by Corky Carroll I was in third period typing class that morning. Don’t remember who the teacher was. There are certain teachers from HS that stood out in my memories. Mr. Neil, made stuff I didn’t care about interesting anyway. Mr. Hunter, he surfed and borrowed a board from me. Miss Brickner, had her as a freshman. She was hot looking and I had “thoughts” about her. Mr. Combs, water polo coach (I hated water polo but liked him.). Don’t remember who I had in that 3rd period typing class though. Sometime during the hour the principal came over the P.A. and announced that President Kennedy had been shot. And then not long after that he had died. Jackson Browne and I are the same age. He has a line in his song, “Running on Empty,” that goes, “in ’65 I was seventeen and called the road my own.” I always related to that. First because at that time in my life I had moved out of my parents’ house and had a cool little pad in Dana Point. I was making a living in the early years of Professional Surfing and pretty much had it “going on.” Besides that, I have always used that line as the measuring stick to my age and what year it was that something happened. If it was 1970, for instance, I would add forward from ’65 to see how old I was then. I met Jackson in ’63 at the Seal Beach Pier, although we didn’t get to know each other until we ran into each other at the Four Muses Folk Club in San Clemente later on. But this is not about that. But it is about a day in Seal Beach in 1963. It’s the fall and, as my birthday falls in September, I had just turned 16. And I had just got my first car, a 1958 TR-10. This was a kind of small VW Beetle kinda job that was made by Triumph. I was still living at home in Surfside and going to Huntington Beach High School. Although, that was the year they closed HBHS to remodel and opened Marina HS. So, we were moved over there. Friday, November 22, started out like most other days for me. I woke up just before dawn and paddled out in front of our house to get in an hour or so of surfing before going to school. It was great growing up where the first sound I heard each day was the sound of the surf and the first smell was of sweet salt air. I could tell how the surf was without even having to open my eyes…. The sound told me. The rest of that day at school is a blur. It was a strange and sad day with parents picking up kids early and just a whole lot of confusion. “What is going to happen?,” kinda stuff. When I got home I went surfing and put it out of my thoughts. I had been looking forward to my date with Margaret Ferguson that night. Margaret was a very pretty long-haired “beatnik” kinda chick. She was older than me, 20 I think. It was during a span when I was 15 and 16 that I had a run with older chicks. The summer before I had dated a girl when I was in Hawaii who was going to UC Santa Barbara and I think delighted in enlightening me in things that I had not known much about yet had a great desire to know MUCH more about. There was one other and then came Margaret. I was going through a physical, social and emotional growth spurt, so to say. We had gone out a few times during the previous summer to see “art” movies at the Bay Theater in Seal Beach. She lived there with her mom. I rode my bike over there and we walked to the movies. But now she had moved out and had her own apartment, and I had a car. Needless to say, my little 16-year-old mind had interesting ideas on how that night was gonna go. I had two things on my mind. Surfing and chicks. I got to her place all set for a great night. She opened the door and her mom was there and they were both crying. I asked what was wrong. She looked at me in shock and said, “where have you been, don’t you know that President Kennedy has been killed?” Well, I did of course. But I was 16. At that age things of such magnitude don’t register the same way they do when you are a bit more mature and the world as a whole has more importance. So, the date was off, and I went home disappointed. We never went out after that. Looking back, it was definitely one of those days you always remember in your life. I am not sure which shook me more though, JKF or the unhappy ending with Margaret Ferguson. What is really blowing my mind at this moment is that was SIXTY years ago. Geeze. Somebody pass my meds.
