{"id":8263,"date":"2008-06-01T17:25:30","date_gmt":"2008-06-01T17:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=8263"},"modified":"2022-06-11T18:08:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-12T01:08:52","slug":"mike-hyson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/mike-hyson\/","title":{"rendered":"MIKE HYNSON"},"content":{"rendered":"

INTERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION BY DIBI FLETCHER <\/strong>
\nPHOTOS BY ART BREWER AND HERBIE FLETCHER<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the mid \u201850s, Mike Hynson was surfing all of the local San Diego breaks and making a mockery of the images that the mainstream media was starting to spew out. By \u201859, the world was seeing Mickey Munoz surfing as Gidget\u2019s double. By \u201861, the Beach Blanket movie phenomenon was ready to start cranking out images of some Hollyweird beach scenes along with the release of the first Beach Boys\u2019 album extolling the idyllic life of the lonely surfer. Bruce Brown would tour the states in \u201864 with the great buddy movie Endless Summer, in which Mike starred as the epitome of the bronzed beach God. By \u201869, his partnership in Rainbow Surfboards with Johnny Gale, whose name was to become synonymous with Orange Sunshine LSD, morphed into the Rainbow Bridge movie of \u201872. Exploiting the use of surfboards to smuggle hash left no doubt as to the change in current Mike\u2019s life was taking. Herb and I had long since parted ways knowing things were so hot that our freedom might be seriously jeopardized, and we stayed on the North Shore while the summer of love had long since turned into a massive law enforcement fiasco with the pseudo religious leader escaping from jail with the help of the Weathermen. For the first part of this interview, Herb and I set up a stage in the Astrodeck warehouse and threw old Persian carpets on it with an old hand-painted couch, lots of pillows and a big beaded hookah. The smoke machine filled the room with atmosphere and, as if by magic, we were back on the North Shore in the \u201860s talking surfboard design.<\/p>\n

\n

“THOSE WERE THE DAYS WHEN NIXON WAS IN BUSINESS. HE WAS A CROOK AND SO WAS I. HE DIDN’T BOTHER US AND WE DIDN’T BOTHER HIM. EXCEPT HE GOT CAUGHT AND SO DID WE, BUT DURING THAT TIME, WE WERE HAVING A HELLUVA GOOD TIME.”<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mike, there have been a lot of shapers, but you are truly one that is magic.<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] Well, thank you very much.<\/p>\n

Dibi: Do you think that\u2019s that something that comes from inside or is it an acquired skill?<\/strong>
\nNo, it\u2019s just something that happened. Actually, everybody around me made me think I knew more about surfboards than they did. I made my first board and all my friends told all their friends. Then they\u2019d all ask me about it, because I glassed my first one. I knew all about that stuff, but I really didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Dibi: [Laughs] When did you make your first board?<\/strong>
\n1958. It was an 11-foot plank balsa board that was laying in some old man\u2019s yard in Mission Beach. I\u2019d been riding my bike by it. One day, he was there, so I asked him what he was going to do with it. He says, \u201cIf you can get this out of here, you can have it.\u201d So that night I got a couple of my friends and came down and got it. We had to drag it along the beach from Mission Beach all the way up to Bird Rock in the sand. My friend had a garage up there in Bird Rock so we took it there and I spent the next week making this board. By the third day, someone said, \u201cMan, you better stop.\u201d I was looking for a 9\u2019 and by that point it was 7\u201910\u201d. I said, \u201cOh god, I have to stop this.\u201d So I did. I was using a drawknife, a hand plane, a saw and sandpaper. Then the disaster really started happening. Not only did I have a mess of balsa, which was really terrible, but the glassing was just a nightmare. I got everybody\u2019s clothes ruined, over a period of doing it, because you had to do one side at a time. It took me five days to do that. In the process, I ruined the garage floor, so my friend\u2019s father was mad at me. I had ruined all the clothes that I had. All my shoes were covered in resin. My pants were ruined. Then I sanded the thing in the garage. It left everybody with a terrible itch. Everyone was itching.<\/p>\n

Dibi: [Laughs]<\/strong>
\nThen I finally got it down to the water and rode it and it was fun. My friends would ride it and we all thought it was just the greatest, for a while.<\/p>\n

Dibi: So that was your first deal at surfboard shaping and you just proceeded from there?<\/strong>
\nYeah. From that, everyone knew that I had gone through the process and no one else was doing it, so I just became recognized as the guy that knew how to build surfboards.<\/p>\n

Dibi: So the career found you.<\/strong>
\nExactly.<\/p>\n

Herbie: Mike this is a new, old thing that you\u2019re doing with your surfboards now. I remember you used to do Rainbow boards with twin fins and now you\u2019re doing a quad set up. Tell us a little bit about the surfboard itself.<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s just a combination of years of being in the surfboard business and that\u2019s about it. Four fins\u2026maybe tomorrow there will be five, or we could take a couple away. I understand that this board goes 40% faster than other ones. That\u2019s what I heard. Isn\u2019t that amazing?<\/p>\n

