Carl “Tinker” West, a surfing pioneer on the East Coast who was also a pivotal figure in the success of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, has died. He was 89. West managed the pre-E Street group Steel Mill, which included Springsteen, Vini Lopez, Danny Federici and Vinnie Roslin, who became a big draw at the Jersey Shore. West later introduced Springsteen to manager Mike Appel, who helped Springsteen cross the finish line to a record deal with Columbia Records in 1972. Springsteen called him “simply one of the most important people of my young life,” in a May 26 post announcing West's passing. “In 1970 when I had nothing, nowhere to live, was broke with nowhere to go, he recognized my talent and took me in,” Springsteen said. “We lived together in one tiny room of his Wanamassa, New Jersey Challenger Eastern Surfboard Factory. His mattress was on one side of the room and mine was six feet away on the other.” Springsteen wrote about West in his memoir, “Born to Run,” and told of their adventures, including a cross-country trip, in the hit play “Springsteen on Broadway.” “I drove across the country many times with Tinker, first at 20 in his 1940s Chevrolet flatbed truck with all our band equipment under a tarp in the back seeking our fame and fortune out West,” said Springsteen on Sunday. “The truck was old and huge with an unwieldy, grinding transmission, and he insisted we drive straight through to Big Sur, our only gig, without stopping, for 72 hours. He also insisted I, without skills or license, drive my share. That’s how Tinker taught you something. He just made you do it.”
Called Springsteen 'a good storyteller'
Springsteen and Lopez had driven up Sunset Avenue in the Wanamassa section of Ocean Township to see West. “Tinker took us in, me and Danny (Federici) lived in the bathroom in the surfboard factory, Bruce lived in the office with Tinker,” said Lopez to the Asbury Park Press on Sunday. “We thought Tinker was he smartest person we had ever met in our entire lives — that was the way we talked about him. When I brought Bruce to meet him it was a revelation.” West thought highly of the young musicians, and recognized Springsteen's talent early on. West, Lopez and Federici also built a sound system for Steel Mill based on the Grateful Dead's famous Wall of Sound. “He was friends with the Grateful Dead people and he know about their P.A.,” Lopez said. “Tinker put us to work and we built our own P.A. It wasn't like the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound or anything, but it was good for us.” Surfboards, speakers and songs were busily being made in the building. “I liked Springsteen because those guys would go in the back of the shop and they would rehearse,” West said. “Vini Lopez, Danny Federici, they would write lots of music, and whenever we’d get a couple of songs together that were pretty good, we'd go and try it out at Pandemonium, right at the bottom of Sunset Avenue.” The former club on Route 35 was less than a mile from West’s surfboard factory before West relocated the company to Bay Avenue in Highlands. “What changes his music is that he wants to write something different,” said West of Springsteen. “He writes some great stories. Stories to me are what makes great music, especially the early stuff. The first two albums (‘Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.’ and ‘The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle’), people are still asking for those songs. Even so, he’s written a lot of stuff after that’s pretty damn good.” West eventually secured Steel Mill a record deal Paramount Records. “I finally found a deal that wouldn’t screw him over,” West said. “Then (Springsteen) said, 'I don’t want to do Steel Mill anymore.' [I said,] that’s up to you.” “I introduced him to Mike Appel. He introduced him to John Hammond and the rest is history,” said West of Springsteen’s subsequent manager and of the famed Columbia Records talent scout. “After I became a huge success over the years, Tinker asked me for exactly nothing,” Springsteen said. “He was forever alone, working, off the grid and independent.”
Great surboard craftsman
West, a redhead with a handlebar mustache for much of his life, was an electrical engineer and physicist by education. Also a musician, he worked for the government before delving into surfboards in California. He worked for Challenger Surfboards on the West Coast before moving East to establish Challenger Eastern Surfboards at the Jersey Shore in 1965. West is considered one of the great surfboard craftsmen of the period, said Jeff Salmon, an East Coast surfing historian. “He's the only one who took board making from California and brought it to the East Coast,” Salmon said. “Tinker was on the cutting edge, and he was a great craftsman.” West stayed involved in the local music scene over the years. A stage he built was the first used at the outdoor Stone Pony Summer Stage in the 1990s, and every year he'd host a St. Patrick's parade party at the purple building in Highlands. Dave Hazlett, made famous as “Hazy Davey” in the Springsteen classic “Spirit in the Night,” performed at the party in 2018. The building, which served at the last location of the Challenger Eastern Surfboards factory, has become a destination for Springsteen fans. It was also a rehearsal and recording studio for Springsteen. A song recorded there in 1972, “Ballad of Jesse James,” was included on the 2016 Springsteen album “Chapter and Verse,” a companion to his memoir “Born to Run.” West lived in Highlands and is survived by his longtime companion Karin Busichio. His last public outing was the Sea Hear Now festival in September 2024 on the beach in Asbury Park, where Springsteen and the E Street Band headlined. West auctioned off surfboards for charity. From the stage, Springsteen referred to his time writing songs at West's surfboard factory. “The last time I saw him he was in the hospital, near the end, dying from throat cancer,” said Springsteen on Sunday. “He smiled when he saw me, and I kissed one of my errant father’s goodbyes. I hung out for a while, he pulled me close and his voice raspy and nearly gone whispered, 'We sure had some adventures didn’t we?' I answered, 'We sure did.' “When I was about to leave, I saw something I never thought I’d see in this life or the next. He cried. I loved him.”
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