Cocoa Beach in the late '60s was filled with top East Coast surfing names, and in 1967, Mike Tabeling picked up the skilled, lanky goofyfooter for his newly formed Weber team. As a competitor, Loehr quickly built his reputation, despite surfing a limited amount of contests in the free-and-easy '70s. After two second-place showings, Loehr finally won the prestigious 4A Mens division at the East Coast Championships in 1974 -- the top coastal event of the time -- relying on a radical, vertical approach. Loehr would also prove threatening off the coast, winning the Lacanau Pro in 1979, and his earlier competitive prowess earned invites to the Smirnoff and Duke events in Hawaii in 1974 and 1975. It was here that he first encountered ridicule against East Coast surfers. Once the media took note of his animated and outspoken personality, mags became peppered with Loehr's attacks on what he perceived as an ingrained prejudice against the East Coast surfing community, earning Loehr an early reputation as a hero back home -- and a dissenter abroad.
But his most lasting contributions would not occur in contests or the magazine columns; they would happen in the factory. Loehr had been building surfboards in his garage since high school, but in 1973, he began laminating for burgeoning East Coast label Natural Art. A year later, he was its top shaper, and as his popularity grew he added labels and riders, at one point making boards for 10 of the 12 top-ranked riders on the East Coast. Instead of following trends, Loehr took risks, investigating the fringes of surfboard design and other water sports, using his reputation to support his inventive ideas.
