Corky Carroll's Surf Lifers

I thought I would talk a little bit about surf “lifers” today.  A lifer being a person who, in one way or another, has devoted his life to being a surfer, surfing, or somehow involved in the surf culture.  I consider myself one of these dudes as I have, in pretty much all those ways, been a surfer my entire life from about 7 years old on.  We lived in Surfside on the beach, so I was able to surf all I wanted.

We have a number of extremely cool lifers here in our beautiful Orange County, and I am gonna talk about a few of them.  There are many more for sure, but these are ones that came to mind off the top of my head. 

Mickey Munoz.  The “mongoose” grew up in the Malibu area during the time of “Gidget.”  In fact, he did stunt doubling surfing for Sandra Dee wearing a blond wig and girls bathing suit.  He moved to Orange County after high school to get into the surfboard business going to work for Hobie at the beginning of the 1960’s and has been surfing and building surfboards ever since.  At 88 years old I have no doubt that he is by far the best surfer in the world his age, almost always one of the best, if not the best, guy in the water even now.  Mickey was my mentor when I was coming up in surfing.

Steve and Barrie Boehne.  This couple own and operate Infinity Surfboards in Dana Point.  Steve opened Infinity in 1971 and has been surfing and shaping boards of all kinds to the day.  His wife, Barrie came from Santa Monica and was the tandem surfing parter of the great Pete Peterson before hooking up with Steve.  The Boehne’s became the number one tandem team in the world and man and wife.  Together they still are doing what they love: surfing and running the surfboard shop and business. 

T.K. Brimer.  T.K. started surfing at 12 years old and moved to Huntington Beach from Titusville, Florida in 1967.  He went to work at the “Frog House,” a small yet very cool surf shop in Newport Beach.  The first time he walked into the shop his opinion was, “this is the surfiest surf shop I have ever been in.”  After working his way up to shop manager he wound up buying out the original owner, a dude who didn’t surf, and has kept the Frog House as close to “the surfiest surf shop” anywhere ever since.  He also became a collector of cool surf stuff.  Great guy.

Robert August.  Robert grew up in a cool green house with a sphinx on the roof right on the sand in Seal Beach.  He dad was the legendary surfer, Blackie August.  Naturally Robert started surfing very young, having the waves in the front yard the same as I did.  Also, his dad would take him surfing up and down the coast and was pals with the elite in the surfing world at that time.  The August house was a hangout for all kinds of great surfers and colorful surf characters.  Robert stared in the epic surf film the “Endless Summer.” He would then go into business building surfboards in Huntington Beach.  When speaking of “locals,” Robert would be about as “local” as you are gonna find.

George Lambert.  Another “as local as you are gonna find” surf dude is the unofficial Mayor of Main Street in Huntington Beach, the perpetually stoked George Lambert the third. The son of a surfer, George was born and bred in Huntington Beach.  He is a great surfer and was a huge part of the legendary surf team at Huntington Beach High School in the mid 1970’s.  He became manager of Robert Augusts surf shop and later went on to work as co-manager of the Longboard Store at Huntington Surf ‘n Sport along with me.  I loved working with him, as stoked and as “surfie” as they come.  George is extremely social and has the “gift of gab,” as they call it.  For a brief period I also worked for Bob “the Greek” Bolen at Huntington Beach Realty.  One day I suggested to Bob that he hire George, he would be perfect for that job.  It was a match made in “real estate in a surf town Heaven.”  Today George is thriving selling houses, has a great family including his son Max who is one of the hottest up and coming surfers around.  And he is still a dominating “pier rat” and “San Onofre Tuesdays” regular.  One of my favorite people. 

There are many more that I would like to mention but out of space.  Don’t be surprised if I come back to this again later on.