ewa beach late 60's

General Discussion
81

Hey I know some guys from Foster Village. We worked in TV as news cameramen back in the late 70’s.

Doug Haia, Brian Smith, and Fred Asmus, who’s no longer in TV but still lifeguards at Ke Iki Rd. A lot of my lifeguard friends worked with Fred. Don’t know if the Guanzon boys surfed, but I was just with Bob at shoot in Kahuku. All those guys worked at KITV (ABC affiliate), while I worked at the NBC affiliate. Bob and Brian still work at KITV. They all got into TV because Paul Guanzon was the sports director. Paul has been doing sports somewhere on the mainland for a long time.

Booby Jones is probably one of the most under-rated north shore big wave guys.

I think Barry Morrison lived at Iriquois Pt. around ‘63 or so. I just saw him out at Diamond Head last week. He had a new Brewer 9’4" or 9’6" he was trying to get figured out. He said he was downsizing from 10’. Still surfs without a leash and knee paddles his board. He’s a really nice guy. I love the boards he gets, all with that inter-island logo. I remember my cousin Kimo Farm having old Brewer mini guns with that logo in the late 60’s. He got them from Rusty Star and gave them to his little brother, who was barely 10 years old. Probably the only grom riding brewer inter-island customs. 

 

82

If I am correct, Barry Morrison now owns the Inter Island Surf Shop. All time great logo! Had not looked at his website for awhile, and he has added some photo's of some really nice new boards coming from Inter Island.

Rusty Starr was a great surfer, Sad that he left us far too early.

 While at UH Manoa, surfed with a bunch of military dependents, from Makalapa (Father was in command of Fleet Weather Central at Pearl so we got great weather/swell predictions), Hickam, Kaneohe, and others. Being in a car with that darn sticker on the front bumper gave us access to a lot of spots we could not have reached otherwise. Still, going to surf North Beach on Kaneohe, we had to hid out boards under blankets in the back of the station wagons.

83

I was lucky to be a military dependent. We surfed Barber’s Point a lot. I also surfed north beach a lot when I was in High School. We’d park up the hill where the houses are and walk down to the beach. I’ve seen that place breaking incredibly, line to the horizon and hard as hell to get out. Barrels across the inside that were round. Timmy Carvalho used to rip that place up. I’ve seen him get barreled making his bottom turn, the waves threw out so far on the sand. I broke the nose off my favorite board there, getting nailed on inside.

84

sharkcountry,

I only made it out to Barber's Point a few times. If I remember correctly, the two most popular breaks were "Swabbie Land" and "Officer's". I did hit it pretty good a couple of times. Of course, in those time's, the crowd factor on Oahu was not close to what it is now, so we did not have to drive much.

And, anyone who made the walk into "Flie's" back in the day, will never forget how the place go it's name. The walk in is a bit different now.

85

My first few “sessions” were at Waikiki on widow maker rentals, but we soon had a rental house in Momilani Heights area of Pearl City, the weekends were Mom packing up my sister, brother and me with  sack lunch’s for the whole day at Barber’s officer beach.

They had the same, sad collection of rental monsters, some very ridable, others would nearly bring me to tears, I would pearl on every wave I paddled for and caught., only to swim one more time hundreds of yards in.

i was going to Waipahu at that time and surfed Ewa Beach with Pat Abella, Guy Kamaka and my next door neighbor Kazuo Lui-Kwan, his grandparents were retired cane workers for Ewa Plantation, they had immigrated from Japan in the 1800’s.

Kazuo’s mother would send us to the beach with rice balls and kim Chi sandwiches.

I’m 64 years old now, but all this made such and impact on my life, it seems like it happened only recently, time changed so quickly after the early to mid 60’s, Indo-China was making a rumbling that wouldn’t be felt full impact for a few more years. The drug “scene” hadn’t gotten much momentum yet, there was an innocense in growing up in Hawaii then, if you look hard enough, it is still there, camouflaged between the tourists, Iceheads, downright people of the earth, I go searching for it each year, hoping to find that time machine to paradise on Earth

86

    Howzit James, I think John P is here on Kauai right now and I saw him the other day as we passed each other on the road, he waved at me but I didn't see him in time to wave back. He likes to come to Kauai for visits these days.Aloha,Kokua

87

I spent my formative years learning to surf at Empty Lots then later on Sand Tracks, Hau Bush and Shark Country, first riding styro belly boards from Longs Drugs and surplus military air mats, finally graduating to borrowed Greg Nolls and Hobies.  My neighbor's dad, Mr. Kodama, was our ride to the beach and he'd have us  pick a bread bag full of ogo (deep red seaweed) before  we could wax up.  Being kooks from Pearl City, we were kinda shunned by the local crew but it did'nt matter.  It was'nt crowded and just standing up was a thrill.   I think the Afro American dude mentioned here was a guy that we knew as Scoopy.  Mr. Kodama befriended a retired Air Force officer that lived right on the beach, who's son Robbie McDonald, was one of the regulars. They let us park in their driveway and hang in the yard.  It was too bad that a few years later I would see Robbie's picture in the newspaper, strangely disappearing from the face of the earth. 