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by Corky Carroll The 24th annual INTERNATIONAL SURFBOARD BUILDERS’ HALL OF FAME induction ceremony, party, festival and Polynesian Luau will take place this year on Saturday, October 14th. It will be held at the Pier Plaza in Huntington Beach and entertainment begins at 8 A.M, with the induction ceremony at 10 A.M. It is free to the public and a super fun event to go to. All kinds of fun stuff and cool people hangin’ out. The founders of the ISBHOF, Bob “the Greek” Bolen and Mike “Mickey the Ratt” Ester, are stoked to have one of their greatest line ups of surfboard building talent for this year’s induction. Here is a brief rundown. The Campbell Brothers, Malcolm and Duncan. I love these guys. Totally original and unique surfboard designers who are responsible for one of the best and most functional board designs to date. The “BONZER.” In 1970, when some of us were working on “twin-fin” shapes, these two brothers from Oxnard were thinking a bit ahead. They could see the pluses and minuses of the two fin and were taking it farther. What they came up with was so much more than just a three-fin board, it was a totally new bottom design that went along with the very different fin shapes and set up. And it really worked great. The first time I tried one I refused to give it back to the owner, Mike Eaton. Three months later he snuck into my back yard in the middle of the night to get it back. And today I am riding a Bonzer SUP. These dudes rock, stoked to see them get some love. Wayne Brown, local boy makes good. I really liked Wayne, he was one of those “stoked” kinda guys that you just felt good being around. He did a lot of stuff. Started out in 1967 making surfboards, BC and then Wayne Brown Surfboards. This led to him also manufacturing Skateboards and a shop on Main Street in Huntington Beach. Then he began importing Piping Hot Wetsuits from Australia, which led to him making a deal with Aleeda Wetsuits to manufacture here in the U.S. He had a place in the back of his shop where he could make you a custom wetsuit and deliver it in 24 hours. Wayne sadly passed away in 2018. Craig Sugihara. Founder and owner of Town and Country Surfboards. Craig is one of those totally cool hard-core surfers who came up through the ranks. Started riding a Piapo board in 1957, started surfing in 1959 under the guidance of the beach boys at Waikiki, started learning how to shape and laminate boards in 1965, built his first board in 1967, got his first surf industy job in 1968 working for George Downing at Greg Noll Surfboards doing fiblerglass work, started building complete boards in 1970 for Mystic Surfboards out in Waianae and finally opening his own TOWN AND COUNTRY surf shop in 1971 in Pearl City. Today he has six stores, Licensees all over the world and is still building surfboards. And, the dude is a great surfer and very cool dude on top of all that.
John Kies. A San Diego surfer who began shaping boards in 1965. Four years later he had a growing market for his shapes and began building boards in his parents’ garage, this was right at the beginning of the “underground” garage board era. In 1972 he began shaping for Hansen Surfboards and then became factory manager and shaper for Koast Surfboards. Putting himself through college on his earnings he found that he couldn’t keep up the demand and so he hired up and coming shapers Rusty Priesendorfer, Bill Shrosbee and Mike Slingerland to help him. All became world class shapers on their own. After Koast closed down John seized the chance to open his own business, Encinitas Surfboards. 35 years, and 24,000 boards, later John is still going and stoked that he can “actually do this for a living.” Also on the slate to get inducted this year are Mitchell Rae of Outer Island Surfboards in Australia and Bernie Crouch from the infamous East Coast brand, Mad Dog Surfboards. If you are free on Saturday the 14th this is be the place to be. Super cool and groovy all the way. by Corky Carroll I get asked a ton of questions about what was surfing like back when I was growing up in the thick of it during the 1960’s. This was the “Golden Era” for surfing in California. Let me give a little background how that came to be. Leading up to the late 1950’s surfing was mostly known to be going on in Hawaii and in California. I am sure it was happening other places too, Australia for sure, but those were the two main hotbeds of surfing. When boards went from wood to foam it opened the door for anybody and everybody to surf. Right at that time, 1959, the movie “Gidget” came out and surfing boomed as a result. Especially here in California. During that period surfboard shops opened all over the place, surfing movies were being shown all the time, surf clubs were forming in every town, surfing magazines were starting up, “surf music” hit the airways and Hollywood was pumping out one “beach” movie after another. And, along with all that, surf contests started happening all the time. There was one every weekend. So, here was the big focusing factor on how California surfing became the leader in the surf world. It was because all the attention was on based on it. The contests here got tons of publicity. The guys that made the surf movies were from here and they featured local surfers. The surf magazines were based here and promoted local talent. It was no wonder that California surfers were the most famous. The bulk of the big competitions where here, and mostly won by surfers from here. They got the most media coverage. If you were a competitive surfer this was the place to be. If you wanted to be a pro surfer this was the place to be. If you wanted to be in the surf industry this was the place to be. Now, if you want my personal opinion, this did not really mean that the best surfing was going on here. If you read the magazines you might think that. In my eyes the best surfing was being done in Hawaii, and probably there were better surfers over there that didn’t get the limelight or have the opportunities that being on the West Coast offered. Hawaii might have been the heart of the surfing world, but California was center stage.
