…A summerday’s matinee @ the Palm Theater 1964 Imperial Beach,Ca.,the movie,“Ride the Wild Surf” did it for me!Of course having an older brother(8 years the elder)that took me every summer day to the beach with him until I could go by my self,helped me loads,but last night on cable at 2am was a showing of “Ride the Wild Surf”,what a step into a time machine it was for me,I don’t think I even focused on the movie much, other than it triggering past events in my life.The only other time I had seen this movie complete,was after I had moved to Bell,Ca.some years later,and it aired on T.V.It really made me miss the beach to the point of tears…20 miles inland to a 11 yearold is as good as 200miles,2000,miles.How little did I know what ly in my near future. …So,what made you a ,“SURF ADDICT” ???Herb…
My mother and her family lived on Oahu from 1930-1935, and she and some of her older brothers surfed wooden boards during those years. Honolulu was a full day round trip, old Hawaii…that started it. Fueled by Ventura from 1960 on until I could get a standup board: guys hanging out on the upstairs roofs of old Victorian houses along the Point, watching a neighbor surf a nice light blue longboard, doing the kid thing with whatever we could get our hands on in beachbreaks. High enough surf fever to go out bodysurfing without wetsuits all year long…when the blood boils even the ocean warms.
I have to confess that I was born this way.
I lived in Hawaii in 1964,thats where I met Jim Phillips.I was 15 years old and he was building boards in the Base Hobby shop.I was mesmerized.I had never been surfing so you might say I was ass backwards,addicted to board building before ever catching a wave. R. Brucker
there was an elderly lady in my neighborhood that had hired a guy to do maintenince around her home after her husband passed away. bobby was his name and i remember happening upon him one afternoon- mind you, i grew up in pretty rural area(i gues all of us have at some point in our lives)- he was firing his favorite .22 caliber rifle into a tree stump. i walked up more interested in firing that rifle actually, when i noticed a bright green and orange twin fin in the back of his pickup. we began that conversation about surfing- he loved surfing any chance he had but bobby’s eyes lit up when he began telling me about ‘hurricane surf’- (i grew up on the east coast obviously)- i remember his stories and my curiosity started it all. bobby died from being caught under an 18 wheeler tractor trailer, but he seemed to pass along the stoke of surfing to me. bobby was an individual who appeared carefree, relaxed, and not afraid to share something he had great passion for- by allowing me to hold that orange and green twinnie- it was my very first encounter with any surf vehicle.i still remember when news was delivered to me that bobby had passed away- from that day forward, i have carried a small peice of his spirit with me- that surfing spirit. i would like to thank him here and now for striking the match that a created the fire within me. thanks bobby[smile]
Mid 60’s…The family summer vacation from the Bay Area to So. Cal…Driving past Rincon, Malibu, etc…Sitting in the backseat, nose to the window…What are they doing out there…???..It looks cold…It must really be a LOT of fun to sit and wait for something that good…???.. Then my cousin from Fla. came to visit…Along with a SURFER magazine…Like a National Geographic with tanned white guys and really hot chicks…There must be something to this, I NEED to check it out… Decades go by, until that eventful day after Chrismas '70…My high school friends take me along on a surf trip to Manresa…Big, cold, raining, onshore, ugly…They bet each other that I can’t paddle out…I forget who won the bet, but I came out feeling like I won the lottery…I wonder where they are now…???.. Today I get up at 3am… Drive 3 hours through the rain to ride onshore slop…I came out of the water feeling like I just won the lottery…!!!.. Paul
Herb, RIDE THE WILD SURF kinda got me interested in surfing although it wasnt until a few years later that I first got to ride a wave on an air matress. But I still recall seeing Shelly Fabre in a bikini…awoooooo!!! My neighbors dad Mr. Kodama used to take his boys down by the Waikiki wall and paipo board. They dragged me along one day and let me use an old army air matress. We’d catch the wave and the wave would take us up and over the wall. Progressed thru riding a plywood paipo board with a swastika, then a little higher tech styrofoam board I got from the drug store down the street. What rash we’d get from those things man. Finally the eldest son got a used Greg Noll. One day he took me out and pushed me into a small one. Gosh, I was so stoked when I got up on that first wave…I tried to hang five going straight…hehe. From then on I was nagging my mom for a board. She had me do a fund raiser so I could buy a board. I ended up getting a used Bohemian (Ive heard it was a Velzy pop out) for $25. Sold that for a 9’8" Wardy…etc. etc. etc. I still remember wondering how a surboard was made from back then. Did a machine make it? If someone hand made it, how did they get it to be so symetrical? Even though it wasnt until later on in my surfing experience that I took up shaping at 35, Im so glad I did…Surfing took on another dimension since then.
