First things first: Yes, Longboard Louie’s owner Jeff Parshall does indeed surf.

Originally from Portland, the 43-year-old restaurateur started off as a windsurfer who took to surfing on the days the wind was calm but the ocean wasn’t. Eventually, surfing took favor.

Yet he wasn’t the one who drummed up Longboard Louie’s theme. He and his wife, Kathi, purchased the Mexican-flavored westside eatery in December 2000 from the original operators, who opened Longboard Louie’s in 1996.

”I skied, I surfed – that’s why I kept the theme, the whole surf theme appealed to me,” Parshall says. ”I’d been coming here since Bachelor had two chairlifts.”

Surfing, snowboarding and kayaking videos play on a TV above the small dining room, while surf posters adorn the walls. The decor reflects the lifestyles of some patrons, many of whom are just as likely to stop in for a breakfast burrito (small, $3; large, $3.75) on their way to the mountain as they are to take advantage of the happy hour featuring $1.50 bottled beers with the purchase of food.

One of the first things Parshall did upon taking over Louie’s was expand the seafood items.

”I love fish, and if my restaurant was any bigger I’d have a larger variety of fish tacos than I already have.”

”Every time I want to get rid of something off the menu, I see people are ordering it. There’s nothing really to get rid of. Usually we just keep adding more things to it.”

Until he finds room for more fish, Parshall’s restaurant offers ”La Paz”-style deep-fried cod, fresh salmon and halibut, the last of which just came into season, Parshall says.

”We started our halibut tacos and enchiladas back up again, and we’ll have those until the season closes” at the end of October, he says. Halibut tacos and enchiladas are $3 a la carte, $6.95 for a combo with two tacos, beans and chips.

Longboard Louie’s uses only canola and olive oils for frying.

The rice and beans are fat-free, Parshall says. ”Since I eat here every day, I want it to be as healthy as possible.”

He sees a trend of healthier eating habits and restaurants that reflect the customers’ needs and wants. ”We added a low-carb menu of food items we already have here,” Parshall says, ”just to give low-carb people that option.”

Most of the low-carb dishes come in bowls. ”I haven’t found a good-enough tasting (low-carb) tortilla; some of them are pretty cardboardish.”

Several other establishments within a taquito’s throw of Longboard Louie’s also work from a Mexican template, but Parshall isn’t sweating it.

”I wish there was a little more variety, but I look at competition as a good thing, because it makes me work harder to make what we serve here better. It makes it better for my customers because they get a better product.”

Parshall says that if he and his wife find a suitable location, they may open a second Louie’s down the line – most likely on the east side of Bend. Meanwhile, patrons will continue to vie for space in what Parshall refers to as the ”cozy” dining room.

Seating opens up considerably come spring. With the onset of warm weather, diners take advantage of the colorful picnic tables on the patio skirting Longboard Louie’s west and south sides, chomping on tacos and burritos beneath awnings fashioned from skis.

Not that cold weather really stops the hardier folk.

”Our outdoor seating is open and available all year round. And people eat out here year round,” Parshall says.

”There’s only one Longboard Louie’s, and it’s in Bend.”

David Jasper can be reached at 541-383-0349 or djasper@bendbulletin.com.