About Surfing Cowboys
“Surfing Cowboys” began as something we called ourselves long before it became a place, a store, or a brand.
Surfers ride the waves. Cowboys ride the range.
To us, Surfing Cowboys named a way of being—attuned to nature, open to change, independent, resilient, adventurous, and alive to beauty. Never literal, it shaped how we dressed, what we collected, what we created, how we lived, and—most importantly—how we treated people.
Surfing Cowboys was born out of love, respect—and a determination to defend the California Dream.
“We’ve always been about seeing, creating and sharing beauty, sensibility and dreams.”
Surfing Cowboys was—and always will be—a way of life.
From the Road to Venice
Before opening the store, we were fashion photographers traveling across the country, drawn to light, landscape, people, and objects with character. The road sharpened our eye and shaped the visual world that became Surfing Cowboys.
In the early 1990s, Abbot Kinney Boulevard was still raw, independent, and close to the beach. Our Venice live-work building held reception at the front, a photography studio in the middle, and living quarters in the back.
The front room filled with vintage furniture, clothing, art, props, road finds, and pieces collected for the California home we did not yet have. We staged the windows like little worlds—part installation, part invitation. Clients, artists, designers, neighbors, and passersby began asking to buy what they saw.
In 1995, we transformed the photography studio into a store, painted Surfing Cowboys® on the building, and opened the doors.
An Original California Point of View
Surfing Cowboys was never simply an antique store, surf shop, gallery, or clothing boutique. It brought together surf, road, Western, art, design, music, fashion, furniture, and California culture in a way that did not yet have a name.
In 1995, there was no established California lifestyle formula to follow. The category people recognize today had not yet been packaged, branded, or turned into retail shorthand. We were creating it as we lived it.
The early store was exuberant, experimental, and constantly changing—a creative-studio retail experience and a shape-shifting department store for the California imagination. The mix was loose but intentional, irreverent but deeply considered. We were not simply selling things; we were sharing what we loved and bringing attention to the beauty, character, and value we recognized in them.
What began as an experiment became a visual and retail language others would follow.
Over the years, Surfing Cowboys has evolved. The edit has become tighter, the presentation more refined, the collections more cohesive, and the brand more clearly defined. Our own designs now play a greater role, supported by exceptional vintage selected for its history, character, and relevance.
Visitors who knew the earlier stores will recognize the same independent point of view, warmth, discovery, and authentic California spirit—now expressed through a more focused and highly considered retail experience.
The spirit remains. The expression has matured.
A Destination for Discovery
For more than seventeen years on Abbot Kinney and another five-plus years on Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista, Surfing Cowboys became a local landmark, design source, gathering place, and destination for travelers from around the world.
People came for furniture, art, vintage clothing, jewelry, surf history, and the unexpected. They came for inspiration—and to take home a piece of the California Dream.
Sometimes that piece needed to fit in a suitcase.
Our fashion photography background made clothing and accessories a natural extension of the world we had created. A hat, jacket, necklace, or T-shirt could carry the feeling of Surfing Cowboys beyond the store—to another beach, city, country, or life.
“HQ for California Dreaming.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
Writers, editors, designers, collectors, and travelers described Surfing Cowboys as everything from “HQ for California Dreaming” to “a monument to California culture.”
The Malibu Chapter
In Malibu, Surfing Cowboys entered a more focused phase.
Our current shop is more intimate than the original Venice spaces, with an emphasis on clothing, accessories, jewelry, art, and the Surfing Cowboys Signature Collection—alongside a tightly edited mix of vintage apparel and cultural memorabilia found where surf, car culture, Western, music, and California design intersect.
The experience is carefully edited, cohesive, and continually evolving. Our own collections increasingly lead the way through original goods made in small runs in California and across the United States. Exceptional vintage remains essential—bringing history, individuality, cultural context, and discovery.
The scale has changed. The spirit has not.
Surfing Cowboys Today
Today, Surfing Cowboys is evolving into the fullest expression of the idea that began in Venice in 1995: an independent American lifestyle brand shaped by California culture, original design, disciplined curation, and a life genuinely lived.
Our own American-made collections increasingly lead the way, carrying the Surfing Cowboys point of view into a broader and more fully realized world. Exceptional vintage remains essential—adding history, character, cultural context, and discovery.
This is not a reinvention. It is the natural evolution of Surfing Cowboys: the same unmistakable spirit, now expressed with greater focus, cohesion, and purpose.
We continue to build that world with a wonderful team of compadres working alongside us—cultivating, presenting, and sharing what Surfing Cowboys has always stood for.
The same things still guide us: love, respect, beauty, freedom, connection, the lure of the West, and the enduring dream that is California.
Thanks for coming along for the ride,
Wayne & Donna
Surfing Cowboys®
Defenders of the California Dream
