Behind the Brand: By the time Bill Stewart moved to California from Florida in 1971, he was already a respected surfer, artist, and craftsman. Those talents earned him a steady gig at the world famous Hobie factory in Capistrano Beach, where he went to work with Rick James and Terry Martin. Working in the biggest design hub on the coast, he was surrounded by an abundance of surfing legends that ran in and out of the labyrinth of shaping bays, and it wouldn’t take long for Stewart to become one of them. Stewart launched his own label in 1979, and by the mid ’80s, his team included many of California’s best up-and-coming surfers, including Mike Parsons and Shane Beschen. Yet his biggest impact came in the field of high-performance longboards, a segment he’s dominated over the years with players like Jeff Kramer and Colin McPhillips. Stewart’s beveled rails helped the Hydro Hull high-performance longboard become one of the best selling boards of all time. All the while, he’s maintained his very creative approach to various board designs, from his twin-hull Golden Slipper SUP board (which won the 2007 Catalina Race) to his new five-fin high-performance shortboard, the S-winger, which incorporates Stewart’s beveled rails on the bottom with his S-rails on the top, then blends them into a double-wing pintail.

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