October 23, 1963 – January 18, 2021

On January 18^th, 2021, Scott Anderson passed away, and one loss unmoored a slew of other memories misplaced and lost.

It brought on remembrances from 1961 or 1962, of being a 7 or 8 year old kid falling in love with the idea of surfing.

I loved the water, Zuma Beach and the waves, swimming pools, the bathtub. I remember that somehow I’d acquired a tiny plastic model of a surfboard from my older brother. Where he’d acquired it from was a mystery, but it was broken, which I found disappointing, but my brother said, “That’s what happens sometimes when you use things. They break.

From elsewhere I acquired a block of wax and a surfer magazine that I used to pore over for hours. I fell in love with the music of Dick Dale, the Ventures, Jan and Dean, some of the Beach Boys’ songs.

The mania dulled with passage of time. I’ve never ever surfed, never became the surfer I dreamed of as a child. But, in a different way, I did one better: I married Scott Anderson’s sister, Stacy.

Scott Anderson was one of the premier surfboard shapers and makers in Southern California for the last thirty years. He was renowned for the gifted way he focussed his love, art and passion into crafting amazing and famous boards sought out by wave connoisseurs the world over. There have been articles and documentaries that have had nothing directly to do with Scott, but his boards can be seen in so many of them. Anderson Surfboards and Aquatech have created more than 20,000 boards. (See 2^nd Link Below for YouTube Video)

When friends or acquaintances die, the world gets overly sentimental and says nothing but good things about the decedents. But in the 26 years that I knew Scott Anderson, I discovered and enjoyed a man who was a shrewd observer of people who, even when he saw something off center in another person, he noted it with wit, humor and charity. The taproot of his sense of humor, which lit up any room his was in, was that he knew that we are all a little off center, and that this is where the good stuff lives. We had divergent views on any variety of subjects, but he was sanguine and balanced about sharing those views, and faced with opposing perspectives, he would smile and accommodate them, and that was that.

His sense of humor was healthy, robust, infectious. And he was always a pleasure to be around.

On July 18^th, 2021, the surfing community held a paddle out in the waters next to the Venice Boardwalk. A large group of surfers paddled on out on their surfboards some five hundred yards off shore and had a ceremony for Scott, during which some of his ashes were scattered. (See first Link below for Paddle Out Video on YouTube)

He will be missed by his family, and by the literally countless friends here in Los Angeles, and throughout the world, who loved him and will and do miss him. As the good book says, by their acts shall you know them. The world knows Scott Anderson by what he did, and by the fact that he do it well.

He is survived by my wife Stacy, who was his sister; and his wife Pamela, and their two sons, Daniel and Drew.