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academia and surfing

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advertising and surfing

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angle

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Bermuda

Durable, high-energy bicoastal American surfer and boardmaker; one of the original WCT-rated East Coast pros, and cofounder of the popular Back Yard Boards label. "Shredding would be a too-delicate description of what Pat is accomplishing on this wave," surf writer Carlos Lorch said of Mulhern in 1982. "Off-the-tops and cutbacks come in rapid succession and when least expected he pivots into a lightning-fast 360. The crowd goes crazy."

Mulhern was born (1961) in Inglewood, California, and spent his early childhood in Manhattan Beach. Don Mulhern, his father, was an in-demand surfboard laminator who worked for Dewey Weber Surfboards. Mulhern began surfing in 1968, with his father, not long after the family moved to Encinitas, in North County San Diego. 

On his 12th birthday, the Mulherns moved again, to Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, located between Cocoa Beach and Sebastian Inlet—a showcase  break that would help shape Mulhern into a flashy, aggressive, world-class performance surfer. Small and wiry (5'9", 145 pounds), he was quick to learn all the latest moves, including 360s, floaters, and a gravity-defying layback position that could be applied frontside or backside. 

Mulhern won the juniors division of the 1977 United States Surfing Championships, at which point he dropped out of high school to turn professional. At the 1978 Grog's Seaside Pro, Mulhern's debut WCT event, the 17-year-old defeated, in order, David Nuuhiwa, Cheyne Horan, Jeff Crawford and Shaun Tomson, on his way to a finals match against Wayne Bartholomew. "Throughout the contest," surf writer Bruce Valluzzi wrote in his coverage for SURFER Magazine, "young Patrick Mulhern was the dancing whippersnapper who vanquished a series of more experience adversaries. [He was in] teenage hyperdrive, and fit in a prodigious number of maneuvers per wave; his body never stops moving—an exuberant approach, style be damned." Mulhern finished runner-up to Bartholomew, who went on to win that year's WCT world title. Mulhern then made the quarterfinals of the next event, at Sebastian, and ended the year by partnering with fellow Floridian Steve Massfeller for a surprise win in the 1978 World Team Championship, held in near-perfect conditions at Sunset Beach. The East Coast team beat Cheyne Horan and Peter Townend in the finals. 

Mulhern was #21 on the 1978 WCT ratings, the second-highest Mainland America surfer, behind #12 Jeff Crawford. 

In 1979, Mulhern had a near-identical season, with two strong results on the East Coast, landing him at #22 for the year—except this time he was the highest-rated Mainland American surfer. 

Despite the good results, Mulhern never had enough sponsorship money to travel the entire circuit, and in 1980 he focused instead on the smaller, less developed, but more accessible East Coast pro circuit, which he won five years running, from 1979 to 1983. 

Mulhern was shaping surfboards by that time, having learned the craft from his father and Donald Takayama—the two older men had briefly co-owned a boardmaking business—but during the second half of the 1980s, Mulhern was for the most part off the surfing scene and working for a home-building company in the Carolinas. After moving back to Florida, Pat and Don Mulhern together made boards out of a small factory in Daytona Beach. 

In keeping with what had become a lifelong habit, Mulhern again relocated, this time back to North County San Diego, where he briefly worked for Nectar Surfboards. Surf artist John Glomb was also working for Nectar, and it was Glomb who in 1998 asked Mulhern to be the shaper for a new Leucadia-based company, Back Yard Boards—better known as BYB. Glomb had spent much of the previous decade living and working in Hawaii, and while BYB continued to be headquartered in California, it mostly sponsored Hawaii-born surfers, the best-known being Sunny Garcia, who won his 2000 WCT title while riding Mulhern-shaped equipment. The two had a close working relationship. "I told him I wouldn't shape for anybody else on the [world] tour unless he okayed it," Mulhern said in 2001. "Sunny has devoted himself to me, so I'm devoting myself to Sunny."

Mulhern was still shaping BYB boards as of 2025, and also working for longtime Virginia-based boardmaker Wave Riding Vehicles. 

In 2006, Mulhern was elected to the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame. 

BEGAN SURFING age 8, at Stone Steps, Encinitas, on dad's board

BEGAN PATCHING DINGS at age 13, ended up learning all aspects of board-building

1978, 2nd place in Grog's Seaside Pro at age 17; lost to Bugs. Beat Shaun in semifinals; Jeff Crawford in quarters; Cheyne Horan in Round Five; David Nuuhiwa in Round Three; (got to skip Round Four)

1978, 5th in Florida Pro, Sebastian (back to back with Grog's)

1979, 2nd in Florida Pro, Canaveral Pier (lost again to Bugs)

1980, 103 in ratings; only entered one event

Mulhern, Pat

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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