2023 SWOF Inductee – Carper is a shaper of surfboards, and surfers
John “JC” Carper grew up in Hermosa Beach, and moved to Hawaii after graduating from Mira Costa High School. Carper will be introduced into the Hermosa Beach Surfer Walk of Fame by longtime rival shaper Dennis Jarvis, of Spyder Surf by John “JC” Carper Edited by Kevin Cody My first exposure to surfers was on the Hermosa Beach Pier. I’d never seen a grown man without a suit. My dad was a musician and owned Hermosa Music on Hermosa Avenue. These guys had no shirts and butt cracks showing. My dad said, Don’t look at them. Greg Noll was a neighbor when we lived down the street from Robinson School. He was already famous as a badass. We’d hang out on the brick wall in front of his garage. He’d let us watch him make boards as long as we didn’t say anything. That’s when I got interested in shaping boards. They were so beautiful. All the famous surfers would hang out in Greg’s driveway, drinking beer and cussing. Cussing was an art form in those days. It wasn’t just F bombs. I tell my kids the only reason to use the F bomb is if you hit your thumb with a hammer. Don’t just throw it out like it’s a punctuation mark. One day Hobie Alter came up from San Diego with a board made with this new…
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