The surf industry has lost another industry giant with the May 4th passing of legendary shaper Mike Croteau. Mike passed away due to complications with his medication prescribed from surviving a successful brain tumor surgery on May of 2007. A Memorial Paddle out ceremony for Mike is being planned for Sunday May 24th Memorial Day weekend in conjunction the Santa Cruz Longboard Union Coalition Surf Club Contest at Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz.

A local of the North Shore Oahu, Santa Cruz, and La Jolla, Mike was known and celebrated worldwide for his innovative shaping genius that spanned over 45 years. A protege of Master Shaper Dick Brewer, Mike consistently created innovative, cutting edge progressive designs, yet freely shared his skills and knowledge with surfers and shapers on every continent.

Mike is survived by his wife, three grown children, three grand kids, and forth grandchild on the way. A Memorial Fund has been set up to help Mike's family with financially devastating Medical bills.

Memorial donations should be addressed to:

Mike Croteau Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 1862
Soquel, CA 95073

Rusty Extends His Respect to Family and Friends:

I think the first time I put a Skil 100 planer in my hands and pulled the trigger, it was Mike's.

The initial torque on the barrel freaked me out. I thought the machine was going to jump out of my hands.

Mike used to make all kinds of funny weird sounds and noise instead of real words sometimes.

I heard a harrumpfsnortgiggle come from behind me.

He was 6'3" and looked more like a bodybuilder than a surfer. His reputation for being unpredictable and short fused magnified his physical presence. Probably 250lbs and zero body fat. Mike got this simple, bemused, delight out of my reaction.

He let me butcher the blank for a few minutes and then relegated me to a far corner in the shaping room.

I ended up with a 6'10" swallow tail that I thought was way too thin for me. I have distinct memories of the board being incredibly difficult to paddle compared to my previous board. I also have vivid recall of how the board flexed and jumped out of turns. It was a lot of work to paddle and catch waves, but once up it was a joy to ride.

We would surf together at Wind n Sea and Blacks. Winter of 69/70 I was next to him when we had to push through a substantial north peak set. We didn't have leashes then. I think I tried to turn turtle and got violently dismissed. He did a duck dive long before duck dives were invented. He simply tried to push his board under the breaking 6 foot wave. His board was probably about 8'0", 20.5 wide, 3.75" thick, spruce stringer, double 6 top, single 6 bottom. He made it through with the front half of his board.
The back half ended up on the beach. Physically unfazed but not very happy.

At Wind n' Sea, he was at home in the power that back in the day was considered a North Shore Hawaii training ground. If his size didn't get your attention, some of his antics would leave indelible and formidable impressions. He took bites out of unwelcome visitors rails. If you really pissed him off, he would simply take your board from you and knock your fin off with a palm heel and point to the beach. A little trick he learned from Fred Kenyon. Fred, a martial arts pioneer in Southern California and Wind n' Sea local, had some how ended up as Mike's surrogate older brother during his time in La Jolla.

Mike was 4 or 5 years older than me, but was already living a gypsy life. One afternoon I had to take Mike to the public library in Pacific Beach. He had a vision: his new surfboard label was to be called Mars Orange. He had checked out books with pictures of Mars. We looked at dozens of images and picked the best one. He had to have board laminates printed up with his new logo. I have no idea how many he built but some of the first Mars Orange boards were shaped in the Bridgeman garage. Another La Jolla board builder, Guy Hansen, spent quite a bit of time with Mike, surfing and creating forward-looking mind machines.

There were some incredibly futuristic endeavors. One board comes to mind:
A board with two 2' holes in the mid deck, cut at slight backwards angle through to the bottom. These were meant to function as vents. The bottom had a long oval shaped concave that the vents opened into. There was a faring, flush with the bottom, which covered the front half of the concave and functioned as the vent exit. This Magic Carpet/hovercraft rode on a cushion of air.

His stay in La Jolla/Pacific Beach lasted a year or so.

He headed up to Santa Cruz. Later that winter we hooked up to surf. My family had moved to Carmel Jan 1970. I did my second semester of 11th grade up there. I'd surf Carmel Beach on the weekdays, surf permitting. Weekends, I would drive my fathers 1960 black VW Beetle to Moss Landing and beyond to Santa Cruz if necessary. One weekend I hooked up with Mike and we were driving around looking for waves.

At the time I was 6'4" 210 (still growing) and Mike was 6'3" and 250 lbs of muscle. To casual observers it had to have been hysterical to watch these 2 xxl people climbing in and out of a little black VW bug, with boards strapped on top, to check the surf.

Mike managed to get a little media attention in the early seventies. He shaped and modeled for an Agua Jet hollow, honeycomb, board design.

Crotanimal, was, by all accounts, indestructible. He ran into a farmer's boundary chain, dirt biking at the Hollister Ranch. It would have cut a normal person in half.
Mike was in the hospital for a month. He lost 70 pounds. He healed, regained his strength, and kept shaping. Mike ended up spending time in Hawaii. As it was with most of us at the time, he dreamed of being connected to Brewer in some way, shape, or fashion.

I remember seeing Shaun Tomson on a board at Sunset that looked different, in a good way, from the other equipment of the day. It was a Croteau shape, sporting Mike's Equipe target logo. Uberclean, minigun, with a low entry, blue rails, looking like a good fit. Shaun still has fond memories of this board.

Conceptually still valid.

Mike was obsessed with speed and power. He was a mad scientist and an artist. The boards he loved to build reflected that.  Long, clean lines that always seemed to flow together from every angle.

I lost track of Mike later that decade. 30 or so years later we reconnected one morning at the Shores. He was just passing through. He spoke fondly of his son was still passionate about board building. As always, his head seemed to be brimming with ideas. He was driving north later that morning. That was the last time I saw Mike.

If I were to ever write a book about my life as a board builder, my time with Mike Croteau would be an early chapter.

Rest in peace my brother.

Rusty