The man holding the hammer: Gary Swanson

Walking into Gary’s shop in Mosier, Oregon (just east of Hood River) one can tell immediately that he’s a very busy man. Swanson, a sinewy guy with a serious gaze, looks like a man who lives his work and isn’t used to taking a lot of breaks. When he works he works hard; when he plays he plays hard. And at this time a of year, he’s working. We hadn’t even had time to shake hands before two customers came in to talk boards with him. It was a good introduction for me however, as I could tell by the way he deals with his clients that he has a pretty serious reputation that precedes him. There is no sales pitch, no pressure. His approach is to talk calmly from his wealth of knowledge all the while exuding an air of- ‘if you want a beautiful board, I’ll make you one. Simple as that.’ It’s almost a sense of kindly indifference that Swanson emanates. His confidence in his craft speaks for itself.

Being in So Cal in that era places him at a pretty amazing time in surf and skate history. He came up during the height of the Dogtown era and was part of a rival skate posse to such greats as Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta. At his shop, he actually has a picture on his wall from Thrasher magazine featuring him carving up a an empty pool. I looked at it with pure, uncut jealousy. Most old-schoolers would kill for this kind of clout.

Gary’s introduction to surfboard shaping started around age 14. It was then that he shaped his first board. But by his own admission, it didn’t perform up to his ability and standards. But hey, give a kid a break. Success or not, his first attempt piqued his interest in the craft and he knew, given some practice, that he could be very good at it. His intellect was good on the design front and his natural understanding of the ocean gave him a good start. He was good with his hands and liked the work of building with them. But a kid should concentrate on surfing first. And he did. His first ‘real’ surfboard was a Wilken 7’4 which when he mentions it, a big a grin comes across his face. “You always remember your first board,” he says. With the Wilken, his passion for the ocean, and his proximity to some of the best waves in North America, Gary started surfing like hell. He spent a lot of time at Zuma, Drainpipes, Oxnard and a bit at Malibu point. He also started traveling south of the border to k55 and fell in love with Baja.
 

Hooked by the soul and power of the ocean flying by under his feet, Swanson started getting into the biz side of things when he got a bit older, guaranteeing that he’d be knee-deep in the liquid for life. He ended up working at Wilken as a first job and there he started formally learning the fundamentals of surfboard design and building. He started the trade like every newby does, doing ding repairs and rub-out.

Over the next few years he learned more and more about the craft and after college, he went on to work at Natural Progression professionally. There he worked along side pro shapers Robbie Dick, Dean Edwards, Mike Perry and Phil Becker and with their support and tutelage, Swanson himself became a master. As a matter of fact, Gary, now 49 has never had a job outside of the surf industry since day one.

Sometimes destiny finds you a clean line without you having to paddle too hard to catch it.

In Cali, Swanson started windsurfing just around the time that Natural Progression was getting orders for custom sailboards. In 1980, with a few hundred surfboards under his belt, Gary shaped his first sailboard. In 83’ he started his present company, Cascade Performance Fiberglass, and moved to the Gorge shortly thereafter to catch the mad wave of sailboard popularity. There he has shaped custom surfboards and sailboards for over 20 years. Surf sales season is the summer and a few months on each end, so with his biz up and running, and a good reputation established, he works 70 hour weeks in the high season which allows him to live the rest of the year in Mexico.
 

Winter is when he chills. Or kind of chills anyway. This is the playing hard part of the story. In his shop are about fifty photos of him on waves all over Mexico, and some of them look pretty damn hairy.

As we chat, he tells me a near death episode at Puerto Escondido, where he was slammed over and over again and over again by heavy, double overhead+ set waves. “I was at the top of my game, and in good shape, and man, I was so close to dying...I’d dive down, get pulled up and thrown over right back into the impact zone. Wave after wave kept coming and I couldn’t have done one more. Then I surfaced and it was calm. I got back to the beach finally, almost blue, and my friends were like, what’s the matter?” Sounds like they didn’t hear him yelling. “I tell people this story, and they’re like, you must have got it on a weird day.”

Now our conversation is all about surf stories and we go back and forth like only true surfers can. If this wasn’t an interview we’d have cracked beers. The only difference between our stories is that none of mine involve bone-crushing, sharky, sketchy, and uber-heavy surf. To date, Swanson has spent twenty winters perfecting the art of the surf story on Baja's beaches.

Hammersurf, impressed by Gary’s fine work and shaping aesthetic, recently hired him to build their boards. Hammer’s philosophy and Swanson’s were a good match and together they’ve put some mighty beautiful boards under the feet of many a Northwest surfer. Both respect the fundamentals of classic surfboard design, and neither are about gimmicks and fads. When you’ve shaped over 4,500 boards over the span of 25 years, and surf like Gary does, you tend to know what works best.
  

With Swanson on board, the company kicks out about 12 boards a week, and Hammer’s shapes grace the racks of surf shops all over the Northwest.   Both Swanson and Hammer are committed to the Northwest environment, and a portion of Hammer’s profits go to benefit the Surfrider foundation.

Swanson now produces Hammer’s entire quiver which spans 11 different models from shortboards, fishes, speed eggs, and fun-shapes, to high performance longboards and way cool old school noseriders (my feet are about to be on one these babies). All boards are produced in Oregon at Swanson’s shop in Mosier which he shares with colleague and pal, Fred Stangl. Gary’s experience with craftsmanship and design, and Stangl’s master glassing abilities make them a good team. Hammer also does customs per customer requests.

When meeting a person like Gary Swanson, you’re reminded that surfing is truly a way of life. Surfing one of Gary’s boards is to surf on the experience of someone who lives that life- true.

You can find contact info for Gary and Hammer Surf on the Shops & More page (under the Shapers heading).

By Stiv Wilson - July 2005

Stiv J. Wilson is a surfer and freelance writer currently living in Portland, but is destined to live on the coast.