Through the entire 1960’s and up until late 1972 California was a competitive powerhouse. The other two main forces were Hawaii and Australia. These were the undisputed “powers that be.” So, what happened? In the couple of years leading up to the World Championship in San Diego in October of 1972 there was a slow growing “discontent” going on in the competitive ranks on the West Coast. The top surfers were not happy with the way the events were being run. Plus, the available money to be made was shrinking. The same discontent was flowing through not only the competitive part but also through the surf culture, as well as the overall culture as well. Viet Nam was a huge factor in this. There was a lot of “dropping out” going on. A lot of rebelling. More boards were being made in garages than in the big surfboard factories. It was all “underground” this and “soul brother” that. The crowds were bigger than ever, but the glitter was gone. More grit than glamor. The World Championship was the big bomb that blew up California surfing, as far as being the leading surf power. They held the last day in 6 inch to 1 foot surf at Ocean Beach while not that far away a big south swell was hitting beaches better facing the direction. All the previous days it had been run up the coast in Oceanside where the surf was much better. My own memory of that was coming out of the water after my semifinal heat, having not caught one wave, due to the fact that there weren’t any, and saying to myself, “if THIS is what it’s come to, I’m done.” This was a week after my 25th birthday. It seemed the same thought went through a lot of minds that day as the majority of the top competitive surfers from California all “retired” from contests that day. For the most part California competitive surfing, as well as the surf industry in general, went dark for a number of years after that. The World Tour started in 1976 and it was all Hawaii and Australia. Most from that era still refuse to admit that pro surfing did exist before that, but it did. As time went on Brazil grew into a monster force. Today more people are surfing than ever. Everywhere. Surfing is alive and well… almost too much so. We have great surfers here, always have. But it’s Brazil, Hawaii and Australia that are at the top of world surfing. Right now anyway. I am sure a lot of you could care less about this, but for those who do, that was my take on how it happened. by Corky Carroll This wordily wandering is in response to a ton of questions, mostly on social media, asking me if I still surf and how I got so deep into painting. For those of you who don’t know, I have more than less segued from full time surfer and part time artist to the opposite. I paint all the time. I still try to surf when it’s right, but not full time like throughout my entire life up to this point. Here is the story behind this life change for me. As most of you know, I have surfed my entire life and have been lucky enough to have been able to do it on a daily basis from the time I was a young kid to just recently. I have done art, off and on since I was in high school and liked watercolors. But never all that seriously. In the 1980’s I got into doing airbrush paintings that were pretty cool. I sold them through a gallery in Dana Point Harbor and they did well. I had a little spot in the back warehouse at SURFER magazine where I could do these. I was working there at the time. When I left, I didn’t have a place to do them anymore, so I stopped. In the early 2000’s I built a house on the beach on mainland Mexico and started a business taking in surfing guests. One of these was an artist who did acrylics. When he left, he gave me a small acrylic set and I tried out a few canvases to see how I liked it. It was fun and I started doing a few simple ones. I put them on the wall, and people started asking to buy them. It became a side hobby to go along with the surfing and music (am still doing some gigs there in the local area.). In the fall, just before Covid hit, I got diagnosed with a-Fib. This led to a number of surgeries and a pacemaker. Also a tremendous drop in energy level. I started to get very out of breath when I surfed and my heart rate would get very high. Then Covid hit and I wound up spending about six months in the house, not surfing, and doing nothing but gaining weight. When I finally got back in the water I found I was only good for about one or two waves at a time before I started to get light headed and dizzy. So, that is where my surfing is at the moment. A wave or two when the conditions are good. This is where the art kicked in. With time on my hands, I started painting more and more. I have this thing that has always driven my friends nuts, I tend to focus on one thing super intensely. At the expense of everything else going on. It is like that with the art. I am totally consumed with it and it is keeping my “stoke” alive. My thought is if I can’t ride waves then I can still paint them. And I do, lots of them. About a year ago, after weighing the pros and cons with my beautiful wife Raquel, I decided to totally dedicate myself to making art my new full-time career. I mostly do what you would call “surf” or “tropical” paintings. A lot of waves and palm trees. And, when it’s right I still am able to paddle out and catch my wave or two. This is keeping me very happy and motivated. A lot of days, if the conditions aren’t suitable for me to go in the water, I will hang out and watch the surf and friends out there doing it. Then go back to the house and paint the rest of the day. I always check the surf, it’s a lifetime habit, and I always stay attached to what’s going on in the surfing world thru my surf company, BLUE MANGO SURF, which I own with my partner Joel Saltzman.
