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oldgear
Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 23, 2012 - 12:00am PT
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I'd appreciate anything any of you know or remember about a company named "Bugaboo," hailing from Monterey, California. I just picked up a fairly mint down parka by them, very full-featured and well-made. I'm guessing it is from the early 80s, based on some very sparse evidence. Can anyone help fill in the history of this gear company? Who founded them, and when. What they made, what happened to them, etc. ?
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DHike
climber
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Apr 23, 2012 - 12:18am PT
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Used to manage the Pacific Grove store circa 86-88. Set up a store in San Ramon around then too. Had an outlet in Carmel also.
Was founded by an avid mountaineer John (something) late 60's early seventies, can't remember his last name, loved visiting the Bugaboo's thus the name. Made quality down parkas and bags for mountaineering.
Sold to Richard and Shelly Risko late 70's. Bought by an out of state attorney, Bob Forlizzo, nice guy, not that knowledgeable in retail, over expanded too quickly, was more into discount sunglasses than core outdoors people, had some losses, then sold to the outdoor equipment retailer in Santa Cruz, can't remember their name either.
The manufacturing took place in a warehouse in seaside. Down was not that favorable at the time as the market was hot for the new technical fabrics and insulation.
Still have an old down bugaboo bag and jacket. Quality, but the style was pretty dated by late 80's.
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oldgear
Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 1, 2012 - 10:49am PT
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Thanks for the very definitive account you given!
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HSRV
Mountain climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Apr 14, 2014 - 06:54pm PT
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His name was John Gotlund, and he was a friend of mine up until his death several years ago. John was the creator/founder of the Bugaboo Mountaineering line of clothing and down gear, ages ahead of Patagonia. John's problem was that he was not the marketing/business guy to have taken Bugaboo into global recognition. Too bad because his down gear was literally second to none, the finest available anywhere. Barry Bates once worked for John, so if you know Barry you can get his perspective too. Bugaboo's logo was a California Poppy, an image later pirated by another California outdoor gear company. Why John never sued them says something about how casual John could be. Sometime in the mid-1990s John was hit head-on while driving across the bridge that used to span the Carmel River on Highway One, the bridge that was washed away in the 1998 El Nino floods. John's injuries were significant and he never really bounced back even though he lived a few more years. His name is in the original 1964 Yosemite Climber's Guide by Steve Roper, John was on a few first ascents back in those innocent times.
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HSRV
Mountain climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Apr 14, 2014 - 07:01pm PT
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Originally -- if I might add -- all of Bugaboo's gear was made right in the back of John's PG shop, NOT in a Seaside warehouse. That was Richard and Shelley's move. Another gifted climber of the 1970s worked for John, and that was Phyllis Garcia, a local PG gal who did a solo ascent of the Dihedral route on El Cap if my cobwebbed aging mind serves me at all. Like with John, Phyllis was in a terrible car accident that mangled her feet and ended her climbing days. Last I heard she was living in the Hawaiian islands.
I grew up in Pagrovia so I just know this sh#t, no talent required.
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paul roehl
Boulder climber
california
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Apr 14, 2014 - 07:04pm PT
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Store in Santa Cruz as well if memory serves... even had an early climbing wall. Lasted for some time considering. Or wait was that part of western mountaineering... boy talk about a failing memory.
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David D.
Trad climber
Monterey
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Apr 14, 2014 - 11:50pm PT
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Who knew PG had little snippets of climbing history? I don't know how many times I saw that sign and thought it was just some whacky thing you found on the internets.
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E Robinson
climber
Salinas, CA
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Apr 15, 2014 - 09:57am PT
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Nice local history read.
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Modesto Mutant
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Apr 15, 2014 - 11:38am PT
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I remember going into the Bugaboo shop on lower Pacific here in Santa Cruz back in the mid/late 80's. That was a great local climbing store. I rued the day that it closed. As noted previously in this thread, Western Mountaineering showed up and stuck around for a long time but even that store is now closed. At least we have the Patagonia outlet, otherwise we'd have a huge void.
