Dick Rosborough

 
For Dick “Rozo” Rosborough, timing is everything. When he started surfing at fourteen, in 1964, he was poised for the coming radical shift of the Shortboard Revolution. His natural ability and desire to adapt to the sudden changes in surfboard design led to a spot on the U.S. Team that competed at the 1970 World Contest at Bells Beach. In a sign of his nomadic future, Rozo decided to stay behind in Australia while the rest of his teammates returned to the States. For the next five weeks, he surfed his way north, from the cold reefbreaks around Bells to the turquoise runners of Kirra and Burleigh. After Oz, Rozo dove into shaping, which led him to the North Shore, where he became both a respected shaper and Sunset surfer—he even landed on the cover of Surfing in February 1970. A highlight in his North Shore shaping career came in 1981, when he glassed two thrusters made by Simon Anderson—designs few had seen at that point. Today, Rozo is back in Florida, living on a beautiful, quiet patch of land right where the St. John’s River meets the Atlantic. “I’ve never tried to go big,” he says. “I always just had a little shaping room, glassing room and sanding room. My motto is, ‘I’m not out to take over the world; I just want my little piece of the pie right here.’”