If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you will notice that I really do a lot of paintings. This is because I love doing them so much that I can bury myself into it for hours and hours every day. A lot of times I have more than one going at a time, a great way to not waste paint. If I can convey the “feel” of what I am painting, like how a wave looks to me in my mind or a certain scene, onto the canvas then it gives me the same “rush” as coming out of a raging barrel in surfing. I am far from a master painter, not even close. But if one of my paintings on a wall someplace puts a smile on somebodies face when they see it then I have accomplished what I set out to do. Each one is personal; they are all my children and I love them. So, I hope that answers the questions on how I phased from surf to surf art and have kept the stoke intact. If you want to see some of the paintings go to www.bluemangosurf.com. Or check me out on Facebook. Thanks. by Corky Carroll I have lived a relatively long life, zeroing in on my 76th birthday on September 29th. (I put in the date just in case some of you nice readers might wanna send presents, cash or baked goods.). In terms of being a surfer I am an old dude, almost always the oldest person in the lineup when I paddle out. I feel pretty good to have made it this far, many of my good pals haven’t. But there are dudes way older than me that are still around and a big part of the surf culture. It is with respect to them that I offer up this week’s ink and tell you about a few of them that I can call pals. The first would be Walter “the Godfather” Hoffman. Born in 1931 and still dropping in on sizeable waves. Walter was one of the early big wave surfers in the 1950’s, part of the crew that hung out at Makaha. This included George Downing, Buzzy Trent and Peter Cole. He is also the owner of Hoffman Fabrics in Mission Viejo. They supply the surf world with almost all the fabric used for shirts, shorts and all sorts of other surfwear. One of the largest fabric companies on the planet. If you are wearing a Hawaiian shirt there is a better than average chance that is Hoffman fabric on ya. Not only is Walter himself a surf world “biggie,” but his whole family rocks the planks. His daughter, Joyce Hoffman, is a multi-time Women’s World Champion. His late brother “Flippy” pioneered “tow-in” surfing way back in the 1960’s. His son in law is the renowned Herbie Fletcher, surf star in his own right and father of Christian and Nathan Fletcher who are both world class wave masters. Next up I’d like to mention Bob “Ole” Olsen. This dude is 94 and not only still surfing but also still shaping great surfboards. I got my very first “team” surfboard from him back in 1960 when he had a shop in Sunset Beach and rode for him again in 1963, along with Mickey Munoz, when he opened up in Seal Beach and partnered with Hobie Alter. I have always loved to include Ole in my rant about how back in the early days everybodys name ended in either a “y” or “ie.” Think about it..... Hobie, Ole, Gordie, Wardy, Dewey, a host of Mickeys, Velzy, Corky (ok, I had to do it.) and so on. There is more to me including Ole in this. Decades ago he moved to Maui and set up shop and home in Lahaina. He has become a huge part of the fabric of the surfing community over there, even hosting a longboard surfing event every year. As you can probably guess by now, he lost both his home and his surfboard shop in the recent fire. There is a “go fund me” set up to try and help him get back on his feet. https://www.gofundme.com/f/yx9vc8-aloha-ole-fund. I am sure he and his wife Beverly would appreciate any help you might wanna send their way. Another geezerly dude who is a HUGE part of our surfing culture is the infamous Dick Metz. “Dick a doo doo” turns 94 in early September. His story is a book, but I will try to give you the cliff notes. He was born in Laguna Beach and his dad ran a restaurant. One of his childhood beach playmates was Shirley Temple. The guy has been like the total Romeo his entire life, so I would not be surprised if there wasn’t some hand holding going on there.
