Wilbur Kookmeyer is a “kook”, which in the surfing world is considered to be very “uncool”. The Wilbur character concept was originally developed in my mind as a sort of revenge on some of the pseudo-surfers that were starting to show up at the beach in the mid-eighties.
At that time the surf culture was in the process of being hi-jacked by a bunch of quick-buck conmen as they raped and pillaged it for their own profit. Beach culture was to be cynically analyzed, bought-out, reinterpreted, repackaged, mass produced and then presented to the world as the authentic “surfer look”.
The beach hierarchy of “coolness” based on respect being earned by one’s surfing ability was being thrown out the window. Coolness and respect could now be purchased off the rack at K-mart. A person didn’t even have to surf to be a surfer! It was now possible for someone to move to the beach from Ohio and within three days be considered a “surf dude” just by dressing the part and saying “gnarly” a lot. They showed up in droves, ripping off our image and overpowering us like a flood. The dam had burst and we were slowly drowning! It was then that I made it my duty, through humor, to do my part in stemming the tide of “kookism”. Thus, Wilbur Kookmeyer was born!
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