Silverfish: What’s the history behind Barfoot as a company?

Chuck: Barfoot as a company was started in 1980 when I left Sims Skateboards, where I was the lead in research development and design in the skateboard and snowboard division. I just kept on riding, designing and building boards, but now under my own name! I've been building skateboards, snowboards and a couple surf boards ever since then! In the mid 80’s, Barfoot was a pretty big company with as many as 50 employees and I also had a couple of corporate-type partners which helped us get big quickly! The only problem with corporate financial help is the money is all that matters to the bean-counters and silver-tongues that need their new BMW's and Land Cruisers! Needless to say, the “heart of the company” is lost in all the crap! So, I took my name back in 1999 and went back to what makes me happy! Just building high quality boards, riding with my friends and living the life I enjoy so much means tons more than the money! The Barfoot Company is small and tight! I only deal with friends that believe in my quality and understand it's a life style! Friends and work can mix!

Silverfish: What are the parallels between surfing and longboarding in your view?

Chuck: Surfing has been my life since 1961! I was 11 years old when I started and now, at 53, it’s still my life’s passion! Longboard skating has many styles, but I concentrate on what I know and love: “surf style”! My boards are designed to come as close to a hot surfboard ride or snowboard ride as you can get! I tell anyone, when they try my boards out, to ride it like you’re surfing or snowboarding! Don’t ride it like a skateboard! This usually gets them to smooth out their turns and get style smooth! Sweet ride! I like to show them a couple of quick rail to rail turns and then throw a sweet, long front- or back-side cutback! I usually get a big “yeeeeeeeah!”

Silverfish: What similarities are there in shaping surfboards and longboard skateboards?

Chuck: I like to use surfboard shapes on my longboards as to appeal to the riders that want to be surfing their boards!

Silverfish: What inspires the style of your decks?

Chuck: I get my inspiration for deck design from the surf heroes that gave me my life style! The pioneers of surfing are all very unique and I really enjoy being able to talk and learn from them! Each of them is a character and I feel honored and delighted to share my art and board-making with them!

Silverfish: What materials do you use for in your decks, and would you care to share the secret of your grip?

Chuck: I use Mahogany, Purple Heart and Maple hardwood in my stringered decks, combined with a plywood body! My clear grip system is something I figured out after several years of carpentry and house painting. I also grip all the OP, Arbor and Loaded decks right now! I'd have to kill you if I told you how I did it!!!!!!!!

Silverfish: Do you do custom decks?

Chuck: I used to build custom decks, but we are so busy now just trying to keep up with our own demand that I can't take on anymore work! My quality must be maintained and I would never cut back my standards just to build more decks!

Silverfish: Are the decks in your lineup designed for a particular “flex”?

Chuck: I have different flex patterns that I build when I have a special order but my standard flex is a mid-flex pattern!

Silverfish: What inspired your Surf Legends HT lineup? How did you decide who to represent for model decks?

Chuck: My HT series was designed to have a quality deck available for a good price! It's a higher quality board than other boards in its price range!

Silverfish: Are you planning anything new for the Barfoot lineup?

Chuck: I am working on an outrageous board for Greg Noll right now with his son Jed Noll! It’s a replica of his famous gun surfboard ridden on some huge waves in Makaha! Needless to say, I want Greg Noll to be stoked!

Silverfish: Do you have a personal favorite in your quiver? What do you like to ride or surf?

Chuck: I absolutely love my Yater spoon woody longboard skate! Renny Yater is from Santa Barbara, close to where I live, and is as cool of a guy as you'll ever meet! I'm stoked to know him and it's a stoker when I ride his model!

Silverfish: Any sessions stand out in your head as particularly memorable?

Chuck: My most memorable skate sessions are from the early to mid 70’s: Tom Sims and I riding 5' water skis turned into longboard skateboards! We would spend the evening before skating building up axles to our Chicago trucks with used wooden wheels from the Santa Barbara roller rink that we got for ten cents each! The next day, we would get someone to drive Tom’s old funky Volvo across Mountain Drive to Hot Springs Road to skate! Hot Springs is a 1 mile downhill run and we would reach speeds of close to 45 mph! Barefoot, no pads; carve turns to keep our speed down until we had too much speed and then a balls-out carve session to the bottom! We would get picked up at the bottom and be driven back to the top for another run! On the way, we would change axles with new wheels! Each set of wheels only lasted one run! My favorite run of all was a day Tom and I were bombing Hot Springs Road and this guy passed us in a Rolls Royce, wiggling his cigar as he passed! When we got to the bottom of the hill, we realized it was Vincent Price the actor! I got a kick out of that!