Dick partnered up with Hobie back in the 1950’s and has been a major part of the Hobie empire ever since. He opened the Hobie Surf Shop in Hawaii in the early 1960’s, the scene of one of my first surf shop jobs (closing time sweeper). Of great note is his involvement in Bruce Brown’s epic surf film, the “Endless Summer.” Dick was the blueprint. In 1958 he jumped on a freighter and spent the next three years traveling around the world in search of surf. His adventures in Tahiti and Africa laid the groundwork for Bruce Brown to follow that path. The highlight of the movie being the “discovery” of the legendary “perfect wave” at Cape St Francis. The location of which was passed along to Bruce from Dick. See, there is a little-known fact I bet you didn’t know. You get that kind of stuff here folks, stick with me. Today Dick is the main energy behind the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente and splits his time between Laguna Beach and Ketchum, Idaho. I think he is still a member of the San Onofre Surf Club too. My wife, the extremely pretty Raquel, just looked this over and her smug comment was, “Look at these guys in their 90’s still rockin’. I don’t want to hear any more of your whining about aches and pains. Get off your fat behind and go surfing.” Humph!!! by Corky Carroll Watching surfing wipe outs has always been one of the most popular and fun aspects of viewing surfing. Back in the early days of going to the surf movies probably one of the most favorite parts were the “wipe out” sequences. People would hoot, holler and cheer footage of surfers eating it like rats. The worse the wipeout the better they loved it. I have always said that watching horrible wipe outs is really fun, as long as it’s not you that it is happening to. This holds true with not only surfing calamites, but most all other ones too. Think of all those television shows that show clips of people getting trashed in all sorts of ways and think about how much you laugh at them. Guys getting nailed in the worst spots by stray golf balls, cats missing the table on a long jump, cars driving thru buildings, etc. etc. etc. The gnarlier it is the more we laugh. In the past I have written about the worst and the dumbest surfing wipe outs I have seen. I have also written about the worst ones I have personally taken. Today I am gonna tell you about a few of the absolute dumbest ones I have been involved in. Embarrassing stuff, but I owe it to the people that I have used as examples of this in the past to come clean with my own not real cool mishap One of the ones that I wish would not have happened was the always popular unsuccessful riding the board all the way to the sand thing. In my case it happened at the spot in Mexico I surf at these days, La Saladita. It was high tide and I had a nice wave going and was getting close to the beach. My plan was to ride up on the sand and step off on the beach, looking cool for the adoring crowd. There were a number of people hanging out, including a couple of my friends. All was going well and everything was leading up to a successful and glorious beaching when all of a sudden the fin on my surfboard hit a rock. This stopped my board dead, but not me…. I did a violent and very sudden face plant right onto the nose of my board and then rolled off onto the rocks in very shallow water about two feet from the sand. The wave then washed my board and me up the beach together. A couple older people ran over to see if I was ok, everybody else (including and especially my friends) broke into uncontrollable laughing. Humph!!!
The next one happened at Cloudbreak, a spot off of the island of Tavarua, in Fiji. The wave breaks a couple of miles out to sea off of the island and you get out there by boat called a “panga.” One afternoon we went out for a session and the surf was really good. I got my board ready, put on my rash guard and attached my surf leash to my foot in the boat so I would be all ready to jump out first when we pulled up to the break. In my excitement and haste to be the first into the lineup I didn’t notice that my surf leash had got wrapped around the bench in the boat. As we slowed to a stop I happily leaped out all set to land on my board and start scratching over into the surf zone. But nooooo. My leash caught and both me and my board stopped dead in midair and came crashing down into the side of the boat. This brought forth a tremendous amount of glee and giggling from the whole pack. Thankfully neither me nor my board were damaged. The last one that I will mention today also happened during a boating incident. This one was getting back into the boat and was much later and down at a different spot in Mexico that you have to boat into in order to surf. I was with a group of pals at this remote spot and they all surfed longer than I did. But I could not get back into the boat until they finished due to my vertigo. I get seasick if the boat is not moving. So, I had to sit on my board for about an hour until they got done. Then there is the weird fact that I can’t pull myself into the boat, I never have been able to. I could paddle faster than anybody on the planet yet have never been able to do a pull up. I don’t know why. So, I have developed a way to get into the boat by waiting for a swell to come by, paddling like I am trying to catch it, standing up on my board and diving into the boat. But on this day I got a horrible upper leg cramp from sitting so long in the water. I couldn’t get up on my board. So, I had to loosen my surf trunks so they could put the gaff used for fish thru the leg and “hoist” me into the boat like a big whale. Did my pals laugh? Humph!!! You are laughing too, aren’t you. Ha ha haaaaaa. Humph!!!! by Corky Carroll This years annual SURFERS HALL OF FAME induction ceremony is set for Friday, August 4 at the SHOF plaza on the corner of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach. Directly across the street from the Pier, which is where the U.S. Open of Surfing will be going on that week. The event starts promptly at 9 A.M., is open to the public free of charge and runs until its done (normally 2 to 3 hours, depending on who they give the mic to.) If you are a devout surfer or have an interest in the history of the sport, then this is a must see event for you. All kinds of surfing heroes and celebrities show up and are right there up close and personal for you to meet and talk to. The SHOF is in its’ 26th year and is the brainchild of lifetime hard core local surfer, and owner of Huntington Surf ‘n Sport, Aaron Pai. (From the press release) “The sport of Surfing has such an amazing history, spirit and culture all its own. We are super stoked to be able to preserve a part of our Surfing History in this unique and special way, for future generations to enjoy. We are here for the love of surfing. That is our main purpose, our passion and our drive behind what we do,” said Pai. “What a totally amazing class of 2023 Surfers’ Hall of Fame Inductees, Ítalo Ferreira, Laylan Connelly and Fernado Aguerre are! Each of them have a passion and a love for our Sport of Surfing and have changed the world and made it a much better place! We are super excited to celebrate their achievements and contributions to our Sport of Surfing,” Aaron went on to say.