Herbie: Is that because of the fins, the rail, the bottom or the wave?<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] Am I giving away secrets right now?<\/p>\n

Herbie: [Laughs] Do you want to give away secrets?<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] No. This board is now for sale. It\u2019s just a combination of a lot of ideas.<\/p>\n

Dibi: Tell us about the four fins. Why are they better than two or three? I\u2019m just wondering because all the boys have started riding four fins.<\/strong>
\nThey\u2019re all a bunch of copycats, right? I mean, when was the first time you saw four fins? Right here. This is the only board in the house with four fins, right?<\/p>\n

Herbie: No, I have one of Christian\u2019s boards that\u2019s about 15 years old that has four fins. It\u2019s about four feet long, maybe 4\u201910\u201d. Christian is sort of crazy. He likes to fly.<\/strong>
\nThis board probably stays on the ground a little better.<\/p>\n

Herbie: It depends on whose riding it. If the kids want to fly, they\u2019re going to fly. So with this board you can go 40% faster and then you get to fly.<\/strong>
\nYou can\u2019t go very much faster. People keep borrowing it and they never bring it back. You\u2019ve borrowed some boards, too, right, Herbie?<\/p>\n

Herbie: [Laughs] Yes. I\u2019ve borrowed some boards.<\/strong>
\nWe\u2019ll see if you bring them back. Just stick with the flow. Everyone that borrows something just keep it.<\/p>\n

Herbie: [Laughs] Isn\u2019t possession nine-tenths of the law?<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] Yes. Possession. I\u2019ve done a lot of time for possession. Sean Mattison has been chased down the beach about that board. He\u2019d come out of the water, after surfing the board, and people would come running up to him and ask about the board. The first time Sean rode this kind of board, I was down in La Jolla and I could just tell by how he was surfing. Before he went in the water, he said, \u201cI think I should have a more narrow nose.\u201d I said, \u201cJust go surf it, please.\u201d So he finally went and surfed it. Then he called me up and said, \u201cAfter I rode that board, I got out of the water and two people came all the way down to the beach from the parking lot to look at the board.\u201d I had the impressions of how he was surfing that morning. He was styling and conquering. Nothing went wrong. Everything he did happened. Everything he thought happened. Ever since then, he\u2019s sold so many. We can\u2019t keep them on the rack.<\/p>\n

Herbie: They go fast, huh? 40 percent faster?<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] That\u2019s it. 40 percent. Not anything else. Not slower. Not faster. It\u2019s 40 percent, which is quite a compliment. But I\u2019m not going to give up any secrets.<\/p>\n

Herbie: [Laughs] Don\u2019t give up any secrets.<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] I\u2019ve spent a lot of time trying to figure it out. I\u2019m still trying to figure it out.<\/p>\n

Herbie: Well, when you figure it out, let me know.<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] No.<\/p>\n

Herbie: [Laughs] Oh, c\u2019mon. Give me a break.<\/strong>
\nOh, okay. Keep the boards.<\/p>\n

Herbie: [Laughs]<\/strong>
\nIsn\u2019t it a great feeling to want to go surfing? The board has an attraction to going surfing. I\u2019ve ridden other boards and they were so discouraging. I could really get tired of surfing if I had to ride boards like that all the time. They just weren\u2019t happening. They just did not work. I didn\u2019t know why. I didn\u2019t even want to think about why.<\/p>\n

Herbie: There\u2019s a lot of crazy mojo going on at the bottom and with the double barrel concave.<\/strong>
\nWell, it\u2019s all about where you put it. Too much concave on or anything with water or air just sucks it up. The slightest of things make a difference. It\u2019s very apparent. On most fish, it\u2019s sharper on the bottom and the concaves are deeper. You can feel the double barrel concave when you turn. They release and give you a little push. The parallel rail gives you access to the long driving turns and gives you distance. If you get the right size and formula, you can have some fun.<\/p>\n

Herbie: I noticed the rails right away.<\/strong>
\nI had problems with wax on rails. When I turn, the wax on the rails would slow me down. It was like dragging kelp. It was bogging me down. It was irritating. I rode some guy\u2019s board that I\u2019d made and it just had too much wax on the rails to hold it. It definitely slowed it down. I didn\u2019t like that, so I took off the wax and that was it.<\/p>\n

Herbie: You were always cleaning the bottoms and sanding it the right way.<\/strong>
\nYeah, we had the sand finish a long time ago. The board doesn\u2019t look that great when it\u2019s all sanded. It doesn\u2019t shine until you get it in the water. I used to try and get to the beach real quick and dip it, like an ice cream cone. It\u2019s better than a rub out and it\u2019s a little faster. These boards have given some people some inspiration. It\u2019s fun. I\u2019m glad to see it. This is the same kind of feeling as when we made the down rail, Herbie.<\/p>\n