The greenish,sometimes light brownish tinge to the water in Ewa compared to the Technicolor blue of the Town breaks made the waves kind of resemble California (to us anyway) and we'd associate glassy mornings with surfing the Ranch.  One thing that stands out in my memory is of this one girl that looked about our age that was light years ahead of us in ability.  I think her name was Julie Cueva, a petite, dark Filipino girl who had all the moves down while we were still trying to learn how to turn.  She had a brother, David, who was also one of the hot surfers.  I have'nt seen a guy named Herb Pruse mentioned so far, but back then he was known as one of the better surfers and even had a picture in one of the magazines. 

After about a year of wave sliding, the shortboard revolution took place turning the surf world on it's head.  My first exposure to this phenomenon was when I came in from surfing Empty Lots and as I was walking through Mr. McDonald's yard to rinse off, there leaning against the chain link fence were two short (maybe about 8 ft.) tear drop pintailed mini guns with  sweeping raked fins.  Seeming like I had just had a vision of sorts, upon closer inspection, one had "Hanapepe Surfboards" scrolled in pencil on the deck and the other logo in classic cursive  was "Ryan Dotson Designs".  It took a while to absorb what I had just seen and I carefully took in the lines and curves of the boards from head to tail.  After surfing the breaks in Ewa Beach for another few years, we started exploring the other breaks the island had to offer, the South Shore,  the westside and finally the North Shore.  Every once in a while when the conditions are right, I'll head down Ewa way, and despite all the changes that has overtaken the sleepy little town, take part in the waves that I first stood up on.  If I'm lucky, I'll run into Oneula out at Hau Bush (we used to call the break Sand Tracks) and catch up on whats happening with him.

88

Boy, you guys must be OLD!

Ok, Ok, since we’re talking Westside and we’re old, who remembers Stanley Parks? And for fifty dollars and the game, what did we call him?

Hints: he was the first guy to aggressively bottom turn the Pipeline to turn up into the tube (as opposed to cut and run); he was a Harbor team rider.

One of my most vivid surfing memories is of driving up the old dirt road past the chicken farm towards the Barber’s Point fence. It was before dawn and the moon was going down, but it made the sandy two track road and the surrounding kiawe trees shine silver, shadows all blue and mysterious.

89

hey mike, do you mean the Peck?

this is like you said about the kauai tribe's , north don't know what's happening to the west tribe

peck bought a house in kekaha about 5 years ago

 

90

The chicken farm was owned by the Park family. The man I was named after, Harry Park’s brother owned it. His daughter Robin was one of the gang, she married Beauford Helms, who was another standout switchfoot.

I surfed empty lots a lot when I was in 7-9 grade. My best friend’s family, the Foo’s, owned the Ewa Beach bakery. During the summer we’d wash pans at the bakery, then ride our bikes down to empty lots and surf then go to the bakery and wash pans again. Sometimes we’d just take paipos and swim fins because it was easier to carry. Isaac Tanaka made my friend Timmy Foo a really sweet board back then, and I used it all the time. Sometimes we’d go in to Jimmy Ha store and the old man would chase us out thinking we were going to steal something.

Dave Cueva was a hot surfer. We had a few run ins out at Shark Country being that he was from the “other” side of Ewa Beach, and Shark Country was “our” beach. The Eaton brother’s had a few run ins when they first came down, but they are big boys and very intimidating, so they didn’t have much trouble. The Ayala brothers made Shark Country their spot as well, Gilbert did pretty well, and worked at several surf shops before leaving the islands. 

I think the guys Jim surfed with started the original Ewa Beach surf club. 

Officer’s Beach is now called White Plains, but to all the old guys it’s still officers. Swabbie Land is probably the premier south shore right. Once upon a time it was a secret spot, then Bobby Owen’s family moved to Ewa Beach and he started surfing there with Mark Foo. After that everyone found out about it. In the late 70’s after I graduated from high school, I surfed officers almost everyday. many times it would only be me, John Crouch and one other guy named Steve and the waves would be coming in from the west and the rights would be so long. Sometime around 1979 or so the guards realized I was using an expired I.D. card and they took it away. After that I would walk from Shark Country to Officers if the surf was good. Then around 1981 I moved to town and in 1983 I moved into the building on the corner of Ala Moana and Piikoi street, which is right across the street from Ala Moana Park, and the tennis courts. That’s when I surfed Tennis Courts, Big Lefts and Baby Haleiwa everyday.

