Each summer when school let out, Matt Biolos would make the pilgrimage from his inland home in Chino to Dana Point, where his dad had a boat in the harbor.

As a teen, he would spend the summer season working in the shipyard next to Doheny State Beach doing boat maintenance, but it wasn’t long before he was using the space to craft his first surfboard.

“I thought, Tthis is way cooler than working on boats,’” Biolos recalled. “So I bailed on my boat career and started working on surfboards when I was 17.”

Three decades and thousands of customers later, his Mayhem surfboards are ridden by some of the best surfers in the world, and Biolos has earned a spot in the San Clemente Board Builders Hall of Fame.

Biolos will be honored along with fellow shapers Del Cannon, Garth Day, Terry Martin, Jerry O’Keefe, Timmy Patterson, Rick Rock, Cole Simler and Jean Pierre Van Swae during a ceremony on Sept. 7 in front of his newly renovated Catalyst at Bashams Surfboard Manufacturing & Supply Co.

For Biolos, his passion for board building has been a decades-long journey that started as a teen drawn to the counter-cultural vibes and the classic California beach culture.

“I was enamored with it,” he said. “I grew up inland, but I had a pretty good taste of life here. It was kind of the California dream, I had two lives growing up. Growing up in Chino, it was punk rock, snowboarding and skateboarding. But then we would spend summers in the harbor.”

He met Mike Reola, a friend from Florida getting a business degree, and together they created the brand …Lost, expanding into clothing and accessories, with the label Mayhem as the surfboard moniker.

They opened up surf shops under the Catalyst name, three in Florida and now, with the latest at the old Basham shop, three in San Clemente.

Biolos and Reola recently gave a tour of the newly renovated building, which for decades has been a go-to place for hobbyists and professional board makers to get supplies such as foam blanks, fiberglass and tools for shaping boards.

When Brad Basham died in 2022, it was unknown what would become of the big building in San Clemente’s manufacturing district along Calle de Los Molinos.

Basham was a staple in the San Clemente surf scene starting in the 1970s and was known for giving up-and-coming craftsmen a helping hand, said California Surf Museum Executive Director Jim Kempton, who will emcee the induction ceremony.

“Brad Basham really was such a father figure in the whole San Clemente surfboard manufacturing world,” Kempton said. “He gave them their start, gave them cheap rent and mentored them in so many ways.”

Basham did the same for Biolos and Reola, offering credit for blanks and other supplies while they built up their brand.

“Emotionally, to me and the other guys around here, it’s important,” Biolos said of keep the facility in the surf family. “If this place would have changed hands to an outside developer, it would have been a pretty crippling blow to the surfboard manufacturing culture.”

Biolos contacted Basham’s sister – who had several offers from developers wanting to tear down the space – with a deal to take over the shop, with the caveat that it would still honor Basham’s legacy.

Some parts of the shop are the same – the big Basham surfboard sign once outside is now in the shop and there are still plenty of supplies for board builders, the soul of Basham’s business.

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Inside now, smaller shaping bays were created for board builders to rent out or pop in for a longer residency, like Australian icon Mark Richards did a few months ago.

There’s more area with retail products, including …Lost clothing and accessories, plans for an O’Neill wetsuit room and a Sur Coffee shop in coming weeks, as well as a plaque planned to honor Basham in the store.

“The idea is not for this to be the big …Lost big mega superstore, it’s all about the community and being multi-branded and keeping Brad’s vision alive,” Biolos said. “We are doing it in a more modern way, staying true to what he did.”

For Biolos, that means building up a community – whether it’s providing a space for budding, young board builders or glasses, or making boards for everyday surfers and the pro surfers riding his designs, which includes a long list of the world’s best surfers such as the Colapinto brothers, five-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist Carissa Moore, and this Summer Games’ gold medalist and current world champ Caroline Marks.

Earning the Hall of Fame induction with fellow San Clemente board makers – many from the same era who he has worked alongside for decades – was a moment to recognize all the hard work that goes into their craft, Biolos said.

“It’s a small-town accolade for people who have dedicated their lives to this little industrial zone,” he said. “It’s great to get permanently marked within their community, where all the hard work went down.”