In my last column I talked about our own Laylan Connelly, who just happens to be a fellow surf reporter here at the Orange County Register. Next time I will feature Italo Ferreira. Today I would like to tell you about a guy who has had a huge impact on surfing and one who I respect a lot, Fernando Aguerre. Fernando is originally from Argentina and immigrated to the U.S. in 1984. His mission at the time was to launch, right here in Huntington Beach, what would become a hugely successful sandal company called “REEF BRAZIL.” His ads became famous for featuring, how can I say this with a G rating?, the most perfect female posteriors imaginable. It worked. I admit that I used to look at those photos and think to myself, “where does he find these incredible babes?” This is how I first became aware of Fernando and my impression was “this dude is smart.” Sell sandals by showing perfect butts, who knew? Today he is President of the International Surfing Association, as well as one of the most active and dedicated promoters of surfing, both as a sport and a culture, on a world wide basis. For almost 30 years this dude worked tirelessly and continually to get surfing included in the Olympic Games. And successfully I might add. Without the efforts Fernando put into this this I seriously doubt surfing would now be an Olympic sport. That in itself is more than reason enough for the honor of being inducted into the SURFERS HALL OF FAME. As a result of his efforts surfing for the first time in history was included in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Next years games will feature surfing at Teahupo’o, in Tahiti. Then in 2028 the games come to Los Angeles. The site for the surfing has not been announced as of yet, but very possibly could be right here in Orange County at the Huntington Beach Pier. As President of the ISA Fernando is one of Surfings most avid promoters. His creed is to create “A Better World Through Surfing.” Some of the more well known past inductees into the SHOF include Laird Hamilton, Andy Irons, Jack O’Neill, Robert August, Bob Hurley, Sean Collins, Kelly Slater, Lisa Andersen, Gerry Lopez, George Downing, Greg Noll, Rick Fignetti, Sumo Sato, Michele Turner, Timmy Turner, Ryan Turner, Casey Wheat, Shawn Stussy, Pat O’Connell, Bethany Hamilton, Mick Fanning, Brett Simpson, Kai Lenny, Carissa Moore and many more. This is definitely one of the coolest surfing related events to be available to us here in the O.C. You really should plan and making it out there and be a part of surfing history in the making. by Corky Carroll I don’t exactly remember when it was that Jimi Hendrix boldly degreed that “you will never hear surf music again.” I am guessing it was the late 1960’s. But, in any case, the dude was wrong. It’s alive and well and rockin’ Huntington Beach every Sunday afternoon, thanks to the International Surfing Museums “Surfin’ Sundays” concert series. Let me regress a bit. A little history here on what exactly is “surf music” and when it all began, as heard from my very own ears. In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s I was listening mostly to the AM radio stations that played “pop” songs. There was some R&B tossed in and a lot of goofy stuff like “Purple People Eater,” “Little Blue Man,” and “Charley Brown.” There were also some instrumentals that were very cool. These were often used in the soundtracks to the surf movies. “Forty Miles of Bad Road,” “Let there be Drums,” and the instrumental version of Ray Charles’ “What I’d Say.” This was the bedrock foundation of an evolving musical style. Soon bands emerged that played this style of music and they started having dances that were called “Surfer Stomps.” Dick Dale was at the forefront of the surf music evolution, playing at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa every Friday and Saturday night. I used to like to go see Tim Morgan, a great folk singer, at the Prison of Socrates, on Friday night and hit the Rendezvous for Dick Dale on Saturday night. One of the cool things I remember about going to the Rendezvous was that Dick Dale surfed and liked to hang out with whatever surfers might be there during his breaks. A lot of groupie kinda chicks would also be hangin out there. Then Dick would go back on stage to play the next set, leaving the chicks to us. This occasionally led to a romantic moonlight visit to the beach out front. Very cool way that worked out.
