DANNY KWOCK
SEA STØRIES NO. 5 / NOV 2022
From pioneering huge barrels at the Wedge in Newport to launching Kelly Slater’s professional surfing career, Danny Kwock is a bona fide living legend. DK was at the forefront during Quiksilver USA’s early beginnings—shaping and guiding the company into the mega brand it is today. An instrumental force within the action sports industry and beyond, DK’s creative presence and influence will be felt for many years to come. Photos by Todd Glaser
Where did you grow up surfing and what was your first surfboard?
The first time I stood up on a wave was at Waikiki when I was around eight years of age. The first actual turns I did on a wave was at Bellows Beach / Waimanalo Hawaii on my dear homie’s board, surfer / shaper Martial Crum of 8 Track Surfboards, Hawaii. I was about ten years old then. My actual first custom board I owned by saving all my change was a 6’5” single-fin single-wing rounded pin. That was considered a short board back then for a 70-pound eleven-year old kid. It was a Wave Tools, and it was hand shaped by Lance Collins. During my early teen years, Lance became one of my first father figures during those wonder years. He’d later sponsor me, and make boards with my name on them. He introduced me to twin fins!
What was it like growing up in Hawaii? When did you make the move to the West Coast?
My parents were looking for a change in work opportunities, and wanted my sisters and I to experience growing up—not just in Hawaii, where we were all born—on the “mainland,” that’s what they referred to as the West Coast. The drug scene of the late sixties and early 70s was in full stride, and I also think my parents wanted to get my sisters away from that scene in Hawaii. That didn’t make much sense to me, because psychedelic Flower children were blossoming all over the globe. But I guess it worked—after we moved to the West Coast via Hawaii, my older sisters went from hippies to responsible college grads, then workers and parents. I always preferred the hippie vibe when I was a kid—long hair, bare feet, surf all day, laugh, and have fun. Don’t worry about anything. My parents were definitely not happy about me dropping out of high school to just surf, and to them—become a “surf bum.”
Who is your favorite surfer / who inspired you?
Favorite surfer hands down Gerry Lopez….the reason why I wanted to surf was seeing Gerry Lopez in 5 Summer Stories at the Kaimuki Theatre on Oahu as a young grom…watching Gerry’s style, grace and calm in the eye of the hurricane at Pipeline was spell bounding! Now being friends with him for decades I feel so humbled and blessed! His son Alex Lopez just made me an amazing handmade fish surfboard that I love! Both Gerry and Alex are amazing surfboard shapers and are such soulful shredders at surfing and snowboarding! Amazing humans!
I think you were the first person I’ve ever seen surf the Wedge. Was there anyone else surfing there to get you inspired, or did you just notice a few makeable waves and then went for it?
From Hawaii to the West Coast, our family moved into a tiny rental down by the Wedge in the early 70s. I walked out to the Wedge, and was like, “Wow, I really like surfing and I live at the beach, but that wave is insanely gnarly and there’s only bodysurfers out there.” I noticed the little side wave rebound wave off the jetty, and thought to myself, “Hmm, I can ride that and then just backdoor the gnarly Wedge peak, as there’s no way I can make the drop from the peak!” It was kind of like OG tow-ins without a jet ski—get in easy, but then get ready to face the wave that could easily break you in two and drown you! I heard a couple OG guys used to try and ride it in the 1950s and 60s on longboards, but that didn’t really work out for them. I also loved body surfing and skimboarding at the Wedge.
How was the early localism scene out there?
The surfing localism scene in the early 70s was heavy at most spots in Hawaii / California. I’m sure there’re locals all over world that don’t want their spot to get overcrowded. One had to pay their dues in the lineup, and have major respect for the elder locals, which meant the older guys got the pick of the best waves, and spoke only when spoken to. I’m happy I was brought up in that surfing environment—even if it got hostile at times, it taught me humility, humbleness, respect for my elders, and made me love surfing more. Only the locals were allowed to surf the Wedge without getting hassled or punched out. Some of the older locals that inspired me at the Wedge surfing way back then were Joe Nealy, Craig Bowman, Jeff Daley, Scotty Owen, and Brian Hovnanian.
What is the story behind your iconic polka dot pattern / graphic?