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scuffy b
climber
heading slowly NNW
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Apr 15, 2014 - 08:48pm PT
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A distinctive feature of the Bugaboo sleeping bags ca. 1973 was absence of a
side baffle. The idea was to be able to adjust the distribution of the down
(top/bottom) for different temperatures.
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Flip Flop
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Apr 15, 2014 - 09:25pm PT
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Bouldering at Lovers Point?
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HSRV
Mountain climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Apr 23, 2014 - 06:46pm PT
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I'll try again. Safari is giving me grief today.
So in the event that the reply I just attempted to post somehow precipitates from the cyber atmosphere, forgive me if it seems I'm having a senior moment.
So..........John Gotland's tenure with his creation Bugaboo Mountaineering saw only one store location and as I said previously it was directly across the street in Pagrovia from the Granary that was eventually acquired by Whole Paycheck and closed sometime in the late-'80s/early-'90s (?). John and his crew and every other PG climber I knew back in those times frequented both shops, so the human flow of organic mountaineers was a steady event in that location.
As a side note, the mural painted on the outside side wall of the former Granary is still there though its once rich colors are fading steadily. All those former Granary ladies in that mural were all friends of mine (even a couple of romantic friends) and only one still remains on the Monterey Peninsula.
BTW, John was the only down gear manufacturer back then who hot-cut the rip-stop nylon fabric and built the double over-lapping V-box into his down gear. I had a Bugaboo expedition parka, expedition bag, and down vest, all of which were still in 100% functioning condition 30+ years after I bought them in 1973. They endured lots of climbing and ultra-distance hiking treks and global cycling adventures, and they never frayed, never unraveled, never broke down, never deteriorated. John Gotland's down gear was second to none in those times. Sadly all of my Bugaboo down gear was stolen at different times after 2004. But hey, I still have the Bugaboo fanny pack (never say fanny pack in the UK because fanny doesn't mean there what it means here) that I bought in the 1970s.
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Roxy
Trad climber
CA Central Coast
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Apr 23, 2014 - 09:11pm PT
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I love the history threads!!!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Apr 23, 2014 - 09:52pm PT
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Bardini and Carter gave at least one awesome and probably more slides shows at the old Bugaboo here in Santa Cruz. They made Cheech and Chong look like amateurs.
And Rene Desmaison, one of the great ones, gave a fabulous slide show one evening in the old Bugaboo store.
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HSRV
Mountain climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Apr 27, 2014 - 06:52am PT
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"Bouldering at Lovers Point?" was the question. Yep, it was semi-popular until the advent of Sanctuary Rock Gym in Sand City. There wasn't much to boulder on accept the man-made seawalls at Lovers Point and down the coast at Granite Creek, or a long drive to the Pinnacles. But the original Pagrovia Bugaboo shop never had a climbing wall that I was aware of. There was a guy though in downtown Monterey near where the East Village Coffee Lounge is today who built a pretty cool climbing wall in his old Victorian-era house back in the early-1990s.
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Inventioneer
Boulder climber
Mountain View, CA
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May 29, 2014 - 01:59pm PT
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Happiness is a sold gun, Mama! Got rid of my last gun today, will never again be a gun owner. Not sad about that, but back in the 1970s when I bought this particular rifle that I sold today I had my old pal John Gotland -- original owner/founder of Bugaboo Mountaineering -- make me a rip-stop nylon rifle "case" and this rifle has been kept in its custom-made Bugaboo case/bag for 40 years. The gun collector who bought this rifle today didn't want the case/bag John made for me, so I think I'll use it to carry tent poles. It still has the sewn-on label that says "Bugaboo Mountaineering -- Pacific Grove, California". RIP John!
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Cache
Social climber
NY
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So funny to stumble on these posts. I was looking into USA manufactured down parkas as a gift.