It was really Dick Dale who developed that super loud, treble heavy electric guitar sound that became the trademark of surf music. He worked with Leo Fender, Fender guitars and amps, to come up with a guitar amp that would handle huge volume that had not been attempted before. Jimi Hendrix really should have been thanking Dick Dale and Leo Fender for making it possible for him to be achieving that monster feedback tone that put him on the musical map. When the big surf craze hit in the early to mid 60’s the Beach Boys came along, as well as Jan and Dean, to bring us “vocal” surf music. At first I thought this was very corny and didn’t dig it. I was more into R&B, folk and blues at the time. But, that stuff was catchy and before long I found myself digging it. I mean, who couldn’t tap along with “tell the teacher we’re surfin’”? (Chuck Berry had a lot to do with that). In the 1970’s I had my own run with a version of what I liked to think of as “alternative surf music,” with the Funk Dog Surf Band, which morphed into The Tropics, and finally The Coolwater Casuals. Patterned after Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks. He had a couple of great girl backup singers called the “lickettes.” I had three and there were the “Corkettes.” We did more than less off the wall comedy type rock with surf theme lyrics. This led to a couple of singles and albums. The most successful would have been “Tan Punks on Boards,” produced by Mike Nesmith, which was off the “Surfer for President” album. Through all these years of there have been devout followers of the instrumental style of surf music. When they used Dick Dales “Miserlou” for the movie Pulp Fiction, it really kicked off a resurgence in both bands playing that style as well as venues where it is performed. One of these, that is now celebrating its 25th year, is the ISM Surfin Sundays. The concerts are held either in the parking lot of the museum or at the amphitheater on the north side of the Huntington Beach Pier. You can check with the museum to see who is playing and which location. It’s a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. by Corky Carroll One of my very favorite events to cover each year is the “SURFERS HALL OF FAME” inductions. This year’s ceremony is set for Friday, August 4th at 9 A.M. The site is the Surfers Hall of Fame Plaza on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street in Huntington Beach, directly across the street from Dukes Restaurant and the infamous Huntington Beach Pier. It is part of the big week of the U.S. Open of Surfing, held at the pier from July 29th to August 6th. This is the 26th year for the SHOF, the brainchild of lifetime Huntington Beach local surfer, and owner of Huntington Surf ‘n Sport, Aaron Pai. Aaron and his family are Orange County surfing royalty and together they put on this event each year to try and give back some of their love and dedication to the sport and lifestyle that is surfing and the surfing community as a whole. I can’t remember how many Pai’s there are now in that family, but they all surf and are all really cool and they all work together to make the SHOF one of the most prestigious events in Surfing. The ceremony itself is patterned after the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater hand and footprints of movie stars. In this case each surfer who is inducted into the Hall of Fame has a square of concrete which they put their hand and footprints, sign and write a short something. These concrete squares are laid in the ground in the Surfers Hall of Fame Plaza and looked over by the big statue of Duke Kahanamoku that marks the spot. Some of the previous inductees into the Surfers Hall of Fame include Kelly Slater, Tom Curren, Phil Edwards, Mike Doyle, Shaun Tomson, Mark Richards, Gerry Lopez, George Downing, Paul Strauch, Joyce Hoffman, Lisa Anderson, Margo Oberg, Bob Hurley, Bruce Brown, Robert August, Bud Lamas, Mickey Munoz, Jericho Poplar, Wingnut Weaver, Rob Machado, and this list goes on and on and even includes my favorite cool dude and old surfing fat guy, me. I try to not include myself in this list each year but my ego wins out and the fact that I am very proud of actually being inducted that I just can’t help myself. It’s my party and I’ll brag if I want to. (insert me with tongue sticking out going “hahaha.”)
