Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. We have a column interviewing people who had their hand in starting subcultures. We were talking with Aaron Rose, the founder of Alleged Gallery in New York, and he was reminiscing about a time when it was more a group of friends throwing parties and just trying to keep the lights on. It wasn’t until in retrospect that they saw what they were creating. From our vantage point Alleged’s punk roots and profound impact seems very similar to what you created with Zephyr. We were curious if you could talk more in depth about that time, and that condition?
JH: I was down near the pier in 1965. I don’t think anybody believed in what I was doing. Nobody did. They were outcast kids. I know what it’s like to be a latchkey kid. That was me. They had problems with their homelife and they were outcast and had nowhere to go. I knew from my own personal experience and what I did was made a model of what I thought should be right. As far as morals, ethics...I was a young guy in my early 20’s. I knew that the younger generation needed to be treated better than my generation. I wanted to give them a place to go.
I knew what I was doing.
LR: Do you know Aaron Rose?
JH: I already put holes in this board. It’s okay though.
LR: What were your intentions when you first opened your doors?
JH: To build surfboards and surf and live my surfing and building boards. First time I surfed was on Santa Monica Pier, I was out at station 7 in front of the Pink Hotel where I used to hang out. I had a coffee cup Styrofoam $1 Thrifties drugstore belly board. Push this board into the white water and you say oh my god, what a sensation. Later on I got it together to borrow a board as a teenager and this is when I stood up on a board. I loved the ocean since I was a little shaver. I liked being in the water.
Open up a door for the youth, provide a space for young kids who are having trouble to fit in, create and experiment with ideas. My need was triggered because I was riding on boards others had made and they weren’t working for me. Too heavy, too long, too slow, wrong fin shapes. At home before I opened the doors of the shop, I figured out that if I took a long board and glossed it lighter with less cloth on it. The board would weigh 10-15 pounds lighter than what others were making. I thought I can make them shorter. Shorter and Shorter and Shorter.
LR: Would you mind talking about some of the seeming chaos and experimentation at that time?
JH: Chaos was the norm. I feel like I’ve been fighting everybody my entire life due to experimentation. There was no school, it was creating your own being. When I was 7-8 I was surrounded by LA gangs. On the streets near me were low riders, Buddha heads, zip guns. Hiding in the waters, avoiding the Vietnam war. Thinking of floating awol.
LR: Anyone who’s tried to do anything in this world knows pulling off anything can be a lot of work. Can you talk about your intention and role in those early times. And what kept you going?
JH: I am passionate about what I do. I was a little Chinese American kid in junior high from a broken home. What was I going to do? There was ditching school, experimental drugs. I even overdosed. On life that is. I knew I needed to build a resume. Keep on doing it until there was no getting around it. Ding repair, sander, glosser, a shaper. At age of 15 I was building surfboards. At the age of 17, I was making a living. People would say, you can’t do that. But why? People said it was going to break. I don’t care.
LR: Douglas Rushkoff brought up the idea that the role of the artist has changed, post what he
calls the cultural narrative collapse, and that the new narrative is to bring people into the sacred circle. We feel like your art extends beyond your boards and to the skate and surf culture that have come out of your work and Zephyr - we are feeling like you may be a pioneer that points in this new direction? Do you see it this way? Can you talk about that?
JH: It connects with Greek Mythology. Zephyr was the Greek god of the west wind. Next you have the waxing crescent moon which governs the tides. Here, birthed the waxing crescent symbol which became iconic and overtime has creeped into the surf skate world in various formats. Observe these parts of the marks in new surf skate culture. If you want to be a pioneer you must not be afraid. I don’t care what others think and I am not afraid. Physically look at me.
LR: Can you talk about the boards you shape? Can you tell us about the defining aspects of your personal style?
JH: I am 18 working at Dewey’s and I look at boards. You guys are crazy why don’t you cut 3 feet off. I was making 7-8 foot boards. I brought one into work that I made at home to resin. Dewey said you can’t ride that. I said yes I can, yes I can. Tom Overlands said you have to pay for materials and now the first contest between short boarders and long boards was in Santa Cruz. The shape ended up being a pintail. I went up and gave my friend a V bottom a five four. The announcer said will the knee boarder get out of the surfing area. I came back from the contest and they fired me. I was 18. I got fired. I was
building boards, riding them and people saw them, what was my resume to get into a factory, like working for a label. I was into bold colors.
KC: What inspired colors?
JH: I was always into colors. This has always been tradition in surfboards, that there is not one flaw, one little lump, all the lines are perfect, they’re graphic, no fuzzy lines, everything has to be smooth, color has to be constant, no streaks, no pits, the lines are sharp and graphic. This is how I was taught. I went outside of the box. This is what I started many years ago. I started doing abstract resin colors when I was a kid and then I found pink. This board in front of me is the same process I started in the 70’s before the shop. I was working on the same techniques back then. We are now some 45 years later. They are now just learning how to do this process.
LR: What is Shred to you?
JH: Something radical, sick, insane.
LR: Our magazine writes about music a lot too. Could you talk about the early surf/skate culture in LA and the music that was around at the time? Was there a music culture that was related to what you were doing? How and when did the punks pick up on skating?
JH: What magazine?
LR: Lightning! At this point I’m thinking this interview is good, he forgot why I was there.
JH: Let’s go back before the punks, let’s go back to rock and roll revolution. Let’s go back to days when the Beatles broke out, their form of dress. It was the seeds, the doors, Velvet Underground and Lou Reed, Eagles, Jim Morrison. 1967. A revolt against authority, Free-Form Venice Beach. Iggy Pop – James Osterberg. There was a surf skate culture within a culture. The vision was different, weird shit, music brought LA madness.
15 minutes of fame or laughing. When lightning struck Venice Beach...
LR: We interviewed Dick Dale for this issue as well. Can you tell us about the exhibit “Jeff Ho/ Zephyr / Dick Dale Surfer Stomp” at the Hollywood Paladium?
JH: Dick Dale allowed me to show ideas. My anti-culture to surfing. When you walk to the beach with a little surfboard they look at you and go OH. They still look at me. I don’t care.
LR: Any crazy surf bandit stories?
JH: Like a secret society. God you really are getting into my shit. We used to sneak into ‘The Ranch’. We’d pick up the VW bug and set it on the railroad tracks. We would drive down the railroad tracks, hoping a train didn’t approach. We’d drive down the tracks several miles in from the North end up by Lompoc. We’d coast it into the bushes, cover it with camouflage and hike down the gully to surf.
LR: Did you have to do chores when you were a kid?
JH: Of course, sweeping, mopping, cleaning, washing dishes. I had a job when I was five. I was around cars, autobody shops. I learned the colorwheel at age 5.
LR: What are you thinking right now about this environment?
JH: Our environment, holes in the ozone, glaciers melting, beach erosion. I’m fairly busy ‘making’. Making sense of living, giving back to my same community, teaching the youth to make a mark.
Thanks so much. All of us over here at Lightning are big fans of your work.