I got a few texts this afternoon and evening that OC Shaper Bruce Jones had passed.
Bruce was a great inspiration to me when I was younger and growing up in the Long Beach, Sunset Area.
When I first started doing boards Bruce was really cool with me, gave a few pointers, and was an all around good guy and whenever I saw him always asked how things were going.
Class act.
I cant say that now Bruce and I were any sort of friends, more like acquintances from the past but I wanted to share this regardless.
Yesterday Bruce instagrammed a photo of a board he was handshaping. It made me smile as he still was knocking them out with his trusty old Skil, which he has a great collection of. Then today to get the news of his passing.
In the somberness its refreshing to know he was doing what he loved pretty much right up to when he passed.
Its cliche, the whole live every day like its your last but sometimes you never know…
I hope he finished that board and it sees the water, its only fitting.
The news came as a shock to me. BJ has been a consummate craftsman for decades, from his early days at Clark Foam thru realizing his dream of having his very own shop…and what a shop it is… so unique unto itself by design. It fit BJ to a “T”.
We were friendly rivals during the sailboard years and I secretly admired the stuff that he was doing. He was an excellent surfsailor as I witnessed Bruce shredding at Waddell Creek the year I was assistant head judge for the World Cup Wave Sailing discipine. His boards attracted top talent because they were such high quality and he knew what he was doing!
These aren’t just kind words for a guy in our industry that has passed away unexpectedly.
Such a shock. Saw him at the Ventura Board show just a few years back. As you came in the door his booth was right up front. He was bouncing up and down on the bottom of one of his longboards. I talked to him a few minutes and told him I remembered when he used to come up to Hazard on the weekends. You could see the twinkle in his eye when I mentioned the spot and the waves. He was absolutly one of the best that was still with us. Ghost shaper for some of the top names around HB and shaped for Russel before he opened his own shop. One of the very best shortboards I ever owned was a Russel Brotherhood shaped and signed by Bruce Jones. The rails, foil etc were way ahead of the times for a 1970 single fin. He must have came down with something sudden. He looked pretty healthy in Ventura. Always wore coke bottle glasses. There’s a video of him shaping. I’ll see if I can find and link it. He could mow some foam with that Skil. If anyone sees a Obit in the OC please post it. Lowel
Bruce was a great shaper. When I was a kid I painted a house just to get enough money to buy a BJ. Anyone remember when he took over Ole’s place and shaped there, and sold the Prindle Cats out front? It doesn’t seem that long ago. It would be nice to hear some stories. Anyone remember his pangas he made, I do and they are still seaworthy. He was an amazing craftsman, and part of who I am today is because of him. I was talking to Stu Kenson today about it, he said it was wierd because we were talking about Bruce last week, and we both agreed his boards rocked.
Yeah I’ve been catching up. Read the Obit and several other things. Don’t know if I can link anything with this Swaylocks crippled notebook. Yeah it was sudden. Get your blood pressure checked boys and girls.
When I was still a teenager Terry Martin used to shape my boards at Hobie’s. He told me a story about Bruce, said he would get the shape just about finished and then just stand at the tail end and stare at the shape for about 10 minutes. Every board. Making sure it was perfect.
I used to take ideas from his shapes through my early shaping days and felt honored that I could stop by and talk shop with him in later years. A true gentleman, class act, and unsurpassed craftsman. He and Terry are up there riding a few while we are forever diminished by their absence. RIP
Bruce was a great shaper, designer, FRIEND, HUSBAND AND FATHER. He was 69 years young and an irreplaceable figure of wisdom and creativity in our local surfing community.
All these guys here don’t even seem to realize how good Bruce really was. He was it in his time. An era is starting to pass away and really nobody seems to notice nor care. There was a time in my life when I wholeheartedly knew he was the best shaper on the planet; that’s how good he was.
i have a 10-6 bruce jones longboard… best longboard i ve ever rode… it is totally free… bruce was always available to share a e mail or a phone call about his board… he was 1 of a few master shapers… and what a work ethic huh, to shape all those boards over the years… just not human to physically be able to do that… RIP MAESTRO …
Just talked to him on the phone last month about planer stuff. I have an Ole that I’m currently restoring (from BJ’s time there) and it will now have a completely different meaning to me as I work on it. Bruce’s shop was the same place as Ole’s, and when you visited it was like hallowed ground because of so much history and a PCH landmark. The hard realization for me these past couple of years is that guys like BJ are here one minute and not the next. BJ and others we recently lost were treasures of our art, guys we’ve honored and looked up to, and there’s so few left. Respect those still with us (regardless of how their personality strikes you) and don’t wait until a paddle out to let them know you care.
I had the priviledge of sailing one of his windsurf boards and really special it was, both technically and artistically. The board would glide in no wind, people would stare from the shore in awe while waiting for hopefully the wind to pick up. The construction was something you don’t see anymore, beautiful mix of art and constructon, strong and flawless. It takes someone talented, intelligent and dedicated to produce such jewel. I will always remeber him as when I think of those days and the smile he put on my face I can still see his logo on the nose of the board while having a bliss.
Howzit Ghetto, Bruce and I grew up in the same city but we never crossed paths which still amazes me, he must have moved at a young age. We met through Gary Ternagle who owned Plastic at the time and Bruce shaped for him. I really got to know him through Mike Kuntz so I always stopped by the shop when I was on the mainland and we would talk if he was there. I am waiting to hear what he died of and hopefully it was just his time or too much foam dust. Aloha,Kokua
I was told by Rick Paul that he had been visiting with Bruce the day before and he was into a board he was shaping. RP said the next day he had a “heart event while in his silkscreen room”.
Another heart attack outta the blue like Tom Sims.
Maybe check into low dose aspirin, I ain’t ready to go yet, not by a long shot.
The quality of craftsmanship in Bruce’s boards reflected who he was. He had great integrity. Something about the lines of his boards always just made sense to me, they were so damn clean and functional. Had a board from Bruce damaged in a shipment to Seattle, just a little rail ding. Bruce’s first response was to offer to shape me a whole new board (just repaired it instead, but I was coincidentally mentioning that to someone last week in a discussion about integrity - before finding out about his heart attack).