When I was a toddler I had a stuffed animal clown with polka dots on it and it made me smile and laugh…so getting that graphic was to do just that for others….I felt that would be fun and cool….lot of people at the time made fun of me and laughed at me…..and I thought that’s cool too as long as it’s making everyone smile or laugh that was the intention after all……and was the simple reason for the polka dot graphic!
What’s your favorite surfboard of all time?
My favorite surfboard of all time was a board Geoff McCoy made me in the early 80’s and he really didn’t want to make it as it was a McCoy Polka Dot twin fin double bump flyer swallow tail with glass on fins. Geoff and surfing prodigy of the day Cheyne Horan we’re single fin purists and so making that board for me was a stretch for Geoff. Geoff had the best bottoms and plan shapes of that time period in my mind and I loved his single fins they were the best! However I felt if I could get him to make me a twin it may be rad and it was truly amazing!!! I rode it until it disintegrated Geoff never made me another one nor could I ever get anyone to duplicate it as everything was handmade then no computer machine cut outs….so when you had a magic board you knew you must cherish every ride as once it broke or lost its flex etc you would never get that feel again and so your search would continue for more of that feeling you once had!
When Quiksilver was in its prime, it looked like you guys just did things that made you stoked—like doing fashion shoots, and using bands like Pink Floyd and Talking Heads for your surf videos. It felt like Quik was more like a surf fashion brand that was all about sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll in the early days. Is that how it was?
Quiksilver in its prime was super fun and exciting! I always loved rock, punk, rap, hip-hop, Jazz, blues, country, and classical—any music that was done well and with emotional love and passion for that matter. Quiksilver was named after a rock band called Quicksilver Messenger Service. In many ways, our company was like a rock band on tour back then—living for the moment, surfing, partying, and working hard and playing hard 24/7. I’m just thankful I survived it. It was wild, crazy, and uncharted—we were making it up on the fly.
You’ve worked closely with Kelly Slater at the beginning of his career. How did that whole Kelly/Quik story begin?
I first met Kelly Slater with my then roommate boss Jeff Hakman, who got the original license to start Quiksilver in the USA at the genesis. Jeff was our first CEO/President of Quiksilver USA, and the iconic legendary surfer who many surfers looked up to, along with Gerry Lopez, Larry Bertleman, Michael Ho, Barry Kanaiaupuni, Eddie Aikau, Wayne Lynch, Michael Peterson, and a host of many other incredible surfing talents around the globe in the early 70s.
While we touring the East Coast, Jeff and I gave some star Echo Beach shorts to Kelly Slater when he was probably around nine or ten years old. Florida OG Gary Proper, Dick Catri, and the new, young Florida surfing star of that time—Matt Kechele—were all claiming that Sean Slater and his mini-bro Kelly would be the best surfers in the world, or become world champs one day, and they also had a baby brother Stephen who’d become a world-class longboarder. They were the most stoked surf groms—they were always full of positive smiles and vibes. Super refreshing!
So I always kept a close watch over the Slater boys. When I witnessed Kelly surfing at the Op Pro at Huntington Beach as a teenager, myself and our Quik surf team managers/coaches at the time—Richard Woolcott, Preston Murray, and Robbie Todd—all looked at each other and were like, “That’s the future of surfing! After that day, Kelly went down to Isle of Natividad and Puerto Escondido, Mexico. I got reports that Kelly was charging big tubes at Puerto. I was like; “I have to sign/sponsor this surfing prodigy for Quik!”
The biggest reason, though (besides his freakish surfing talent) for me wanting to sign him was that after being around him as a kid, he had—and still has today—the qualities of that insane, tireless surfing stoke. Love, passion, humbleness, respect for all, and surfing history. Kelly wanted to lead it into the future as an ambassador and was not afraid of the attention, and not letting it get to his head. All this made me the ultimate believer in Kelly Slater.
However, at the time, the upstairs Quiksilver execs, and our CEO at the time, were not tuned into the next generation, as my crew and I were on the surfing front at Quik. I definitely put my neck out to be potentially fired, as I offered Kelly a multi-three-year deal at much more than the company was willing to pay for him. But the clock was ticking to close the deal with Kelly, and I couldn’t wait or take no for an answer from our corpo boss and lose out on who I thought (other than Duke Kahanamoku) would become the other most important surfer in surfing history and lead us into the future! I pondered if we were truly as our tag line professed in our numerous Quiksilver ads: “Real Surfing Real Boardshorts.” It dawned on me—this was as real as it got. No doubt!
