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Eclectic, free-thinking surfboard maker and rock industry jack-of-all-trades from Neptune, New Jersey; owner of Challenger Eastern Surfboards, and Bruce Springsteen's first manager. "One of the most influential New Jerseyans you never heard of," the 

 said of West in 2007. "A behind-the-scenes genius renowned not so much for what he has done himself as for the support and creative spark he ignited in others."

West was born (1935) and raised in Culver City, Los Angeles. A childhood fascination with clocks, phones, radios, and cars—anything mechanical— earned him the nickname "Tinker." In 1955, West graduated from UCLA with a degree in physics; he has mostly refused to talk about his early career in engineering, but a longtime friend later said that West had a Defense Department job in El Segundo, just north of Manhattan Beach, working on the Sidewinder missile project—a design still in use today. 

West had learned to surf by this time, and before the decade was out he'd quit his government job and was working as a laminator and shaper, first with Wardy Surfboards, then with Velzy, then Hobie. In 1961, West and a group of friends made headlines after swimming out and boarding the recently-grounded 

 freighter, in Palos Verdes, where they were picked up by helicopter, arrested and jailed. 

Not following year, West was living in Dana Point with Joe Severson, younger brother of SURFER publisher John Severson. For four years, West shaped for Challenger Surfboards, a small but growing brand out of San Diego, and he eventually became part-owner. As surfing boomed across the Atlantic Seaboard, and board demand along with it, Challenger found itself shipping boards to three different outlets in New Jersey. West proposed that Challenger open a second factory somewhere along the Atlantic, but could not convince his business partner; the two split the business assets, agreed to share the name, and in 1966 West moved to Neptune City, New Jersey, and founded Challenger Eastern Surfboards. 

The red-haired newcomer with the handlebar mustache was immediately popular with the local crew. The Challenger Eastern factory was open nearly around the clock, and West's relentless work ethic and perfectionism did not get in the way of his having a good time, or from passing his wide-ranging knowledge onto those around him. Imported West Coast boards were still the rule, but Challenger Eastern would soon be the biggest East Coast-based boardmaker in America, peaking out at something close to 50 boards a week. A fire burned the factory to the ground in 1968, but West quickly moved the business to a new location in nearby Wanamassa, and then in 1970 moved again, to an aging turn-of-the-century former theater in Highlands, NJ, which West later painted a distinctive lavender-purple. 

West by this time was as interested in music—both playing and engineering—as he was in surfing and making boards, and by 1969 the Challenger Eastern Factory had added a rehearsal space, which was being used by some of the hottest new local bands, including Steel Mill, featuring a teenaged singer-guitarist named Bruce Springsteen. As Jim Kempton later reported, Springsteen was in fact living at Challenger Eastern, surfing in the mornings, and sometimes working on boards. "When I was younger,"  Springsteen told Kempton, "the only things I gave a damn about were girls, cars and surfing."

In 1971, West was both the sound engineer and manager for was now called the Bruce Springsteen Band. "West booked the concerts, arranged transportation and hotels, handled the sound and shepherded [the band] into minor-league profitability," as one newspaper story later put it. West also at times joined the group onstage, playing congas. 

The rehearsal space had meanwhile been upgraded to a DIY recording studio. "The Challenger Eastern surfboard factory [became our] new clubhouse," Springsteen later wrote. "We built the interior of this dilapidated space ourselves, banging the nails, raising the walls, and insulating our recording studio. The whole thing was a classic off-the-grid, below-the-radar Carl West production."

Near the end of the 1971, West introduced Springsteen to rising producer-manager Mike Appel, who in turn arranged an audition with Columbia Records, which led to Springsteen and his newly-named E Street Band recording their debut LP. Appel would continue to manage and produce Springsteen. "I couldn't take him further," West later said. "There were no hard feelings and we still talk on occasion."

West closed Challenger Eastern Surfboards factory in the early 1970s, but continued to work as a sound engineer, and a do-anything designer-builder. A 2007 article about West noted that he had, over the years, restored and sailed a wrecked 1954 racing sloop, built an indoor waterfall in Red Bank, assembled a 1950 Chevy panel truck from scratch, done stage production for the Howard Stern Show, and installed sound rigging at Carnegie Hall. 

West still owns the former theater where Springsteen and Challenger Eastern once shared space. "Every town has its cast of characters," one local resident said of West. "In Highlands, Tinker is our entire cast."

West was inducted to the New Jersey Surfing Hall of Fame in 2015.

West, Carl "Tinker"

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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The Sunday Joint

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