Ken and Jen Miller

The year was 1978, and like so many great things, it started in the back of a VW bus. The craze of surf and beach lifestyle that began in the 60's blanketed the continent and stormed the globe. While the world witnessed the first Sundance Film Festival, Space Invaders, and the legendary surfing of Mark Richards and Rabbit Bartholomew, local college student, surfer and lifeguard, Ken Miller, began making and selling water trunks. The first customers were Carlsbad locals and eventually the State of California Lifeguards signed on for 36 red shorts.

The budding enterprise grew with Ken leading the charge and his girlfriend, Jennifer, now wife of 25 years, designing and managing production. The pair would eventually outfit over 1700 organizations from local and state agency lifeguards and fire fighters to military special forces. The company born from lifeguard uniforms eventually branched out into the retail and mail order company, Thousand Mile.

In April 2005, the Millers sold Thousand Mile, refocusing their energies on core lifeguard business. Original Watermen, as a company, was created with a solitary vision: provide the best quality, fit, and performance in every garment. Few industries have the opportunity to test their metal each time a great set rolls in. We’re fortunate; we do. At Original Watermen we measure our success by the quality of our products and the satisfaction of our customers.

Message from the President

If you boil it all down, we’re all pretty similar. “Surf’s Up” and “gone fishin’” or “No friends on a powder day” speak volumes about who we are individually but also collectively. We’ll take it warm, cold, salty, fresh or frozen, but however you take yours, we are admittedly addicted to water. Anatomically we’re over 70% water by volume.

I’ve had the good fortune of spending a lifetime on water. Surfing, fishing, paddling, swimming, you name it, I’ve been hooked my whole life.  I’ve taught ocean rescue to fellow firefighters in Half Moon Bay and ridden the crystalline faces at Teahupoo. I’ve sailed to Hawaii and paddled in BC. With every experience, my conclusions never change: watermen are watermen. From Eskimo fishermen to Polynesian outrigger racers, maybe mankind would be better named watermankind.

Thanks for checking out our catalog.  I hope we can do business.  Original Waterman has one goal: provide the best quality, fit, and performance in every garment. We’ve been there and we want to be there for you every step of the way. 

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Forged in California, our products are tough, tested and proven by thousands of Lifeguard agencies across the USA.....