Lance Carson

Surfer Lance Carson was born in 1943 in Santa Monica, California. Carson was raised in Pacific Palisades, California. Afflicted with spina bifida as a baby, Lance's parents were advised by doctors that water exercise would help promote bone growth, so at the tender age of four years old Carson was introduced to surfing at Malibu on a four-foot-long balsa belly board made by his father. Carson soon established himself as one of the top surfers in Malibu, California. Well known for his expert ability at riding the nose of waves, Lance was ranked at #2 in a list of the world's ten best noserider surfers that was published in a 1965 issue of Surfer magazine. Carson initially worked as a salesman for Jacobs Surfboards in Hermosa Beach, California before eventually becoming a surfboard shaper for the same company. Jacobs introduced the popular Lance Carson signature model surfboard in 1965. After about a decade of struggling with alcoholism, Lance managed to get his life back in order in 1976 by founding the Lance Carson Surfboards label and began selling longboards to surf shops in the Santa Monica area. Moreover, in 1984 Carson became an early environmentalist on the surfing scene: He not only spearheaded a local effort to clean up the polluted Malibu Lagoon, but also helped launch the non-profit organization Surfrider Foundation that's dedicated to protecting and preserving the world's oceans, waves, and beaches. Lance was inducted into the International Surfing Hall of Fame in 1991.