Calvert Recorder - Friday, October 14, 2011 - by LAURA BUCK, Staff writer
‘Surf City’ transplant still going strong in Calvert Gabrielson catches waves, helps others do the same - by LAURA BUCK, Staff writer - Calvert Recorder - Friday, October 14, 2011


‘Surf City’ transplant still going strong in Calvert
Gabrielson catches waves, helps others do the same

Still known to some as “The Huntington Beach Snake” for his surfing accomplishments,
Chesapeake Beach resident Bruce Gabrielson continues to teach surfing, lead surfing clubs and certify surfing schools around the world.

In the 1960s when millions were listening to the Beach Boys, Bruce Gabrielson, now of Chesapeake Beach, was living their song lyrics. And more then 50 years later, he still is.

Gabrielson, now 65, grew up in Huntington Beach, Calif., which he called “Surf City USA,” so it was only a matter of time before he picked up the sport.

Starting around age 10, Gabrielson said, “I’d go out and fool around, but I wasn’t serious until 14 or so.”

Gabrielson became very serious about surfing — so much so that he said he put off work for as long as possible.

“I kept going to college until I couldn’t take any more classes,” he chuckled.

While he was earning numerous college degrees, Gabrielson also was earning numerous surfing titles.

He became the president of the Huntington Beach Surfing Association and the president of the South Sea Surf Club, and competed in numerous surfing competitions, earning a third-place win in the United States Surfing Championships in 1971.

Gabrielson also helped start the first varsity surfing team to ever be at a high school at Huntington Beach High School.

“It did help motivate a lot of kids not to drop out and surf. A lot of them went on to college and did quite well,” said Gabrielson, who also started his own company, Wave Trek Surfboards, with a friend in 1970.

Gabrielson also earned the title of “The Huntington Beach Snake” in the 1960s, when a friend spray-painted “Snake” on his surfboard as the result of an incident involving a former girlfriend.

“If you had a nickname in the 1960s they still call you that today,” he laughed.

During this time there were some other developments in Gabrielson’s life: He got married and started a career in research science, which he said brought him to North Beach in 1980 so he could work in the Washington, D.C., area.

“You kind of make your trade-off for your career and family and everything else,” he said.

Gabrielson still couldn’t stay away from the call of the waves: He still coaches surfing, certifies surfing schools worldwide and surfs competitively.

Just this past August, he came in second place in his age category in the short board portion of the East Coast Surfing Championships in Virginia Beach.

He operates Wave Trek Surfboards out of his Chesapeake Beach home, though he explained the surfboards are used more for teaching purposes than commercially.

When he can’t make it back to Huntington Beach, Gabrielson said he does a large amount of his surfing in Ocean City, which led him to start The Caravan Surf Club, a group of local surfers that takes turns carpooling to Ocean City almost every weekend in the summer months.

“I always made sure we got in some good waves in one of the better spots,” he said of the club, which he said has about 25 members ranging from high schoolers to senior citizens.

Gabrielson is also in the Ocean City-based surfing club The 62nd Street Long-boarders, which he said is targeted toward people closer to his age.

Gabrielson admitted that his age has taken a toll on his surfing.

“I don’t have the endurance to surf a wave over my head anymore,” he said.

Instead, he focuses much of his energy on teaching his kids, and now his grandkids, to surf in addition to certifying surfing schools as the chairman of the National Surf Schools and Instructors Association, which he co-founded following a past collision with an untrained surfer.

“I don’t mind teaching surf instructors because there are some pretty good surfing schools around the world,” said Gabrielson, who has certified schools in the U.S. as well as in Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica, Taiwan, Australia and Peru.

He also is hoping to teach a class on surfing at Anne Arundel Community College in the spring.

Though he’s no longer in “surf city,” Gabrielson continues to meet others who share his passion.

Baltimore resident Dave Sobel said Gabrielson noticed surfboards sticking out of his sunroof in a parking lot and the two quickly struck up a friendship and now go on frequent surfing trips.

“I’ve definitely learned some stuff surfing with him. ... He’s pretty accomplished,” Sobel said of Gabrielson.

“If there was one word I’d use to describe Bruce, it would be ‘enthusiastic.’ … He’s a real promoter of surfing; he’s a cool guy,” Sobel said.

lbuck@somdnews.com

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