Bing Copeland played a major role in helping surfing and the surfboard industry to become what they are today. At 13, he became fascinated while helping out at pioneer surfboard maker Dale Velzy’s workshop in Manhattan Beach. He spent the mid ’50s in the Coast Guard stationed in Hawaii and surfed the big waves of Oahu’s North Shore and Makaha. In 1958 he sailed across the Pacific and introduced modern surfboards to New Zealand.

By 1960, back in Southern California, he was making surfboards commercially and his company became one of the longest-running and most progressive in the surfing world. This is the story of Bing Copeland, the business he built, the colorful cast of craftsmen he employed and the visionary surfboards they made and continue to make even now.

Bing opened his first surf shop in the fall of 1959 with his friend Rick Stoner and became one of the major surfboard manufactures of the sixties and early seventy's. A year after they opened, Rick decided to sell Bing his portion of the business thus came Bing Surfboards. The business grew at an exponential rate, and Bing expanded his factory to include a glassing area and a team of first-rate shapers, including Dick Mobley, Mike Eaton, Dan Bendiksen, John Mobley, Wayne Land, and George Lanning and then eventually Dick Brewer also joined the team.

At one point, the factory produced up to 40 surfboards a day. In addition to his board-building team, Bing also had a star team of riders, including David Nuuhiwa, Dru Harrison, Chris Schlickenmeyer, and Rolf Aurness just to name a few.

The late 60s was the beginning of the end for the major manufacturers. It was a time of the “back yard board” and “no label” surfboards. Bing along with his master shapers and new designers, the Campbell Brothers, transitioned to shorter boards with a few models, but despite Bing Surfboard’s continued popularity, sales declined and it became obvious to Bing that the business may not survive. It was also around this time that Bing and his wife, Conlee, decided it might be best to move their young family away from the drug scene that had developed surrounding Hermosa Beach. Bing decided to pursue a career change and moved his family to Idaho.