After spending so many years surfing in “town” it’s really hard to go back and paddle out into the brown water where you can’t see your feet when you sit on your board. But when the wind is calm and the surf is just right, that side of the island has some of the best waves you’ll ever ride. When Shark Country, Sea Wall, Sandtracks, John’s or the Cove are good it is an incredible ride.

91

The first time I ever went surfing was with Jim Phillips and his Brother. We went to Barbers point officers beach. I remember it had a lifeguard,concession stand and restrooms with a shower. None of us were old enough to drive. Our Mom’s used to drive us over and leave us for the day. This was around 1963. Officers Beach was a great place for kids…it had showers and restrooms,snack bar,patios and as I recall the  navy lifeguards were pretty strict. In later years my Mom said it was great place to get rid of us for whole day. I can remember being scared to death of Stanley Parks for some reason.

92

Was'nt he called savage? or something like that?  I still remember seeing him riding Pipe in "Free and Easy",  one of my all time favorite longboard movies.  Did he also ride for Ramsey/Jay at one time too? 

 

93

We had pulled up to old Maili, there was a small sand dune just off the highway, we ran over it o check the waves, when we turned around, our boards were gone off the car, what a snatch and grab.

About a year later we are out at Makaha or Yokohama and there is Stanley with my board, I tell him he has my stolen board, he doesn’t give it back to me, but says “come down Nanakuli tonight and I geeve’um back to you”. I never saw that board again. When I reported the board stolen to the Waianae police and they asked what kind it was, I said I made it, “brah, what it worth, 30 dollahs” was the officers reply

94

Maili Point was a terrible place for getting your car broken into. You could catch guys in your car and that would only lead to a bad confrontation. I used to leave my car open when I went there to avoid them breaking in. Helps to have a beat up car and Kamehameha stickers, but it doesn’t stop them. Luckily, I always had classmates who lived right there, it helps if know you the right people.

Ma’ili Point can have a freight train left that runs quite a long way. If you get caught on the inside, it can be a real pain because it’s really shallow and the waves will drag you over that reef.

My Grandfather used to go fishing at Ma’ili a lot, mostly on the Nanakuli side of the point. Dad’s older brother was born on the beach there, and his middle name was Ma’ili. He moved to San Diego many years ago, but on his 76th birthday my Dad took him out there and they walked along the beach where he was born. He was really upset to see how messed up it was. Today that side of Ma’ili is wall to wall homeless camps. Goes from the point all the way back around the bend toward Nanakuli. 

The west side has some really good waves, but the homeless have taken over most of the beaches.

95

    Howzit James , Yeo It was John, but haven't talked to him in years so didn't know about the house in Kekaha. Doubt if I will see him in Havasu, kind of like some body transferred me to another planet but hopefuly I will survive or kill my brother first, guy really needes a reality check and stop drinking. Aloha,Kokua

96

We all rode paipos when we were younger. I had a paipo from my brother made of plywood. Then I got a finless foam paipo from 2 legendary Ewa Beach surfers, Tom McGafferty and Robbie Husic.

Sean O’Reilly rode a paipo for a long time a nice thin finned foam board. Andy Meiko rode paipos as well. They both moved up to standing and Andy went through the pro circuit for a while. Sean is a decent switchfoot. My friend Kevin Kahalekulu liked the kneeboards, which Andy also rode before fully standing. Kevin had a Greenough Spoon. I rode a finless foam board that I could ride prone, on my knees, or standing.  

97

Thanks. I’ve sent  a pm

 

regards

Bob

98

this entire thread

is living study of 

a oral history

paradigm.

 

when,

like the hiss of the

white water micro bubbles

exploding as they proceed

to conclusion in the

soft high tide sand,

 these people

are mentioned         

they all come to life

in sparkling

memories.

 

the keeper of these names

like shark country is a community treasure.

may the memories survive us all.

…ambrose…

validating lives invested

 

99

[quote="$1"]

Ma'ili Point can have a freight train left that runs quite a long way. If you get caught on the inside, it can be a real pain because it's really shallow and the waves will drag you over that reef.

The west side has some really good waves, but the homeless have taken over most of the beaches.

[/quote]

Yep, you're right about that left at Ma'ili Point.    Doc White lived right there, and we surfed, and dived it often.    It is just a little bit sharky there.    They come into the shallows in the late afternoon, early evening.     Last time I drove the West Side, was 2007.    Sad to see the decline of the area.   Makaha point, where I lived, has also suffered decline in the neighborhood.    Not all change is for the good, eh?

100

The recent four years or so surfing Ewa are memorable for me. Many fun days at Haubush…often sitting inside catching the whitewater and flying across the reforms…so much fun. Lived just toward town from Lots and surfed all of that zone …often without another surfer in site. 

Tried to surf Shark Country on my 10-4 below…damn near killed myself…When they open up the new road(if they havent allready)…Haubush will be the new White Plains…

Seems like alot of good memories along the Ewa Plain!