This interview was originally published as "Bob Cooper: Naturally Unique," in the October 1968 issue of Petersen's Surfing. Cooper, a regular at Rincon in the late '50s and early '60s, sometimes referred to as "the Bearded Bard," was 31, and dividing his time between Southern California and New South Wales, Australia.

With so much attention being paid to the hippie scene today, I’ve been asked several times if you’re a hippie or not.

I’ve been asked the same thing. Hippies have been around for a couple of years now. I've been around longer than that, looking more or less the same as I do now. Who came first, the chicken or the egg? It doesn’t make any difference to me. I do what I do because I feel it's a genuine manifestation of me. I just enjoy being this way, not because it’s a popular movement. I shaved when I got married, and for a couple of things like that. But those were the only times.

I’ve heard that a hippie is somebody who is aware. That’s not mine, I read it someplace. I try to be aware. I have a button around my neck which says “I Care,” although since I wear it in the water it’s getting kind of rusty now. There are times when I do care. There are times when I don’t care.

Do you get much hassle over your beads and your beard and long hair?

Not really. It’s kind of an accepted thing now. I used to get hassled, a few years ago, but not so much anymore. Now it’s a conversational thing, and people will talk about it. Before they wouldn’t. As for the beads, honestly, I don’t know what the beads all mean. For me, personally, they have no religious significance. I like them because they're decorative and pretty. In general, I think that the harder you work to make life interesting, even if it's only by wearing a string of beads, the more interesting your life becomes. So when I first started looking different, sure, it did make my life interesting and exciting. I got myself into some interesting and tough situations. But it was kind of an avenue, a way out of the established pattern of growing up. Everybody else, it was high school and hot rods, then sports cars, a job behind the desk. I never went that way. I grew a beard as soon as I got out of high school, and my life just went this other direction.

Do you feel the mod era has made you more interesting, especially to young surfers?

I’ve been around a long time, and I suppose I’ve attracted attention, but the new surfing, or whatever it is, is based mostly on publicity, with ads and coverage in magazines and that sort of thing. Going down to the beach now, I see many, many people who look a lot like me. I imagine that they are looking for idols to follow, as I was. I was on the Mickey Dora bandwagon for a long time. I learned to talk like him and make his gesticulations. But he was a beautiful guy. He had more style and more class than anybody else on the whole beach. It came down to a style contest between him and Tubesteak, and Dora could surf, so I jumped on his bandwagon. There were the guys who pursued the Tubesteak image, and there was the those of us who wanted to surf, and that was the Dora thing. Dora talks now about his good years out there at Malibu, before the surf craze really hit. I was right in there with him. I was right on his tail. I took him places, I bought him stuff, I was his tool. But I loved every minute of it, because he was worth it. Now it’s the big "Love" posters, and "Love" written on the back of a VW van, and all that jazz. People are getting into that, trying to figure out how to make it work, figuring out if it's valuable. And it is valuable. When you put it out there, it does come back to you, completely magnified. It’s taken a long time, and society has gone through a lot of junk to find it, and I’m certainly pleased with the way things are going. I hope we can keep it up.


How did you first become involved in surfing?

The usual channels. Free time during summer, and you migrate to the beach, bodysurf, learn to play the ukulele, that sort of thing. A friend of mine had a surfboard, and one summer we learned how to surf. It was going to be our summer project. The year before, we learned how to play volleyball. But I really jumped into it, into surfing, really enjoyed it, and ending up getting super involved. The next summer my group of friends went on to something else, while I just stuck with surfing.

For awhile after high school I did the usual thing. I worked at the Broadway as a salesman in the linen department, then at a gas station to get the hot rod thing over with. I went to Brigham Young University for a summer semester, mostly just in order to continue with surfing. I got a night job after that, so I could surf during the days.

Then you got involved with making boards?

Dale Velzy, the big name in boards at the time, used to let me hang around his shop. When we had nothing to do, we'd drive down to Velzy’s place in Venice. So I was hanging around one day, and Dale mentioned that he was opening a San Clemente shop. He said he needed a sander, and since I wasn’t doing anything, I said, “Crazy, I’ll be your sander.” I'd never sanded a board before in my life, but I learn fast, and he hired me. So I stayed down in San Clemente for two years. I lived there in Dale's shop, up in loft where he stored the balsa. I moved things around and made a little room up there for myself. So I fed the dog, was the night watchman, sanded boards, surfed during the day, and lived there for nothing.