Herbie: Yeah, all the way. You made it and I rode it.<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s the same feeling. It was so inspirational. It was like, \u201cWow.\u201d It was fun. It was just something so new.<\/p>\n

Herbie: It was down the line. You could push on the nose, glide and go fast. But you had the rails down already. It was just that last 18 inches.<\/strong>
\nIt was going that way. I actually took it to a point where it was just sharp. I put a resin bead along the bottom line.<\/p>\n

Herbie: Zipper in the rail.<\/strong>
\nIt was like a ski. I was trying to make it as sharp as possible. That was a clean board. Paddling out, you could tell by the water. As soon as water came in contact with it, it did its thing. There were no bubbles. Then you ride it and it\u2019s different for a while and then you get used to it and it gets boring, but these boards have really kept up the enthusiasm. People come out of the water just flabbergasted.<\/p>\n

Herbie: A lot of people are riding fishes now. It reminds me of the \u201870s revisited, but now it\u2019s better. It\u2019s new and fresh.<\/strong>
\nExactly. You ride the bigger boards still?<\/p>\n

Herbie: Yeah, I\u2019m riding long boards. I like to glide.<\/strong>
\nYou like the boards with the square nose.<\/p>\n

Herbie: Yeah, the stretched nose. It works. That was a great design. I\u2019m still on it.<\/strong>
\nTalk about something that sticks. This guy doesn\u2019t give it up.<\/p>\n

Herbie: It\u2019s pretty classic, but that\u2019s a whole other deal.<\/strong>
\nSomeone told me there was a Surfer\u2019s Journal with photos of you, Haley and Hamilton. That was a classic time. Where is Stoner now? He\u2019s not around now.<\/p>\n

Herbie: He\u2019s MIA.<\/strong>
\nHe\u2019s just missing. There\u2019s no action. You know the crater in the middle of the Earth, that big hole down there?<\/p>\n

Herbie: You mean the one in the center of the earth?<\/strong>
\nHe\u2019s the kind of guy that would be interested in that.<\/p>\n

Herbie: [Laughs] Tell me about this Rainbow board, Mike.<\/strong>
\nThis is one of the boards that got away.<\/p>\n

Herbie: [Laughs]<\/strong>
\nThey were banging on the doors and then they broke the doors down and then they proceeded to go downstairs with sledgehammers. All these guys came in the house with hammers and hatchets like the Ku Klux Klan. And we had our inventory on each wall, displayed all cool. After they were done with the hatchets, the smoke was so thick and the boards were all smashed. They were looking for what I had in my pocket, but they were looking in the boards. They didn\u2019t even talk to us.<\/p>\n

Herbie: Well, that must have been after the movie Rainbow Bridge. That was after you showed them how to look inside boards?<\/strong>
\nNo, I don\u2019t know how they heard about it. That was before.<\/p>\n

Herbie: So that\u2019s how you got the idea?<\/strong>
\nYeah. With Rainbow Bridge, we wanted to show that we survived. You ain\u2019t got us down yet.<\/p>\n

Herbie: [Laughs] Before Rainbow Bridge, we were on Maui and I had some blanks and we were all over there hanging out. We were surfing Honolua Bay and Ma\u2019alaea at the same time. I think it was the summer of \u201868. Do you recall?<\/strong>
\n[Laughs] I\u2019m glad you remember. I don\u2019t claim to know any of that kind of stuff, but I was there.<\/p>\n

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #64 BY CLICKING HERE…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INTERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION BY DIBI FLETCHER PHOTOS BY ART BREWER AND HERBIE FLETCHER By the mid \u201850s, Mike Hynson was surfing all of the local San Diego breaks and making a mockery of the images that the mainstream media was starting to spew out. By \u201859, the world was seeing Mickey Munoz surfing as Gidget\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4028,4042],"tags":[4111,5135,5130,3996,3803,4224,5131,3810,4270,5137,5133,14255,6182,14488,5129,5134,5138,5139,32],"class_list":["post-8263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-surf-2","tag-art-brewer","tag-astrodeck","tag-beach-blanket-bingo","tag-beach-boys","tag-christian-fletcher","tag-dibi-fletcher","tag-endless-summer","tag-gidget","tag-herbie-fletcher","tag-honolua-bay","tag-johnny-gale","tag-juice-magazine","tag-juice-magazine-64","tag-mickey-munoz","tag-mike-hynson","tag-rainbow-surfboards","tag-ron-stoner","tag-sean-mattison","tag-surf"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/hynson1-2.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8263"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89798,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8263\/revisions\/89798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}