Gary Linden in the process of making one of the many surfboards he’s crafted during a half century of surf. Photo: Instagram//Linden Surfboards
Gary Linden has been a staple in the surfing community for decades. Now 73, he’s showing no signs of slowing down. I’ve always admired Linden — the same way I admire anyone who sticks to doing what they love no matter what. So I gave the passionate surfer and shaper a call to find out where he keeps his fountain of youth. As it turns out, the TLDR is pretty simple: “Well,” Linden laughed, “you just have to make it a priority and keep at it.”
Linden, who began his surfing journey in 1962 at the age of 12, rode his first wave on a borrowed surfboard. He’d messed around in the water before, but that first ride changed something in him.
“My dad grew up in Hermosa Beach in the teens,” he remembered. “It was the last train stop in L.A. and there was nobody there, really. It was just sand dunes. He started taking me to the beach when I was about seven; mat surfing and showing me the currents and body surfing and stuff, but I rode my first wave on a surfboard when I was 12.”
When I say Linden’s had a big hand in surfing, it’s not hyperbole. He’s a surfer first, but he’s also the former president of the Association of Surfing Professionals, a master shaper, big wave charger, founder of the original Big Wave World Tour, a judge, an event organizer, and much more. And through all that, through all the years dealing with all the characters and vagaries of Mother Nature that can sometimes throw wrenches in any kind of organizational attempt, one thing remains very clear: Linden is still as stoked as he ever was. The stoke is changing as he gets older, though, just as everything else does.
“I’ve always just loved surfing more than anything else,” he said. “When I was younger, I told myself that I’m never going to let anything get in the way of surfing. Put it first and just keep doing it. Right now I’m just trying to stay on a shortboard and surfing still. I’ll use a pair of fins and go bodysurfing, if that’s what it is. I’m gonna surf until I drop. I don’t see any other way around it. It makes me feel the best of anything else I know.”
For many people, surfing changes over the years. When one is younger, the waves are generally the focus. The bigger the better. As close to perfect as possible. If the waves aren’t great, it’s easy to walk away a little disappointed. But as we age, the focus seems to shift, and that’s the case with Linden.
“It doesn’t have to be the best wave ever anymore,” he told me. “It’s just being out there in the water. Surfing just takes a different form as you get older, you know? You realize that you might not be able to do some of the things that you’ve always wanted to do. Would I really love to do an aerial? Yeah, but that’s probably not going to happen. But now, you know, you catch three to the beach and you’re stoked.”
For Gary, keeping his relationship with surfing interesting is all about maintaining a balance. It’s about staying healthy to surf and surfing to stay healthy.
“You’ve got to balance life to a certain extent,” he said. “To me, surfing keeps me healthy. It’s not just the physical act of surfing that does it — it’s the fact that I want to be healthy so I can surf. That keeps me from, you know, getting drunk or whatever. I don’t drink any alcohol anymore, but, it’s the small things, too, like going to bed a little earlier so I’m not tired the next day when I want to go check things out.”
Linden elaborated on that thought a little more, using a recent illness to explain what he meant. When we spoke, he’d just returned from a trip to Brazil.
“I was just sick in Brazil for like 10 days,” he said. “My wife was super stoked and me too, because we just spent time walking on the beach. If you just surf, it has to be 10-foot pipe or you’re not happy. But if you balance your life a little bit better, than you really appreciate surfing more. For me, it doesn’t have to be anything but wet, you know?”
Maintaining that relationship with the ocean is all about giving yourself attainable goals. If you, for example, tell yourself you’re going to surf every day for eight hours and get barreled 50 times, you’re not likely to succeed. But if you tell yourself you’re just going to catch one wave… well, that’s easy. And you can be happy that you did it.
“I went surfing today, and that’s unreal,” Linden laughed. “I try and have an attainable goal so that I can accomplish something. I want to have a fun time. I can look back at some of my friends who only surfed, and I think, ‘wow, that’s not fun.’ But I have a wife, two daughters and a grandson. I’ve had a successful business and career. You know, I just feel like I got to live a whole life, like a whole normal life, but I focused it on surfing. I didn’t let surfing take a backseat to do that. I surfed and did that too, you know? I made everything fit a little bit better for me, and I just feel so fulfilled by the life I have been able to live and still live. I’m super stoked.”
Looking back on a life filled with waves, something Linden’s father said has stuck with him. It’s something that has served him well.
“He told me that if you want to do something for the rest of your life, you’ve got to keep doing it,” he remembered. “The surf might not be good, but you’re lucky that you got to surf today. But it gets harder and harder to surf as you get older. If you don’t go today, tomorrow is going to be even harder. That’s why I try and go out every day. If you can catch three waves a day, you’re unstoppable.”
