Founded in 1974 at age 21 by Rob Ard and headquartered at 5023 Newport Ave since 1987, South Coast Surf Shop is the flagship men's location of San Diego's original custom-surfboard maker, a half-block from the OB Pier. South Coast was instrumental in bringing brands like Quiksilver, Billabong, and Gotcha to Southern California in the 1970s and early 1980s, and pipeline partnerships now supply lesson-gear programs for schools like Ocean Beach Surfing School. Every South Coast surfboard is shaped and glassed in-house by San Diego craftsmen, with custom orders remaining the company's core specialty — longboards, shortboards, fish, eggs, and retro shapes built to rider weight, height, experience level, and home break. Partners Eric "Bird" Huffman joined in 1993 (he later spun off Bird's Surf Shed), and longtime employees Heather Shields and Steve Cowan stepped into ownership roles after Bird's exit. Visitor traffic routes through from nearby lodging like Beach Cliff Villas, where guests on weekly rentals pick up wetsuits and board rentals for the duration of their stay. The highest-value workflow is a full custom surfboard order — rider interview, shape selection, foam core dimensioning, glassing schedule, fin-box placement, and graphic design, with turnaround running four to eight weeks depending on the rider's dimensional specs and team-shaper queue.