Having a dad who was a waterman 1st introduced to the water at 6 months old, then 1980 midnight showing of the 70’s surf flim the Seven Seas. Hanging out at 17th st surf shop all summer in 1981 with Wes Laine ( bugging the f#$k out of him )always looking and touching the newest Canyon surf boards. The surfing stoke was always there even when not surfing at all. When I moved to San Diego in 1989 via the navy the canyon shop was one of the 1st places I visited just for the vibe. Funny how it all comes together now we eat,drink,surfing.Stay Soul, Rick http://www.ancientartsurfboards.com
I have a buddy who has been surfing for years. He got me out once every two years to see me get ridiculously pummled trying to keep up with him. Finally, I decided to get into it and started searching for a board of my own using the net to narrow down my choice. It started with Anthony’s Board building links…then to Swaylock’s! I did not tell my buddy what I was doing until I showed up with the garage built board. He just about shit his pants! I’m about to start board #3 and I am addicted to surfing and building as well. Long live Swaylocks! Gary Geist
Surf fever is basically an adrenaline addiction thing for me. Riding rental canvas airmats at Santa Monica was probably my first wave riding experience. My older brother and his friends (all of them surfed - they know who they are) were influential. Rental longboards in Waikiki were a kick for this kook from the mainland. My friend had a vacation beach house on Longfellow in Hermosa Beach where we (it took both of us) carried his dad’s longboard down the hill to the water and took turns riding it straight in until the fin dragged. Lived on a sailboat at Ala Moana in '72 and learned to ride lefts. Learning to repair my brother’s boards (he had me convinced he was doing me a favor!) led to crude attempts at shaping and glassing my own boards. I’m completely self taught - never did the apprentice thing - learned everything in the school of hard knocks. I’d be way ahead if I had Swaylock’s and the gang back then!
I just wanted to snowboard in the summer. When I moved back to the coast from inland it was just the logical thing to do. regards, Håvard
My family rented a beach house for the week in so cal when I was about 8 yrs old. My uncle, who my mom refers to as “The loser” showed up for two days. The first day he showed me how to ride a pillow case filled with air. The next day he rented an old longboard…“the loser” became my favorite uncle, and changed my life forever…
Skateboarding about 1974, doing something rowdy and being chased by the cops into a back yard I hadn’t been in yet. Through the fence in this yard I see surfboards leaning up against the garage of the house next door. This was Bob Landon’s house. Meeting this guy when I was growing up on LI, NY - changed my life. Bob Landon is about 10 years older than I. I talked my skating friends into going to Bob’s house to ask about the surfboards. He, and his mom, were very good to us telling us all about it. After the first visit my friend Mike went back and he gave Mike a beater to practice on. I went back a few days later and talked to him. That effort got me rides to the beach all that summer and I was allowed to use his 2nd board to learn to ride soup and eventually waves. That was a Purefun (I think Hank Byzak) stinger single (6’6"ish), that, for it’s day, was Not a beginner board. Bob rode a Fish (Lis I think) that was old at the time. I always remember these kind acts and I try to always help any grommets I can because of this too. Thank you Bob.
