This is Steve Alevizos.  He started surfing when he was about 9 years old.  His mother would take him down to Will Rodgers Beach in California for the day, and he'd cruise over to Sunset, down the street, and grab the older guys' boards when they'd eat it.  Then, he says, he'd ask if he could catch a couple of waves, and keep the board until the owner got tired of waiting and chased him down for it.

When he was 15, he spent the summer in Balboa Beach and rented his kitchen space as a sort of surfboard locker to store boards for $1.00 a night.  That paid the rent that summer, and got him completely hooked on that 1960's surfer life-style.  Meeting up with Ernie Tanaka a couple of years later provided Steve with a best friend, a mentor, and a job.  He and Ernie remained close until Ernie's death a few years ago, but man, the stories Steve can tell.....

Steve is a talker.  If you can get him to sit down, he can entertain you.  He told me about the first surfboard he ever built.  It was in handi-craft class in school, out of wood.  The board didn't float.

The second board, he and his cousin built in his Auntie's house.  Steve says she had new carpet, and to this day, the resin drippings are still there,  the clear outline of a surfboard (on the carpet) in an upstairs bedroom.

Vietnam.  And then 3 years in Europe, mostly Morocco.  Steve came pretty close to being a hippy, but then, everyone came close.  And then, back in California, he got a job as an apprentice, restoring Victorian and Art Nouvea windows.  He discovered then, that besides being a surfer, besides being a funny guy, besides being an entrepreneur, (remember the "surfboard lockers"), that he is also an artist.

Steve Alevizos of Diamond Head Stained Glass is as colorful a personality as are his creations.   On the outside, Steve is all hard and abrasive.    He's loud, and he can be obnoxious.  Inside, he's all heart.  His soul is filled with  sunlight and music.  A romantic at heart, he created a piece entitled "Pandora," after falling for the tale of 'Pandora and the Flying Dutchman', from an old Ava Gardener movie.

With Steve, art does not merely "imitate" life.  Art integrates with life.

In his own words, "I work with glass because I love both the material itself, and the light that goes through it.  I love the way glass breaks, cuts, and shatters.  The play of light through glass transforms interiors with a shower of colors.  The colors we see in a stained-glass window are from the light refracted through it and brought to life in an aesthetic and emotional display.  Stained glass is energized through its relationship with light, and changes according to the time of day, the seasons, and the weather, therefore becoming a truly dynamic art."

Steve is also "dynamic."  He grows and evolves and changes.  Several years ago he was hit with colon cancer, and has become a survivor.  The experience, of course, was one that no one would want to go through.  On the other hand, Steve recounts this story:  "When they took me in for surgery, and started to put me under, I had a dream, or vision, of dropping in on a flawless, 6' Sunset wave.   The last thing I remember is that it pitched and I got completely barreled. And that was it.  I was out for hours and hours, and everything is a complete blank, nothing, no dreams, no memories, nothing, until I was coming out of the anesthesia, and as I woke up, I had one big rush, and just shot out of that dream tube... So clearly, just popped out of the tube, and woke.  And that's when I knew I was going to make it.

And here I am."

Yep, here you are Steve, in all your glory.....

You can contact Steve Alevizos of Diamond Head Stained Glass at (808) 739-5288, or kanmakm@aol.com

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