Taylor Surfboards

Shaper: Pat Taylor

Location: Santa Cruz, CA

About: Pat Taylor was born in Seattle and moved to Southern California at age 6. He caught his first waves at age 8 in the Palos Verdes Cove, and starting shaping—primitively—as a teen. “I shaped my first board at age 15 in my dad’s garage with a sureform [shaping instrument that shaves foam] and little else—I was so clueless,” he says.

He moved north after high school, and began studying at Cabrillo College. He found Pleasure Point, which was still considered a “surf ghetto” at the time. “It was the perfect base with great waves out front and centrally located between Moss Landing to the South and Waddell Creek to the North,” he says.

During this period, Pat hooked up with Steve Coletta, one of Santa Cruz’s greatest shapers, and began sporadically glassing the customs that Coletta built for him.

Soon thereafter, Corey Smith, the owner of Santa Cruz Surf Shop, needed help making boards. Pat stepped up and from 1980 to 1990, Taylor/Santa Cruz Surfboards was the go-to for high-performance short boards, boasting a stacked team including Josh Mulcoy, Shawn Barron, Anthony Ruffo, and Richie Schmidt. “This created instant demand locally, especially with the hard-core locals,” Pat points out. - Santa Cruz Waves