Let My People Go Surfing

An Unlikely Businessman

Yvon Chouinard was born in Maine in 1938 to a French-Canadian family. In 1946, his family moved to Southern California, seeking a climate that would be more agreeable to Chouinard’s tough, hard-working father, who suffered from asthma. The move was difficult for the young boy. He was short, had a feminine name, didn’t speak English and became a target of bullies. His parents moved him into a parochial school, where he was a D student.

Chouinard took solace in the outdoors. He spent hours fishing, catching frogs and hunting rabbits. In high school, he was a so-so student. Bored, he passed the time in math class counting the perforations in the ceiling panels. History class presented an opportunity to work on holding his breath, a useful skill for his weekend free-diving trips. His fondest memories were his surfing excursions to Mexico during school holidays and joining the falconry club that helped pass California’s first falconry rules. The club introduced him to rappelling and, later, rock climbing. He graduated from high school in 1956 and went to community college for a couple of years.

Climbing Hardware