Paul Strauch

Irvine, California, 1995

Tom Blake came over to our house one day and made a board for my dad and a board for me

“In Trim: Paul Strauch,” by Chris Ahrens, ran in the June 1995 issue of Longboard magazine. Strauch was 51. 

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You’re part Hawaiian?

Half. My mother was three-quarters Hawaiian and one-quarter English, and my father was a one-quarter Hawaiian. My Hawaiian name is Kalakimau, which means “The Lucky One.”

When did you start surfing?

When I was about seven. My dad grew up in Waikiki and was a very good surfer. I think that he had one of the first balsa boards ever made in Hawaii. It was mad...