So here are some shots of Hurricane Gustav at South Padre Island. Thanks to Brian Stephenson for sending someone an email who sent me an email…

Brian reminds me to thank Capt. Hill for taking the pictures and manning the boat.

Female surfers haven’t always gotten the respect they deserve – neither on Texas shores nor on beaches around the world. Too often, women have been depicted simply as props in surf culture, as bikini chicks sitting on the beach, looking pretty and not much more.

The Texas Surf Museum in Corpus Christi aims to set the record straight, at least where female surfers from the Lone Star State are concerned, with a major new exhibit titled Texas Women. Texas Waves, opening on Friday, June 6, 2008.

Texas women including Tippy Kelley, Julie Polansky, Grace Knowles and Karen MacKay have won more national titles in the annual United States Surfing Championships than have their male counterparts since the contest began in 1959. And competition hasn’t been the only way women have made their marks on the Texas surfing scene.

Kathryn Williamson-Mayfield of Houston (BJ’s mom and spiritual mother to hundeds of grom’s back in the day) established some of the state’s first surf shops in the early 1960s. Mary Goldsmith of Port Aransas spearheaded the successful drive during the late 1990s to legalize surfing next to Horace Caldwell Pier, a prime spot for waves.

Rachel Gore of South Padre Island made headlines in 2004 when she and her husband, Gene, paddled a surfboard the entire 404-mile length of the Texas coast in 19 days to raise money for the Surfrider Foundation Texas Chapter’s Respect the Ocean program, which teaches school children about protecting and preserving the ocean environment.

Texas Women. Texas Waves. will include surfboards, memorabilia, videos and dozens of photos and written profiles related to Texas women surfers of today and yesterday, young and old, from throughout the state.

We have opened an online shop - just click the picture of the t-shirts.

You are gonna look good in that new shirt!

We thank you in advance for the free advertising.

Someone suggested G-Land, Java, Indonesia. Looks intense…

“Shaping EPS Blanks is a training video that demonstrates the techniques and tools required to shape EPS / Epoxy surfboards of commercial quality. The program is not a complete “how to build a surfboard” guide. Instead, Shaping EPS Blanks is geared to the professional builder; and emphasizes technique and tooling of expanded polystyrene foam. Demonstrated by B. J. ( Bryson ) Williamson, a shaper and builder with 40 years experience.”

The link to the order site is here.

Aloha! Summer is here and we hope everybody is having a good one so far.

The site has been sorely neglected in the past few months due to some really stupid mistakes your humble site maintenance guy has made, but I just spoke with BJ and we have some plans to bring you some new stuff here on the site. I have installed a spam filter, so hopefully we won’t get three hundred spams about things I don’t want to mention.

Stay tuned and have a nice wave!

Dear Bryson,

Here is a little story out of the past.

I was just surfing the net and came across your website. Allow me to introduce myself - my name is David Daigle and the first board I ever bought was a 7′6″ Dewey Weber ‘Ski’ from your shop on the old Katy Freeway back in June 1969. My best friend Mike and I travelled all night from New Orleans and arrived at the shop at around 3am in the morning. I remember looking at the board through your window and just waiting with excitement for the store to open. Finally, dead tired from the long drive we crashed out on top of the washing machines at the laundromat that was next door to the shop. As soon as the store opened I bought the Ski and a roof rack for my old VW bug and we were off to Surfside. Lived on the beach for the next week and had maybe the best time ever surfing the ankle to knee deep mush that was available.

By the way, the Weber Ski - now 38 years old and in excellent condition - has the place of honor on my garage wall. It will never touch water again, but I do like to look at it every time I pass it by.

After that summer of 1969, Uncle Sam got a hold of me and I was off to Viet Nam before I could realize what was happening to me. The only good thing that came out of that was that I got to surf some fairly decent waves in the South China Sea in Da Nang. Once my army days were over, I had to finish up school and start working. I moved to Norway in the mid ’70’s, so you can imagine my surfing days were over (way to cold over there!). The Norwegian company I work for transferred me to Houston in the summer of 2005, so I am basically a new arrival back on the gulf coast. Mainly for nostalgia, as soon as I arrived in Houston I inquired via the yellow pages and internet, but never found any trace of the old BJ’s surfshop.

Since I’m now in my mid fifties I figured I would never surf again, but last year my wife and I went to Hawaii for a summer vacation. Just for the fun of it, we rented boards, surfed a little and lo & behold the old stoke came back bigger and stronger than ever. Since then, I have bought a few boards from Ron Jons in Florida and also a board from Soundwaves. If I had known you were still around I would have surely brought a little business your way.

I’m back at Surfside most Friday’s - Sunday’s and having loads of fun in the gulf mush again. Actually, there have been a few good days this past winter, so I’m reliving my youth again.

Anyway, I just wanted to write and let you know that your old shop was a big part of my teen years and I recall those days with very fond memories. I’m not really sure if we ever met, but I was in your shop a lot back in ‘68 & ‘69.

Who knows…….maybe I’ll be riding one of your boards again one day.

Best regards,
David Daigle

There ya go, another satisfied customer!
If you have a story you’d like to share, send us an email.

(OK i figured out how to stop the spam, feel free to comment on this post now)