Whether cotton or nylon, plain, printed or plaid, Joe Welch is fascinated with Hawaii’s vintage boardshorts.

"It’s the history. It really shows firsthand the changes in the surf culture and how it evolved from different parts of the world as well as all the different influences in surf culture," he said. "(Hawaii) was the center of the whole surf industry. That’s where a lot of these guys that own all those companies started."

The 38-year-old firefighter and father of two said he began buying boardshorts at thrift shops when he was in high school at Punahou School during the early 1990s. Over the next two decades, he hunted for them at Savers, Goodwill and the Salvation Army, spending anywhere from $2 to $6 apiece. Now they are harder to find.

Welch’s collection of about 70 vintage boardshorts spans the early ’70s to the ’80s. They include a worn navy-blue Quiksilver pair he wore when surfing with his dad in Honolulu. The shorts remind him of "small-kid days," he said.

Three years ago, the Honolulu Museum of Art included about 25 pairs of shorts from Welch’s collection in an exhibition called "Boardshorts: A Perfect Fit," which included historic photos and film footage of early waveriders to celebrate Hawaii’s "unofficial uniform."

Before the rise of Billabong, Volcom and other global brands, local mom-and-pop shops like the H. Miura store in Haleiwa, Take’s in Kapahulu and M. Nii’s in Makaha sold custom-made surf trunks. The style and materials evolved from cotton with coconut buttons to stretch polyester and nylon with metal snaps and Velcro closures.

Early Quiksilver designs had a yoke waist and scalloped hems in 1969, and neon was all the rage in the ’80s and ’90s. Today’s boardshorts feature high-tech water-repellent coatings and quick-dry fabrics.

Like skirt hems on fashion runways, boardshort lengths have gone up and down over the years, from mid-thigh to just over the knees, and now back again to shorter designs, according to Welch, who is also co-owner of OnoPops with his brother Josh Lanthier-Welch. The business makes ice pops and syrups from local, organic ingredients.

Welch’s Palolo home is a celebration of vintage, from the colorful, retro throw pillows on the couch to the blow-up of a black-and-white photo of Ala Moana Center when it opened in 1959 on the wall.

His boardshort collection includes brands such as Surfline, Gotcha, Lightning Bolt, Ocean Breeze, HRH and Weeds (a knockoff brand). Some, he thinks, were homemade.

A cotton pair from H. Miura, which earned a reputation for its fitted palaka shorts, features a bird-of-paradise floral print on a brown background. A blue drawstring pair with aloha-print patches on the sides came from Take’s, a Japanese tailor shop in Kapahulu that made custom-designed shorts. All of the surfers went there, according to Welch.

Welch doesn’t actually wear the shorts in his collection, which he stores in one plastic storage bin. Although no longer actively collecting, he is still on the lookout for original Local Motion boardshorts.

Reach Joe Welch via email at joe@onopops.com.

“Possessed” is an occasional series featuring Hawaii residents and their unique or facinating collections. Tell us about your collection by calling 529-4778 or emailing features@staradvertiser.com.