"There Were Men In Tose Days" / Dave Rochlen

From SURFER Mag's biggest competitor back in the day;   SURFGUIDE Magazine 1964   Dave Rochlen on Bob Simmons------"There Were Men In Those Days"                          There were men in those days.  Simmons was indeed a rare, rare man.  Like in the book "The Fountainhead"-----------here was a guy who believed pretty radically in something.  He had a certain kind of integrity.  His behavior never changed....you always asked yourself what would happen---- what were the conditions under which he would change---- what would happen if this guy were put out in front of a freight train.  How would he change?  Well, if you got Bob Simmons down and pounded his face into the sand and tried to drown him, as I saw Joe Quigg do once...twice.....three times, and Quigg would say,  "Are you gonna do that to me again?"  And Simmons would come up and spit in his face.  Simmons originally built boards to trim and just go.  And he occasionally had trouble.Once he ran Quigg down two times in a row.  Quigg swam over and pulled him off and ducked him and held him under till he almost drowned.  He ran me down when I was going tandem once--- ran right over us.   I got mad and ran up on the beach and knocked the board out of his hands..... and I was sorry.  Above all he was a better man than most anybody on that beach.  He had a better mind than any of us guys.  He was a man.  He neither gave quarter nor asked quarter from anyone.   "~~~~ all you guys!"   He was a loner..... Beautifu!  He lived in Pasadenda.  He had his red blazer and he and his pack of rasins would pedal his bicycle up and down the coast towing that piece of redwood on his stupid wagon.  I say, here's why he was a man;  he didn't need to see somebody else doing something.....didn't need somebody else to jazz him.  He had it right inside him...             I remember Simmons came down to Malibu with a board about nine feet long on a six or seven foot day and the shorebreak was right on shore.  Well, you know that last little section on the inside where you can do some of the little things you like-----------or you can run into that rock at low tide, well Simmons was right in there with this little board doing bank turns.  He'd go up and come all the way back down.  Today-all you guys cranking those Spazimoto turns.......ah, it's fun... what the hell?                                       Enjoy Boys and Girls  McDing