Britany Robinson

Sports

How One Law Created A Winter Surf Haven In The Unlikeliest Of Places

Cold weather and rocky shores are part of this Oregon beach’s charm

Scott Rowley doesn’t have to go far to check on the day’s surf. He lives in a little cabin in the woods of Seaside, Oregon, where slivers of blue ocean slip through the trees on clear days. But he traveled far to get here. After an adolescence spent chasing waves from Australia to Chile, the salt-and-pepper-goateed Kiwi (no, that’s not an Australian accent) landed in the Pacific Northwest. That was 27 years ago.

The Oregon coast doesn’t offer the most legendary of surf conditions, but it’s quiet and rugged, much like Rowley himself. It was here that Rowley found the space to establish his surfboard shaping business and a home base from which he could work, surf, or hit the road in his paint-chipped van to deliver boards and shoot the breeze with repeat customers. Rowley’s been all over the world, but it’s Oregon’s coast that keeps him grounded.

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