Yater, Renny (1932 – )
Cool-handed surfer and boardmaker from Santa Barbara, California; innovator and prime exemplar of a smooth, low-key cental California surfing style; founder of Yater Surfboards.
Yater was born (1932) in Los Angeles, the son of a shoe salesman, raised in Pasadena and Laguna Beach, began surfing at age 14, and started making his own boards at 21. Thin, hawk-nosed, and quiet, Yater apprenticed in the mid- and late '50s with the two biggest boardbuilders in the world, working as a laminator at H...