It was an unhappy trip to the snow that brought Hermosa a shop devoted to the fast-growing ocean sport of stand-up paddling.
Businessman Gene Smith had suffered a major concussion when his head hit the ice on a 2007 trip to Mammoth, and nearly six months of post-concussion syndrome later, he was still reduced to very little physical activity. Then a buddy, legendary waterman Laird Hamilton, encouraged him to tag along for a stand-up paddling (SUP) session in Malibu.
Laird promoted SUP as a new way of training that delivered a great workout without the physical strain. Smith agreed to go. He went from that first SUP session to buying his first board, to paddling out onFourth Street in Hermosa. SUP turned out to be the low-impact activity that his body craved, and within just six weeks he was symptom free.
Smith now paddles from pier to pier several times a week, and opened the doors to his Tarsan storefront on the corner of 10th and Hermosa Avenue, offering high quality boards, paddles, sunglasses, and introductory lessons.
He accredits SUP for his “midlife awakening” and believes that the rejuvenating power of the sport awaits anyone who is adventurous enough to take it.
“Everyone wants to be a part of the ocean,” Smith said. “People are enamored with water, and when they can interact with it, they always leave with the wildest smiles on their faces.”
SUP offers unique advantages, such as the aesthetically pleasing view of the beach over the paddler’s shoulder, and a tall vantage point from which to read read swells and catch waves.
In 2008, the year Smith began competing, the vast majority were still practicing the traditional prone paddling/lay down method, leaving just 5 percent standing upright on their boards.
“Now, that number has completely flip-flopped,” he said.
Even though he was immersed in the opening of the Hermosa Ink tattoo shop, just down the road, which he co-owns, he didn’t want to miss the SUP boat and pass up an opportunity to become the first exclusive paddle-boarding shop in the South Bay. And, he realized, the sport is extremely marketable since it only takes just a few outings to learn the skills required for a pleasurable paddling session.
The store’s name came from the nickname Tarzan that was bestowed upon Smith. When the nickname first stuck, Smith thought it referred to the vine-swinging jungle character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
“I just assumed the name had something to do with my long, unruly hair,” Smith said, who later found that MC’s in the racing community were actually talking about Gene “Tarzan” Smith, one of the greatest ocean paddlers of all time.
When it came time for Smith to come up with an official name for his shop, he could think of no better than Tarsan, spelled with an “s” instead of a “z” because the Burroughs estate still owns the rights to the iconic figure.
A wall of photos on the north side of his store shows Smith alongside friends, family and influential watermen. There is legendary shaper Joe Bark, who shapes his paddleboards nearby inTorrance, and paddle maker Jim Terrel, who is the brains behind Quickblade (qb) paddles. Both Bark boards and qb paddles are carried at Tarsan.
Another photo shows Smith interacting with the earth’s largest creature, the blue whale. This outing, in which Smith paddled close enough to touch one of the mammoths on an unusual appearance offRedondo Beach, was documented by local photographer Bo Bridges and featured on the cover of Easy Reader’s Beach magazine last fall.
“The magnificence and magnitude of the moment didn’t really hit me at the time…only when looking back did I fully realize what a special blessing this experience was in my life,” Smith said.
Tarsan has embraced a “soft” opening, catering to walk-in customers and locals who do a double-take after seeing a green patch of grass and bright yellow board.
The store plans an event calendar which will feature upcoming SUP events, including the grand-daddy of them all, the “Battle of the Paddle”, which will attract some of the world’s best paddlers to Doheny Beach in late September. On Sept. 17 the Hermosa Beach Pier will see the 2011 Hennessey’s-WPA World Championships of Paddling, featuring SUP and traditional paddleboard divisions.
