Rich Harbour, 73, talks to a packed crowd at the Surfing Heritage & Culture Center in San Clemente on Saturday, June 24, 2017. The Seal Beach shaper has been crafting boards since 1959. (Photo courtesy of Jerry Jaramillo.)

A new exhibit at San Clemente’s Surfing Heritage & Culture Center features surfboards and other memorabilia created by Seal Beach surfing icon Rich Harbour. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Antenore)

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More than 30 surfboards created by Rich Harbour, along with other memorabilia, are on display at the San Clemente Surfing Heritage & Culture Center in a new exhibit focused on the Seal Beach surfing icon. *(Photo courtesy of Jeff Antenore)

A new exhibit at San Clemente’s Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, which will open to the public during a kick-off event on Saturday, June 25, 2017, features surfboards and other memorabilia created by Seal Beach surfing icon Rich Harbour. Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer

A new exhibit at San Clemente’s Surfing Heritage & Culture Center features surfboards and other memorabilia created by Seal Beach’s surfboard shaper Rich Harbour. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Antenore)



Barry Haun, curator and creative director of the Surfing Heritage & Culture Center in San Clemente, straightens a surfboard in a new exhibit focused on Seal Beach surf icon Rich Harbour, on Thursday, June 22, 2017. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Antenore)

Rich Harbour is shown with one of his early surfboards, made nearly six decades ago.

Rich Harbour, who began Harbour Surfboards on Main Street in Seal Beach in 1962, stands in the store holding a photograph of himself shaping a surfboard in the early 1960’s. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Rich Harbour of Seal Beach has been in the boardroom making and selling surfboards for more than 50 years. (Photo by Michael Goulding, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Rich Harbour, who began Harbour Surfboards on Main Street in Seal Beach in 1962, stands in the shaping room in the back of the store in January 2015. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Don Craig was a young surfer competing along the coast in 1967 when he joined the Harbour surf team.

First, he was a team rider, a hot 20-year-old surfer who represented the store while riding waves, a way for surf shops and brands to advertise out in the water. Then the store needed a cashier, so he took a sales job behind the counter of the Seal Beach surf shop on Main Street, in the same location that stands today.

“I can’t get rid of them,” joked Rich Harbour Saturday night, June 24, as the two men reminisced about the good ol’ days 50 years earlier. “He finally got smart and got a real job.”

An estimated 250 people turned out at the San Clemente Surfing Heritage & Culture Center event to see a new exhibit featuring Harbour, who started shaping in 1959 out of his parent’s garage. It was a night filled with storytelling about decades past and an event that paid tribute to one of Orange County’s most legendary surfboard shapers.

Read about Rich Harbour’s life here.

Harbour, sitting in a chair as friends and fans came up to “talk story,” said he was “overwhelmed” by the large turn out.

About 30 of his old boards were on display, as well as memorabilia such as his first business license, obtained for $15 from the city of Seal Beach on June 30, 1962.

Under the Harbour label, more than 32,000 boards – each numbered – have been made. He mentored many famous surfboard shapers through the years, including Mike Marshall, who created one of the more famous boards, the “Trestles Special.”

Newport Beach surfer Steve Farwell was a team rider in 1992, 24 at the time, and learned how to shape under Harbour and Marshall. He remembers trying to find the right sponsor for his surf style.

“I was looking for someone to ride for. I was driving down the California coast, looking at all the surf shops. The Harbour shop was the only shop I felt I could grab a board right off the rack. I just liked them, from day one,” he said.

He remembers seeing all the pro riders from decades past gracing the walls: Robert August, Corky Carroll, Rich Chew, Dick Brewer. “It was surfing mecca on the walls … all the guys who were famous at the time,” he said.

When Harbour’s health started declining, Farwell, six years ago, stepped up to help in the shaping bay. He’s a property manager by day, but two days a week moonlights helping to shape Harbour surfboards.

“This is a fun job. He’s always teaching me something. If I’m frustrated or something, he’s always giving me little insights,” Farwell said. “It’s fun, learning under the grand master.”

While Harbour still owns the shaping part of the business, Robert Howson came in as a partner in 1993 to take over the retail portion of the shop.

“I think he’s a living piece of history. I think the surf community can benefit from anything he passes on. For me, it’s an honor to be a part of it,” Howson said.

SHACC president Glenn Brumage said Harbour’s shaping goes back to when there were only two or three shapers in the area at the time.

“Rich’s history is so deep and so important to Orange County surfing,” he said. “It was very important to us to not only recognize him, but save that information for future generations.”

Harbour Surfboards: A retrospective

When: Exhibit runs through Sept. 24

Where: Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, 110 Calle Iglesia, San Clemente

Information: surfingheritage.org