Pipeline: Prunauer credits Torrance neighbors for surfing inspiration
Andy Prunauer just recently celebrated his 26th birthday. But the 5-foot-10, 150 pound, blond curly haired surfer with turquoise blue eyes still looks like the South High Surf Team sophomore I use to judge a decade ago. Now the Torrance native is shaping progressive design boards for several of today’s South Bay Surf League surfers.
“I grew up in Torrance on the same block as the Meistrells, Eddie Solt, Greg Browning and Pat Webber, who surfs Burnout better than anyone else,” Prunauer said. “ But I didn’t start surfing until I was 15, riding a 6-foot-2 twin fin my dad bought at a garage sale. Before that I was a full time soccer brat and high school football jock. “
The following year he became captain of the South High’s surf team shortboard team. Prunauer excelled at clocking long tube rides from surfing Burnout everyday, but that wasn’t enough.
“I started shaping and it expanded my surfing outlook. Surfing became not just a fun sport but a beautiful lifestyle,” he said.
Prunauer got into shaping when Mario Ciari, his mentor, gave him his first blank and helped him shape a 5-foot-10 single fin. Prunauer got his first boards from Andy Hori, where he met Jack Cerritto who owns Plastic Fantastic Surfboards. Cerritto took Prunauer under his wing, showing him how to turn a rail and all about “V’s” and concaves.
When Greg Browning became the South High School Surf Team coach he forced Prunauer to spend as much time in the water as he did in the shaping room. Prunauer competed in all the South Bay Surf League and National Scholastic Surfing Association Contests. This year Prunauer is competing in the South Bay Boardriders Club contest series.
Prunauer surf’s Burnouts mostly, but you can find him wherever the waves are best in the South Bay. He has surfed all over California and Mexico and calls Pasquales his swell magnet.
“I have been there three times. It’s the best most beautiful wave in Mexico. The swells come out of deep water pitching out over really shallow sandbars. There is always a hollow wave to ride. It’s a lot like Puerto Escondido,” he said.
Next up, Prunauer wants to try Hawaii’s North Shore and hopes to go to Indonesia soon.
In the water he likes fin-free turns, sliding along the lip before replanting down the line. He also loves the Tom Curren, deep carving rail game. Prunauer looks up Curren, Kelly Slater, Joel Parkinson and Pat Webber as his major surfing influences. This year he is incorporating longboarding into his life to give him the full surfing package.
Prunauer recently made up and coming surf star Annie Dodge the perfect board. It is a lightweight 7-foot-10 egg shaped, single fin. He calls the board his girls model because it’s lightweight and somewhere in between a short and longboard. Dodge calls the board her “Dodge Dart” because it darts down the line after she pulls up.
Prunauer calls his very progressive designs Proper Surfboards. DZ