For the Love of the Sea, Surfing and Sculpting: Vince Broglio

Full Frame

Vince BroglioVince Broglio has surfed all around the world. He owns a successful surfboard fiber-glassing business in Santa Cruz, California. In 2005, he started recycling resin and fiberglass materials from his workbench into masterful works of art.

While vacationing in Hawaii in the 1970’s, Vince Broglio fell in love with surfing.

“I can still remember my first wave over in Waikiki beach,” remembers Broglio. “My cousin pushed me into a wave. The white water grabbed me and just coming out of the white water with just the biggest smile on my face.”

Since then, Broglio has surfed all around the world. He now owns a successful surfboard fiber-glassing business in Santa Cruz, California – one of surf culture’s epicenters. In 2005, he started recycling resin and fiberglass materials from his workbench into masterful works of art.

For the Love of the Sea, Surfing and Sculpting: Vince Broglio

Vince Broglio has surfed all around the world. He owns a successful surfboard fiber-glassing business in Santa Cruz, California. In 2005, he started recycling resin and fiberglass materials from his workbench into masterful works of art.

“It’ll take a thousand to 1200 boards and, two, two-and-a-half years’ worth of board building to collect enough mass to cut it up for my sculptures,” said Broglio.

Broglio creates his sculptures from the waste created in the fiber-glassing process, recycling material that would otherwise head to the landfill.

“Then, all of a sudden, one day I looked at it and I went, ‘I can make a wave out of that,’” recalls Broglio.

His art celebrates the fluidity, tranquility and power of the sea. And, like the waves, each sculpture is one of a kind.

On this week’s Close Up, Full Frame turns its lens on the California surf scene and its many sources of artistic inspiration.