unfamiliar with Dick, here is his write up from the Encyclopedia of Surfing

Well-traveled surfer, retail magnate, and surf culture preservationist from Laguna Beach, California; cofounder of the Surfing Heritage Foundation. Metz was born (1929) and raised in Laguna Beach, to restaurant-owning parents, and started riding San Onofre with local surf kingpins Peanuts Larson and Hevs McClelland at age seven. The easy-going and aimless Metz earned a bachelor's degree from Santa Barbara State College in 1953, was drafted for a seven-month stint in the army, briefly enrolled in graduate school in Hawaii, then returned to Laguna Beach in 1954 where he tended bar, ran his father’s liquor store, and repaired surfboards.

In 1958, restless and unencumbered, Metz set off on a three-year around-the-world journey with stops in Tahiti, Australia, Southeast Asia, India, and South Africa. In Cape Town, he befriended a young John Whitmore—later called the father of South African surfing—and connected him with California surfboard builder Hobie Alter, helping to seed Cape Town’s nascent surf scene with high quality equipment. Upon returning to California, Metz captivated longtime friend and filmmaker Bruce Brown with stories from his travels. A few years later, while in South Africa shooting The Endless Summer, Brown looked up some of the contacts Metz had made on his globetrotting voyage.

In 1962, Alter tapped Metz to run his new surf shop in Honolulu; the store was an immediate success, and Metz found a career in retail. Over the next few years, he co-founded the successful beachwear shop Surfline Hawaii with Dave Rochlen, opened Hobie retail outlets on both the West and East coasts of the mainland, and started ice cream parlors and liquor stores with McClelland.

Along the way, Metz collected hundreds of vintage surfboards, many of which had been owned by big-name Hobie team riders in the ‘60s. In the early 2000s, in part to preserve his board collection, Metz teamed with Newport Beach’s Spencer Croul to found the Surfing Heritage Foundation, a San Clemente, California-based nonprofit museum and surf history research center.


BoardRoom Interview - Dick Metz Part 3

Here is a nice write up on Dick Metz from the Encyclopedia of Surfing.

Well-traveled surfer, retail magnate, and surf culture preservationist from Laguna Beach, California; cofounder of the Surfing Heritage Foundation. Metz was born (1929) and raised in Laguna Beach, to restaurant-owning parents, and started riding San Onofre with local surf kingpins Peanuts Larson and Hevs McClelland at age seven. The easy-going and aimless Metz earned a bachelor's degree from Santa Barbara State College in 1953, was drafted for a seven-month stint in the army, briefly enrolled in graduate school in Hawaii, then returned to Laguna Beach in 1954 where he tended bar, ran his father’s liquor store, and repaired surfboards.

In 1958, restless and unencumbered, Metz set off on a three-year around-the-world journey with stops in Tahiti, Australia, Southeast Asia, India, and South Africa. In Cape Town, he befriended a young John Whitmore—later called the father of South African surfing—and connected him with California surfboard builder Hobie Alter, helping to seed Cape Town’s nascent surf scene with high quality equipment. Upon returning to California, Metz captivated longtime friend and filmmaker Bruce Brown with stories from his travels. A few years later, while in South Africa shooting The Endless Summer, Brown looked up some of the contacts Metz had made on his globetrotting voyage.

In 1962, Alter tapped Metz to run his new surf shop in Honolulu; the store was an immediate success, and Metz found a career in retail. Over the next few years, he cofounded the successful beachwear shop Surfline Hawaii with Dave Rochlen, opened Hobie retail outlets on both the West and East coasts of the mainland, and started ice cream parlors and liquor stores with McClelland.

Along the way, Metz collected hundreds of vintage surfboards, many of which had been owned by big-name Hobie team riders in the ‘60s. In the early 2000s, in part to preserve his board collection, Metz teamed with Newport Beach’s Spencer Croul to found the Surfing Heritage Foundation, a San Clemente, California-based nonprofit museum and surf history research center.

Visit www.boardroomfilms.com for the complete movie.


BoardRoom Interview - Dick Metz Part 2

Surfing Heritage Founder, Dick Metz has lived an amazing, exciting, and charmed life! Aside from establishing one of the greatest historical surfing institutions in the world, Metz had a hand in numerous surf-related ventures in his storied past. From early travels to Africa, Polynesia, and beyond, watch as Metz relates his tale that went on to inspire Bruce Brown to create the greatest surf film of all time, The Endless Summer. Learn about the early days of Hobie, Clark Foam, Surfline Hawaii and Jams, and more. Like a real-life Forrest Gump, Dick Metz has had a hand in creating some of surfing's most iconic brands, topping it off with the creation of Surfing Heritage!

We recorded this interview for our film BoardRoom at the SHACC in which Metz gave his firsthand account of his world travels and more.

BoardRoom was filmed by FiveSix Productions, a Las Vegas video production company.

Interview conducted by Robert Bell.

Directed by Markus Davids

Executive Producer : Robert Jax


BoardRoom Interview - Dick Metz Part 1

Dick Metz, Board Member and Founder of Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center, has supplied the vision for the SHACC and the initial funding. Central to the mission, Dick is donating his extensive surfboard collection, and bequeathed his estate to the Foundation. Dick, who grew up in Laguna Beach as a buddy of such notables as Hobie Alter, Reynolds Yater, and Hevs McClelland, is himself a pioneering figure in our sport and industry. As the driving force behind Surfline Hawaii and the Hobie Sports retail chain, and as the traveling surfer who cross-pollinated a fledgling South African surf scene with Hobie and Gordon Clark in California, and suggested to Bruce Brown that he film for The Endless Summer in South Africa, Metz has changed the course of surf history. Now, his goal is to preserve it.

Produced by FiveSix Productions a Las Vegas video production Company

Interview conducted by Robert Bell.