Iconic '80s T&C Surf Designs Artist Steve Nazar Passes Away

Originally posted on SURFER | By Jake Howard | Last updated Mar 19, 2025 1:11 PM ET

The surf world is a little less colorful without artist Steve Nazar in it. Famous for creating the iconic cartoon characters for Town & Country Surf Designs in the 1980s, Nazar passed away from natural causes at his home in Riverside, California, on March 8, 2025. For any surf-stoked grom in the neon '80s, his art embodied the sunshine and good times of whiling away the days with eclectic friends in a tropical paradise.

As the story goes, in 1984 the folks at T&C in Hawaii were looking for an artist to do some cartoon-style artwork for them. Nazar showed them some early sketches and it was pretty much love at first sight. Drawing influences from Mad Magazine, DC and Marvel Comics, and even the cartoons in Playboy, Nazar created an island-world with an array of fun-loving surf characters.

Dubbed "Da Boys," there was Thrilla Gorilla, who was modeled off of Dane Kealoha, Joe Cool was a caricature of Shaun Tomson, while the aptly named Caveman was an embodiment of big-wave hero Ken Bradshaw. An immediate hit, the cartoon surf crew took T&C to new heights. From core surf shops to Macy's and Nordstrom, they were everywhere.

As a young grommet in the tiny Northern California beach town of Pacifica, those T&C Designs tee served as my introduction into the world of "surf fashion." One spring, it would have probably been around '85 or '86, my parents took my brothers and I to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown in San Francisco. There was a shop there that had T&C tees in the window. Unimpressed by the sumo wrestling exhibition, I begged my folks to get me a new shirt. Somehow I broke them and we left with a hot pink T&C tee with "Da Boys" on da back. It's pretty much a guarantee you wouldn't be reading these words right now if it hadn't been for that tee. I wish I still had it.

The T&C party lasted until the end of the '80s before trends changed and hot pink cartoon tees weren't quite all the rage. Nazar went on to have a successful art career, and in recent years he had brought back his colorful characters, much to the appreciation of middle-aged Gen Xers around the globe.

"His greatest accomplishments included his iconic surf and skate designs during his time with T&C, but perhaps his most profound impact was on his granddaughter Frankie. She was his biggest fan and has inherited his love for art, a talent she continues to develop and share with the world," shared Nazar's wife Diane on an Instagram post announcing the sudden passing of her husband.

More details and updates about a possible memorial are froth coming. Ride easy, Steve and thank you for making the world smile. There's a little more stoke out there in the universe thanks to you.