Yep, the ranks are thinning. Makes me feel mortal. Be at peace, Mike.
Wasn’t Sunny Garcia dead or suffering from a suicide attempt. The reports were sketchy…
Yes, that has also occurred. Suicide attempt, is my understanding. Not many details, are known to me.
Did you surf much with Mike Doyle, Bill? Wasn’t he a La Jolla guy? Mike
Only surfed with him one time, at WindanSea. He was not a regular fixture there.
One of the early 60’s lifeguards in Pismo put him up in the Shack on the Pier in Pismo for awhile. He hung out and surfed a few days. Ran into him several years later in the Pier lot on his way back to North SD County when he left Oregon. A green Saab piled high with boards and Oregon plates. He did a book signing in a SLO bookstore in the 90’s. A friendly enough guy who went from one thing to the next for $$. He made money flipping houses in North County for awhile and sold Time Shares in Los Cabos. Somebody on the EC was producing another “Doyle Model” Board not to long ago. His “Single Ski” predated the Snowboard. Not a bad Surfer for some guy from Hawthorne/Inglewood or wherever inland he was raised. There is some very good footage from the 60’s at Sunset. He surfed in the Makaha Contest and I think he also went to Puerto Rico and Peru for World or International contest . PS Etc. Doye Soft Boards in conjunction with Morey, WaxMate/Wax Research( the first Surfboard Specific Wax) and last but not least; Ridiculous Floppy Flower Power hats that he and Munoz tried to market. Looked like something his mother would have made and probably did. They still talk about his Oregon stay. How the sand bar at a certain creek filled in one winter and so he stayed. There were rumors of Pot growing, but he denied it. That certain creek has never been as good since. Everybody says it was a total fluke.
She in fact did. They were called ‘‘Mamma Doyle Hats.’’ If you wanted one, the cost was $15 dollars. [moderator edit] They were not sold to Kooks.
Hmmm Anybody wearing one could have easily passed for a kook. Now a part of Surfing Lore and history. [moderator edit]
The only thing sillier than those hats was when the two of them(in prehistoric Swaylocks tradition) glassed bricks on the tailblock of their boards and tried to ride them in the Ventura Contest. Morey wasn’t having it though.
[moderator edit] It was Rusty Miller, with two bricks on his tailblock. Doyles board was ‘‘The Stinger’’ with a 4 foot long extension of the stringer bundle, attached to an 8 foot surfboard body for a total of 12 feet long. A 25% noseride area would be 36 inches. Morey did disqualify the board, but wanted Doyle to demo it, which he refused to do. Munoz was not involved in the promotion of the Mamma Doyle Hats. In thier place and time, the hats were considered quite cool, silly as they were. It was silly times, Laugh In was on TV, and Go-Go Clubs were in full swing. It was just a different time. [moderator edit] Mike was a trendsetter, and was SURFER OF THE YEAR, two years in a row. [Moderator Edit]
Gentlemen, this exchange will either get more civil from this point forward or it will get edited. Your choice.
[moderator edit]. I was alive and well then and every fuckin’ Surfer that I knew laughed at the bricks, the tail extension and most of their silly kook shit. [moderator edit]
Ah the” censor in chief” is here.
This is civil; Mike Doyle Surfed Ventura, Santa Barbara and SLO counties and was considered a standout at Sunset mid sixties. Lots of video footage by several different movie makers during that ERA. [moderator edit]
[moderator edit]. I was either shaping for Velzy (1960) Hobie (1964/65) or Hansen (1965 to 1969). [Moderator edit]
Just an FYI to whomever it may concern - these r.i.p. threads eventually get moved to the proper folder. I tend to leave them in general discussion for awhile, so everyone can see them and comment / share if they have something to add. Then once the interest wanes, or they veer off topic from the subject, there’s no longer any reason to keep them in general discussion. They go to the memoriam folder, where they belong.
Thank you, Huck. I’m surprised more people have not commented about Doyle’s influence on surfing, and surf culture. The guy was a great promoter, and a force of nature, in the water. Truely a ‘‘WaterMan’’ in the best sense of the word.
Yeah, i have really nothing to add, but I have read quite a bit lately on instagram and facebook, he was clearly liked and respected by many.
Sometimes I think the silliness that people get involved in is just their way of not taking themselves too seriously.
For me, the passing of a loved one, fellow surfer, or complete stranger, for that matter, is always a welcome reminder, despite the sadness of it, that we are all mortal with limited time available, so I always try to evaluate how I’m using mine.
I’ve decided I’m not mortal, I’m not going anywhere. Too many waves to surf, tons of creative stuff to build and I’ve still got to pay off the mortgage.
i do appreciate the surf gods of bygone years that strived to make better boards year after years and I’m sure they all had an influence of each other. They did so much for so long and by their passing we lose their irreplaceable experience and another thread in the fabric of what surfing is.
We couldn’t do what we do without you Mr Doyle.