This years inductees are Italo Ferreira, the dynamic Brazilian World Champion, Pipeline Masters winner and surfings first Olympic Gold Medalist. Also, Fernando Aguerre, a Southern California transplant originally from Argentina. Fernando started the super successful “Reef Brazil” company and is today the President of the International Surfing Association. It was largely due to his relentless work and dedication to getting surfing recognized as an Olympic sport that at long, believe me very long, last it is now part of the summer games. Rounding out this years inductees is our very own, and I not only mean Orange Countys very own, but Orange County Registers very own, Laylan Connelly. I am so over the top happy to be sharing this great news with you, this is a great moment for all of us to share in. Laylan has worked heart and soul for over twenty years bringing the very heartbeat of the surfing community to the world at large in ways that engage both the hard core surfers as well as informative to those who never have or will set foot on a surfboard. She is simply the best at doing what she does, reporting surfing to the world. I am super proud of her and it has been a true honor to be her fellow surfing columnist thru all these years, and many more I hope to come. Not only does Laylan write about it, but she is a full on surfer herself who describes her best days as “hanging out down at San Onofre with husband Jon Perino and children Kai and liliani, soaking in the sun and surf and looking for the next story on the horizon.” A huge congrats to Laylan and her family. I will tell you more about the event and both Italo and Fernando in my next offering. Stay tuned. by Corky Carroll I get asked a lot about what I think of the current state of professional surfing. This normally will come along with a “did you see the latest event online?” Over the years I have followed the current pro events, sort of with an on and off approach. I watch some of them, or part of some of them, but not all of them or all of any of them. It’s hard for me to stay engaged due to the fact I have a huge difference of opinion on how they score rides these days. Let me explain, but first I wanna clear up that we are only talking about pro surfing competition. Not the current state of surfing itself, which I think is over the moon fantastic. It’s the competition I have issues with. This might seem weird as I was definitely a competing pro surfer during my time and I should be more supportive of it. And it’s not the competition aspect of it that I am really talking about either, I am all good with that. It is the way they score that I don’t agree with. I will say that the contests have come a long way and are much better today than back when I was doing it. We had 6 people in a heat and the heats were short, sometimes only 12 mins. And they counted your best 5 rides. These days they have 30 mins and it’s only 2 of them at a time, plus they have people on jet skis to give them rides back to the lineup after each ride. And on top of that they only count your best 2 rides. How cool is that? Amazing upgrade from my time.
Now, to finally get to the point of this weeks rambling, what’s my beef? It started many years ago when I was watching one of the U.S. Open events at the Huntington Beach Pier. There were two surfers in the heat I was watching. The first one took off on a huge bomb set wave and came screaming down the line from way deep in the wave, he took a high line and got an enormous amount of speed. As he came close to the pier he got covered up and entered the pier at full speed inside the curl, he somehow made it thru the pier while totally inside the barrel of the wave and got spit out on the other side. Amazing ride. The other guy took off on a smaller wave, which was kind of mushy, and did a whole bunch of turns on it. He was actually just turning back and forth for no reason other than to just keep turning. When the scores came in the first guy got a 4 and the second guy got an 8. I was dumbfounded. I would have called that totally the other way around. Just recently I was watching one of the events this year and a similar thing happened. Surfer one took a great wave and rode it from beginning to end going full speed and riding right in the pocket. He did some nice turning and his style was excellent. Expert surfing. Surfer two took off on a close out wave and popped a big ariel move. But as the wave had no shape he just ended up going straight off in the white water. Same deal. Surfer one got a 4 and surfer two got an 8. In my eyes that was completely wrong, it was the other way around. Sooo, obviously I am an old school dinosaur who just doesn’t get it when it comes to modern competitive surfing. I still think style should count. The saving grace is that some of the events are held in big enough surf that the “one move” thing doesn’t factor in. Like the Pipeline Master or the Eddie Aikau Invitational at Waimea Bay. I do appreciate the amazing talent of todays pro surfers though, they are doing the things we only dreamed of a half century ago. And we did dream of this stuff. I can remember talking with Mickey Munoz when boards were first going short and saying that soon people would be able to get enough speed to get air. Now it’s air and beyond. Which is great, but I still feel that it’s the total ride, beginning to end, that is what should be taken into account for the scoring. Not just one big move. And so speaks a surfing cave dude. |