Owl Chapman

Surfer Craig Elmer "Owl" Chapman was born in 1950 in Detroit, Michigan. Chapman moved with his family to Newport Beach, California at age nine and began surfing soon thereafter with his older brother Gary Chapman. The Chapman brothers moved to Hawaii in 1967. Owl established himself as one of the most dedicated surfers on Hawaii's North Shore who was well known for his easygoing eccentric personality and offbeat way of talking. Chapman was invited to the 1970 and 1971 Expression Session events as well as has eked out a career as a surfboard shaper. Moreover, in 2006 Owl filed libel charges against the Surfers Journal magazine for running a less-than-flattering article about him that was written by surfer/writer Jeff Johnson; said charges were eventually dismissed by a federal jury in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2009.