Greg Noll was born in San Diego, California in the month of February 1937. Soon after, he moved north with his mother to the small town of Manhattan Beach. It was here, in the shadow of the pier, that his life was profoundly influenced by such individualists as Jack Wise, Barney Briggs, and Dale Velzy. His job as bait boy at the end of the pier, gave him a birdseye view of the surfers below. Greg started surfing in 1948 and began shaping soon after under the guidance of Dale Velzy. Soon it was off to Oahu, and a quonset hut at Makaha. While on an exploratory trip to the North Shore in 1957, the Pied Piper of Waimea Bay (as Buzzy Trent would call him) talked his friends into paddling out into the taboo waters of The Bay. Waves were caught, everyone came out alive and Waimea was now another spot to surf. As it turned out, Waimea Bay would become the place at which Greg carved his name into surfing history, and he continues to have a love affair with it to this day.

During the next few years, Greg made pilgrimages to the North Shore each winter while his surfboard manufacturing business in Hermosa Beach, California grew with the sport. Then in late 1969, a powerful series of storms combined to bring some of the biggest surf to ever hit the Hawaiian Islands. On December 4, 1969 at Makaha, Greg surfed what is considered to be the biggest wave ever paddled into. Several factors combined for the decision to close the Hermosa Beach surf shop in the early 1970's. Greg explored Alaska and settled in Crescent City, California where he became a commercial fisherman. With the rebirth of the longboard, Greg decided that it was time to get back into shaping surfboards. He now builds custom historical re-creations of some of surfings most sought after boards. If you'd like to know more about Greg, read his book "Da Bull - Life Over the Edge."