Around that same time, I also then made a decision to do a surf movie to showcase Kelly’s talent that was also not approved in the Quik marketing budget—Kelly Slater in Black and White—that Richard Woolcott directed and I executive produced. That would become the world’s top selling surf video movie of all time back then. Wooly and I had no documentary-style movie-making experience, as it was a low budget labor of love project at that moment. Funny how things work out, there are no coincidences. As now a man of faith, I’ve come to realize this.
Who were some of your favorite brands that you’ve worked with through the Quik years?
I had a fun time working with our acquisition of Lib Tech and Gnu Snowboards. Mike and Pete, the founders, were super rad dudes! So passionate about their craft, and their factory was located in the Banana Belt area just outside of Seattle, Washington. They were also so stoked on surfing, and were as hardcore about it as anyone I knew. I loved how they approached their branding with humor, and yet they were so technically advanced in their product innovation and design.
I also had a fun time working on our acquisition of DC Shoes, and helping their team guys like Rob Dyrdek get introduced at MTV, which led to his show Rob & Big and helping promote Danny Way jumping the Great Wall of China on his super ramp. That was rad!
DC Shoe Founders Ken Block and Damon Way would tell me at the time, “You got to get Rob on TV!” as I was President of Quiksilver Entertainment at the time. I also enjoyed working with Tony Hawk’s family—helping them out when they needed assistance with their Hawk kid’s clothing line that we acquired. We sponsored Tony after he lost his other clothing sponsorship at the time. I can recall Tony Hawk giving me the demo disc of his new video game from Activision of what would become Tony Hawk Pro Skater for my kids to try on their Sony PlayStation. There were so many fun times.
Another brand that I love and am partners in currently is SALT Optics—amazing hand made product, and a quality brand with, most importantly, an amazing team of people!
Who were some of your favorite bands that you worked with through the Quik years?
A couple fond memories come to mind—back when two guys were youngsters at the time in music. One was Jack Johnson. He was one of our Quik sponsored ripping surfers in Hawaii for a bit who then went on to film school at UCSB, and then started writing songs. I distinctly recall at one of our photo shoots that Kelly Slater had one of Jack’s demo cassettes and told me, “Danny, let’s sit in my car. I want you to hear Jack’s demo tape.” After listening to it, I was like, “Whoa! That’s sounds epic, true, and so sincere to who he is. Jack’s really talented.
Same with the guys from the band Mother Love Bone, who came to my office with their new lead singer after their former one had recently and tragically died. I asked the young surfer singer who handed me their demo tape, “What’s your name? What’s the bands new name?” He told me his name was Eddie Vedder and that the band’s name is Pearl Jam, as he handed me the tape. I listened to the tape that had the songs “Alive” and “Jeremy,” and I was like, “Wow, Eddie your voice is rad! The sound of Pearl Jam is sick!” Stuff like that happened all the time back then around our building—surfing and the sea brings so many rad people together.
Didn’t you come up with the Quiksilver women’s brand name Roxy and launch MTV’s Surf Girls? How was that?
The company wanted me to come up with a name and branding concept for women back then, as Quiksilver was only a men’s brand. So after a night of partying in LA at the Roxy music nightclub, that was the name I picked—Roxy. It felt rock ’n’ roll, and I felt like it was a name of a girl who was ready to take on the guys in the lineup of surfing that was mostly men at the time. Roxy backed Surf Girls, and the girls in the show were super cool. Matt Jacobsen, my partner at Quiksilver Entertainment was such a surf-stoked guy. Randy Hild, Danielle Beck, Amy Patrick, Rob Colby, and our hard working assistants, Andrea Grabham, Diana Krupa, and the Roxy team, along with myself, produced MTV’s Surf Girls. That was a fun project.
You and Shawn Stussy are super close friends. How did you guys connect?
