Greg Martz would skim board at Belmont Shores as a child until he saw surfers for the first time on a south swell breaking on the inside of Long Beach Harbor Jetties. After seeing people surf, he was done with skimboarding and asked his parents for a surfboard, to which they replied, "too expensive." After months of begging, his father agreed to split the cost of a surfboard kit for $90. Greg jumped at the opportunity and started making his first board in his garage in La Mirada, CA, in 1962.

When he was 20, he worked for Sonny Vardeman, where he learned how to laminate, hot coat, and sand at Sonny's shop. Eventually, Greg moved on to work at Russell Surfboards, Gordie, Wind n' Sea, Plastic Fantastic, Surfglas, Pure Joy, Hobie, Bruce Jones & Infinity Surfboards. Greg soon developed the desire to open his own shop where he could do things his way and make boards to his extremely high standards, so he opened the Waterman's Guild in 1983. Greg would own and laminate at Waterman's Guild until his retirement in 2017.