Howard “Goldie” Goldsmith
As the largest surfboard manufacturer on the Eastern Seaboard in the 1960s, Howard “Goldie” Goldsmith was one of the true pioneers of East Coast Surfing. He produced up to 400 surfboards a week at his factory in Cranston, Rhode Island. His early surfboards are now considered vintage collector’s items and are known under the Kahuna and Keoki labels.
Goldsmith set up the first surfboard rental trailers in Newport, Rhode Island. He created small beachfront shops that would become popular hangouts for the area’s surfing youth. He was also the first legitimate promoter of New England surfing contests. He produced many well-attended events in the region, including the New England Invitational Surfing Championship, which drew competitors from all across the country.
Will Somers, owner of Narragansett Surf Shops, was a competitor of Goldsmith’s and had this to say about him: “Goldie was the first manufacturer of boards in New England in the early 1960s. He, like so many others, caught the surfing bug and taught himself to surf. His shop — Goldie’s Surf Shop in Cranston, Rhode Island — opened in the spring of ’63. Goldie’s was a better competitor than we could have invented. Howie featured his own brands, plus Dewey Weber Surfboards. He was an aggressive promoter with a little bit of a ‘bad boy’ image. What that did for us was to allow us to be the ‘good guys’ supporting the sport. Also, when we created the Hobie Team, we now had a Weber Team to compete against. What could be better?”
Goldsmith went on to make his fortune in high-end yacht interiors, as well as the fiberglass port-o-let (port-a-potty) business, using the slogan “#1 in the #2 business.” Goldsmith continued to surf well into his later years and continued to compete in the Eastern Surfing Association’s (ESA) contest circuit in New England.
