Shop History

I have been interested in surfing all of my adult life. In the early 1960’s we started renting surfboards at Galveston and Surfside beaches on the upper Texas coast. The sport was gaining popularity in Texas and there were surf movies at the theaters (that had very little to do with the real sport) and several independent movies that were just about surfing at local school auditoriums.

At school one day in 1963 a friend loaned me three Peterson Surfing magazines and that was the beginning for BJ’s Surf Shop. Advertisements requesting dealers inquires were on every page. I contacted Gregg Noll surfboards and ordered some decals, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. They sold as fast as I could unpack them.

Early in 1964 a friend asked if I could get a Dewey Weber surfboard for him, I called and talked to Dewey and was established as his dealer in the Houston area. Later that year we added Gordie and Wardy surfboards to our line and we were able to sell several. By the following spring we were selling surfboards as fast as we could get them and were awarded Dewey Weber’s number one dealer for the next two years.

We began building surfboards around the end of 1968, for the local crowd of surf enthusiasts. It was a group effort so we called it Coalition Surfboards, which changed to Williamson & Co Surfboards (Co for Coalition) in late 1969. I have been actively building again for the last 12 years.

Update - Summer 2008:

I recently finished construction of my new shop, where I am cranking out boards as fast as I can. If you are waiting on a board (you know how you are), I’m “just about done with it”.
The new facility is for construction of Williamson & Co surfboards only. (Unfortunately you can no longer spend days on end at the shop, lounging on garage sale couches, poring over the latest surf mags, talking to my mom, playing with the dogs and waiting for surf. That was 1967, man!) Thanks for checking out the new online shop, we will try to put new stuff up so you will keep coming back. Have a Nice Wave.

BJ Williamson

Back in the day, anybody you know?

Greg Noll Ad from Petersen’s Surfing Magazine, Sept. 1964, courtesy of gregnoll.com.