Decided to search "Bugaboo Mountaineering" because I used to work there. Richard and Shelly were the owners and by chance hired me, i guess, because I had just completed a coast to coast bike ride.
Scott was the manager, Cindy my co-worker. Another guy too, can't remember his name.
To this day I don't know why I got hired in a climbing operation but my biking experience did prove successful in sales .
I never went to the sweat shop but did speak to one of the girls over there on the phone when she called to speak to Rich or Shelly. Margie I think.
Guess I was part of the decline of Bugaboo. Funny thought, Rich and Shelly had some crazy ideas.
One morning, they strolled in with a new product. Down filled Bra and Panties. Guess they had something to do with the decline too.
I have the sticker with the poppy and phone number 408-373-6433. Still have a sleeping bag in good condition and maybe a stuff bag or 2 around somewhere. My vests are long gone.
Didn't meet John,he never would have hired me.
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kief
Trad climber
east side
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I left Yosemite to winter on the coast in 1978 and Phyllis Garcia hired me to work at the Bugaboo shop on Lighthouse Avenue. She was an excellent climber. Phyllis had been going out with Ron Kauk, if memory serves. The Riskos had bought the business fairly recently after responding to a "For Sale" ad in Backpacker magazine. They were originally from somewhere back East and basically clueless. They set up the sweatshop out in Seaside and were pushing original designs by Shelley, puffys for women with fake fur collars and such. They didn't like me because I was steering customers to more technical stuff and less profitable stuff and also because they (correctly) suspected I was waking and baking on occasion before coming into work. That had been standard practice at the last mountain shop that employed me (in Curry Village) but it offended the Riskos and they made Phyllis fire me, cruelly because we were friends and she didn't want to. I lost touch with her but she has posted here on ST, in one of the Bachar memorial threads. I still have a Bugaboo expedition down bag with a double draft flap made before the Risko era. Premium down, impeccable sewing, and the same delightful color that The North Face was calling "Acupulco Gold" in those days.
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Weenis
Trad climber
Tel Aviv
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I remember a really neat mountain gear shop on Cannery Row in the mid seventies. I do believe that it was called "Bugaboo". I bought a super nice goose down mummy bag there. It was a light burgundy color with a tan interior. It was made with 1.9 ripstop nylon. The label on it said "Camp Seven". It was probably 1976. There were a couple of guys and a woman working there. I was just getting into climbing and the folks were really cool, helpful and full of great advice. Not long after that the shop moved a few blocks away to Lighthouse Avenue. It seemed that their inventory kept increasing and that they were doing a lot of sewing in the back of the shop.
As the years rolled on I was busy with tons of climbs and that bag went on most of my forays. Years later I was knocking around near the top of Forest Avenue and saw the new Bugaboo Mountaineering shop. I went in just to check it out and was again impressed. Crazy enough, I heard some people chatting that I was in town. Not knowing anyone I asked. It was an old boyfriend of my little sister's and he had seen my Subaru in her driveway that morning.
I love how these little bits of happenstance get knocked around here. From my first down bag- Camp 7 no less to some more history of Bugaboo Mountaineering.
P.S. I did boulder at Lover's point quite extensively. The outer wall closest to the point was a rip-rap kinda thing with a lot of 5.6 and 5.8ish stuff as well as harder problems. Closer in and under the restaurant there is a taller wall but it's base is a concrete ledge seat. Some kid fell and broke himself up pretty bad from what I'd heard so we would shovel sand up into the areas that we were attempting. I had a long traverse problem a few hundred meters north of there on pure rock. It was a back and forth at 5.6 or so.
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PGM
Boulder climber
BEND
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Jun 29, 2016 - 10:52am PT
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Hey ~ Phyllis here. I have a ton of history to share. Traveling at the moment and will get back soon. In the meantime here is a photo on Thanksgiving Ledge 1975. Climbed this route with Gary Fox and Bill Morris. Buff Nhia was going to join us, but just came back from Alaska, so he didn't climb with us. More to come...
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