My brother(ten years older) was forced by my mom to take me with him to Barbers Point, Oahu in 1959-64 with his surfboard and girlfriend to babysit me basically. But it was the sneaking into his room and reading the ‘Murphy’ comic in his surf mags that is etched in my mind right now. Then moving to So. Cal in '64 and watching my older bro and his buddies fixing dings in our garage was memorable. But then my brother was drafted and sent to Viet Nam, back by '69 and he changed, didn’t want to surf anymore, college boy, more mature. In 10th grade, a guy in school that surfed and had a van sold me a backyard 7’0" pintail gun for $15. and we buddied up instantly. Up to this time I was a long haired,pothead,unmotivated,stoner,worried about Viet Nam draft picks. Thanks John M. for selling me that board and keeping me stoked and giving me something to aspire at and be proud of during a period of exteme life conditions ('69-'72). I’ll never quit this… We have a special gift this surfing, it has mind altering, adrenaline producing, personal bests that only another surfer would understand…So i guess we ‘are’ a brotherhood or cult or whatever cause when i came to work with a shit eating grin Monday morning the other surfers new it was good at the beach without even asking!!!
My family used to take our trailer to Doheny for a couple of months every summer (early 50’s). My older brother’s friend Phil Sauers( Phil Surfboards) would come down and stay with us and he had 2 balsa boards. I remember him telling me to stay off the boards or he’d kick my little 5 year old okole. That was all it took to get me interested. Of course it was a few years later before I actually bought a board( news paper route $). My father was very anti-surf but that just made me do it more.Aloha, Kokua
I started surfing in '61 after a 6 year love affair with surfmats at Sorrento Beach, Santa Monica. My dad would take me up to Malibu during the summers of 61-64. My favorite places, that really stoked me, were up past Malibu: Staircase, Secos, Zeros, and County Line. They were all so beautiful and uncrowded. I remember turning around and waiting for the wave to come to me while I paddled for it. It was all so relaxed. My mom’s friend, Arthur Franz, an actor in the 50’s, lived in Point Dume, and we would surf there as well. Surf films at the SM Civic on a Saturday night. Those memories have kept me going for over 40 years.
Guess I’d have to go with Rich…My parents would take me to the beach when I was little (early '50’s) and I learned to bodysurf with my dad at Corona Del Mar. I never wanted to leave but they hauled my ass out of the water and into the car screaming and kicking. By the late 50’s I was riding plywood paipos at Seal Beach and south Huntington but never saw anyone actually standing up on anything. We lived in La Habra so it was summertime weekend treks only. I still had the stoke but we moved to San Jose and I remember my first wave in Santa Cruz like it was yesterday…cold, cold, COLD and this was in August. My folks wouldn’t drive over the hill so I finally hooked up with some other guys in jr high who’s mom would drag us over to Pleasure Point. We’d stop in at O’Neils and rent tankers. I learned how to stand up and it was cool but there was too much mass and not enough speed. My folks bought be this Hansen belly board and a vest for my first real surf…Rivermouth in December with only a vest…1964 (now that was freaking cold). That hooked me for good, real live turning and cutting back. Pulled myself up to my knees and that started 10 years of kneelos. The next year I bought two longboard blanks from O’Neil and shaped 4 kneeboards and that was the real start…haven’t been out of the water for more than a month since…
February or March 1965. 5 of the most un-likely paisan’s anyone would have thought would try surfing. We were all raised in a very ethnic Italian neighborhood in Rhode Island called “Federal Hill”. Both Jim P. and Cleanlines know the area, as they lived here for a time way back when. For those that have never been here, if you have ever seen the movie " A Bronx Tale", thats the neighborhood. Just visualize 5 Joe Pesce’s from “Good Fella’s”. One wet suit, that someone probly stole the night before and a rented red pop out with a white bumper around it. Me, I got hooked that day. The others, they probably stuck to their other hobbies:stealing,booking, shylocking and hurting people. The funniest was heading back to the neighborhood that night and the older men hanging on the corner seeing this strange board sticking thru the back window and wondering what the “fxck” this contraption was. Similar to the scene in “Endless Summer” with the natives of Africa. Man, I think we forgot to return that rental !!!
Grew up on Long Is.'s Great South Bay, given my first “speedboat” at 12 which was transportation, recreation and an income source–skiing, Fire Is. excursions, commercial clam-poaching, water taxi to your beach house door. Life revolved around the water. Turned out to be a good competitive swimmer which got me my first real “job” at 15, summer of '62, as an ocean lifeguard. Took a big income cut. But…began surfing on a borrowed (make that stolen-for-the-summer) Hobie. Never lost the stoke. Costa Rica renaissance again in June.