The first trip was in ’59 and ’60. It was an exploratory deal. I’d been to Hawaii a couple of times and seen that whole scene, but I knew that they surfed in Australia too, and I'd read a lot about the place, so it just seemed like a good idea to have a look. I like animals and wanted to be a zoologist at one time, and I knew the country had interesting animals. I liked the fact that it’s isolated, and the rest of the world didn't really know about it. Surf-wise, it was really attractive too. I knew there had to be a lot of great waves. So it was a natural thing to want to go there.

During that first trip, man, they were in the Stone Age as far as surfboards and surfing were concerned. Really crude. I went over there, and it’s not exactly that I introduced a lot of things, but American surfing was a little further ahead and I knew a little more. Of course, when I got back to the States, things here were even further ahead. Then when I went back to Australia the second time, they'd improved a lot, and were awfully close to California.

My second trip to Australia was just going to be a temporary thing. I'd made a lot of real good friends the first time over there, and also I was in love with Jane Farrelly, Midget’s sister. While I was gone she was going out with Bobby Pike, and I figured it was time I went back and reclaimed her. So I went back, and she just put me down flat, laid me out cold. So, brokenhearted, I decided not to stay in Sydney. I'd always wanted to go to Queensland, so off I went. I ended up in Alexandra Headland, glassing boards for Hayden Kenny. That's were I met Wils, my wife to be. So I stayed a little while longer, and a little while longer, and eventually I applied for citizenship.

Right around then I met Bob McTavish. We were surfing at Noosa Heads, back when nobody had heard of it. We were the only guys who surfed it regularly and it's probably the best surf spot in the world, as far as I’m concerned. It’s a fantastic set up, five points in a row. It’s just an outasight place, and we had it all to ourselves. Afterward, Bob and I would have dinner and then dialogue until the sun came up the next morning. I actually think that’s where this new Australian movement started, there at Noosa.


How did George Greenough fit into all this?

Well, first Nat [Young] came up and got together with McTavish. Then Greenough came over. I knew George from Santa Barbara, and he flew down because I told him it was a groovy place. He started interjecting a lot of his ideas. What it turned into was just a big Queensland seminar. We had a great time, and surfed our brains loose. Peter Drouyn was there too, just a scrawny little gremlin who wanted to be hot, and had all this drive. He was a spontaneous little kid, jumping up and down and screaming. I really like him.

What was going on here in California when you returned from your second trip?

The big thing was the noseriding bag. [Tom] Morey had just put on the first noseriding contest. Everybody was really on that scene, and Nuuhiwa was the big thing. I wanted to see David, because I'd heard so much about him. I was very impressed. Having lived with all the super-hot guys in Australia, then coming back here and isolating myself up north again, my exposure to what was going on in Los Angeles and Orange County was minimum. And that’s supposed to be where it’s at, right, LA and Orange County? But on the occasions that I did get down there, I wasn’t really impressed. Except for Nuuhiwa. He was worth watching. I was all eyes when I first saw him. Just excellent. So, noseriding was the big thing.

I’m not interested in getting into the competition bag and all. I don’t need that any more. I suppose that when I was younger and more insecure, I probably would have been in there driving with a number blazed on my back. But I don’t feel that need any more.

How does your religion fit into your surfing life? [Note: Cooper was and remains a dedicated Mormon]

Religion really doesn't fit into my surfing life, any more than it fits into the other parts of my life. My religion has given me the basis for a good solid life, everything a person needs to know to be happy is there for the taking. I like having ground rules. A lot of the confusion in kids' minds these days, and grown-ups too, is that they just don’t know what it’s all about. They can’t find the answers. Fortunately, I've found the answers.

What do you think the place of surfing should be in one’s life?

The whole scene here on earth is to overcome the obstacle of being mortal. Surfing is a relaxing sport or pastime, but it’s nothing to get in over your head with. The people who apply some religious or mysterious nature to surfing are making more out of it than there really is. It’s just something to do. You’re getting a free ride, you get exercise and some exposure to nature, and maybe you’ve got an audience, so there's some ego satisfaction. But people make a lot more out of surfing than there is. As far as the purpose of man’s existence on earth, surfing has nothing to do with it. There are things in life that are much, much more important than riding waves. Surfing is a bauble, it’s not important at all. It’s just one tangent you can go off on. Guys who get hung upon it, and believe me I was hung up on it, are escaping, basically.

I think everybody, when you come right down to it, feels that there's a deeper meaning to life than just sensory pleasure. And here we go into the color TV thing, the fast car, the gorgeous blond, things like that. Don't get me wrong. Surfing is what I do six days a week. But on Sunday I go to church.

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