Yes, “S Double” Shawn Stussy and I go way back. He was a well-known shaper for Russell Surfboards back then—that’s where we first met. I was in awe as he was a legit shaper, craftsman, surfboard architect, and artist. I was a grom who looked up to—and always respected—the shapers. Stussy’s hand doodle ink graphics and phrases on the Russell boards were the coolest. Shawn shaped and built the Cadillac’s of surfboards back then. They were mostly rocket-ship single-fin guns, like the 70s Lightning Bolts from Hawaii—built tough in Newport Beach. They were stunning boards. All like works of art. All of the best OG rippers in Newport rode Russell Surfboards. Russell, the owner of Russell Surfboards, was also a one-of-a-kind dude who I remember always drove French Citrons cars with Aloha Racks on top. Funny, the things you remember when you’re a kid. Shawn made me some of the coolest-looking twins in the 80s—his graphics were second-to-none!
I remember going to his shaping room in Laguna Canyon—the canyon of rad creativity and art. To me, it always had a “hippie-meets-punk rebel” vibe, strangely enough. I remember Shawn designing my Danny Kwock label for the boards he made me. He said he did my name from an inspiration from the 80s ska bands like The Selectors and The Specials. I remember wanting so badly to hire him at Quiksilver as our art director, however, Shawn went on to do stuff for Gotcha, and then quickly bailed and focused mainly on making Stussy Surfboards. He opened his first shop in Laguna Beach. I remember going to the opening, and the shop was the size of a closet, but it was so rad, as everything Stussy did was the coolest. I was always a fan of Shawn—we were both on the rocket ship ride in the surf industry.
I remember when he started making t-shirts for his Stussy Surfboard brand for the bros. I bumped into him at the Russell Newport Surf & Sport parking lot, and he was carrying a plastic bag with crumpled up clothes in it. Shawn pulled out a lavender-colored dyed Hanes tee with the graphics “Stussy New Wave Designs.” I’d never seen washed dyed solid color tees before—they were so ahead of their time. He threw one to me and said, “All you, DK.” I was so stoked. I wore that thing until it disintegrated, just like my Rainbow sandals back then. I wish I still had that tee. It was my favorite tee of the 80s, and so limited.
Shawn had the best knack for that “scarcity-demand” limited edition vibe way back when. He was the pioneer—and leader—of what would become what Supreme and all those scarcity brands would hang their hat on. Stussy is a true artist and creative architect visionary. He still makes amazing hand shaped boards. He made me four freshies that my boys and I love riding. I just put two more on order!
I remember one time at my house, I was tearing down and rebuilding on the beach in Montecito. Shawn and his sons along with my boys did graffiti art all inside the house. When they started tearing it down, I told my contractors to cut that part of the wall out. I wanted to save that graffiti art, as my good homie Shawn Stussy did a self-portrait of himself, and he wrote our names on the wall in rad Stussy graffiti fashion. Shawn was always way ahead of the game, and I’ve always loved his approach at everything he had going on. He and I were going to be partners on his new brand S Double at the beginning, but then we both agreed it’d be best if he did it solo, which was the right call. I was super stoked to see Dior do a collab with Stussy. I remember him telling me that Steve Jobs wanted him there back when Apple was getting all the most influential creatives together at the time to help them launch the first Apple store concept. I thought that was so rad. I was always so stoked for Shawn and the impact he made with his creativity and vision. But most importantly, I valued his Aloha, and his love and friendship we’ve shared for decades. I’ll always be a Shawn Stussy fan. We are Ohana!
What are you up to these days? Surfing? Salt? What’s next? How do you like to spend your time?
These days just living a faith filled simple life trying to always keep the balance of it all….as in riding waves. Much prayer, meditation…guitar music therapy, reading, stretching, red light therapy, dog walks with my loving wife Dawn, family time, talking life with all of our boys, connecting with close friends, meeting new people organically randomly and excited to hear their journey, board of directors of SALT Optics and giving back with my Danny Kwock Family Foundation Fund….. always grateful and humbled for each moment…
Any last thoughts?
I love seeing people do their passion/creative jam in life and making it happen—just like you and your crew at Seaborn. I love the fusion of flavors and the brand’s vibe! Above all I want to thank my wife Dawn, all my boys, all my dear family and friends for the unconditional love…..and for all the wonderful beings that helped me along the way! Love you all!
Aloha God bless!
