Bob Feigel was the advertising director at Surf Guide magazine and managed the original Makaha Skateboard team. The image seen here ran in the September 1, 1961, issue of Life magazine, as part of a photo essay titled "The Mad Happy Surfers." Interestingly, while hand gestures are clearly intended to be a Nazi salute, the magazine caption overlooked the gesture. "[These] full-fledged 'hot-doggers' will head for the beach in a remodeled vintage vehicle called a 'surf wagon.' Such a buggy confers great prestige on surfers, but not quite as much as a remodeled hearse."

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but sometimes the tale behind the picture needs explaining. The photo you see here ran in last Sunday's 

"The Long Strange Tale of California's Surf Nazis,"

 by Daniel Duane]. That's me in front, hand raised in a Nazi salute. I'm relieved that none of my parents (adoptive or biological) are still alive to see it. They were angry enough when they saw it in 1961.

Here's the story. My friend Paul Fritz had a classic old Ford milk truck that he sometimes used for surfing trips (the boards fit beautifully, but the truck could be a tad temperamental). On this day, Paul picked me up on his way to Malibu. I can't remember who asked whom, but the 

 people wanted shots of some surfers tooling down Pacific Coast Highway in the truck, and we ended up driving up to Arroyo Sequit to accommodate them. The shoot itself was not fun at all. We kept driving up and down PCH while the photographer [Allan Grant] shouted instructions which we attempted to follow. It seemed to take hours. To relieve some of the boredom, I put my hand up in the air to feel it lift my hand as we drove by again. It wasn't a Nazi salute, but close enough. On the next run, the photographer asked us to do a Nazi salute as we drove by and two of us foolishly obliged. Of course, that was the shot that appeared in 

. So a large part of the whole "Surf Nazi" image was manufactured by the media.

FIRST PERSON: FORMER MALIBU SURFER BOB FEIGEL EXPLAINS HIS NAZI SALUTE

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