“CLOCKWORK BLUE” – THE ROLF AURNESS STORY, BY DREW KAMPION
“Clockwork Blue: the Strange Journey of 1970 World Champ Rolf Aurness, by Drew Kampion, ran in the Spring 2001 issue of The Surfer’s Journal. This version has been slightly edited and shortened. * * * In May of 1970, a tall, lean 18-year-old California goofyfoot named Rolf Aurness became the World Surfing Champion by overwhelming a...
THE 1970 WORLD SURFING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BY GEOFF LUTON
This untitled article by Geoff Luton was the main feature of Surfing World’s 1970 “World Titles” issue. It has been slightly shortened and edited. * * * The fifth World Surfboard Riding Contest commenced unofficially on May 1, 1970, with a procession of all international team members, complete with national flags and banners, through the...
“MOROCCO: SURF MADNESS AND 1001 MOORISH DAYS AND NIGHTMARES,” BY BRUCE VALLUZZI
Bruce Valluzzi’s article on Morocco, with photos by Art Brewer, was the cover story for SURFER’s August 1982 issue. This version has been slightly shortened and edited. * * * A sarcastic wind ruffled the bay as traffic jostled aboard the boat in Algeciras. Our tickets said “Africa Flash.” How true. The passengers were a...
KILL BEAR, FUCK KAHUNA, MARRY CHANDLER: A BRIEF ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE HOLLYWOOD SURF GURU
The Hollywood surf movie starter pack begins with waves, obviously—preferably big waves. Add a young surfer on the cusp of a life-altering experience in those waves, a love interest, a bad guy (or at least a bad influence), and plenty of out-of-tune surf dialogue. Last but not least, you need the guru—someone to direct our...
GERRY LOPEZ ON FORGOTTEN SURF-ACE STANLEY “SAVAGE” PARK
With any luck, I’ll end up like one of those old hobbled blind dogs who can get around the house okay just from having trod the hallways and rooms a million times in the past. Except instead of going from the food bowl to the doggy bed, I’ll be slow-walking my way back and forth...
LONG READ: “LAIRD HAMILTON: LAST MAN STANDING,” BY DAN DUANE
Dan Duane’s profile on Laird Hamilton ran in the July 2004 issue of Men’s Journal magazine. * * * On that warm Tahitian morning four years ago—the morning that made surfing history—Laird Hamilton drifted alone, head bowed, preparing to do what he’d been doing since childhood: feed his demons with an act of suicidal physical...
CLASSIC: “BIG-WAVE DANGER: A HOAX!” BY PETER VAN DYKE
SURFER published this article in the January 1966 issue. Author Peter Van Dyke, younger brother of Fred, was best known for his theatrical drop-knee turns in small waves, but he had big-wave chops as well. That’s Peter in the spread photos, at Makaha, in the late ’50s. * * * I’m awfully tired of all...
“THE NEXT REALM” BY BRUCE JENKINS. GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES!
Bruce Jenkins’ “The Next Realm” was SURFER’s December 1993 cover story, and the first full-length look at tow surfing. * * * Bill Sickler had the binoculars out one day last winter, checking a huge north swell from a hillside spot above Sunset Beach. He was watching Laird Hamilton carve out a slice of the...
MISFIRE! WHY DIDN’T MOTORIZED BIG-WAVE SURFING HAPPEN 30 YEARS EARLIER?
Buzzy Kerbox, Laird Hamilton and Darrick Doerner threw their boards into Kerbox’ new Zodiac inflatable in 1992 and invented tow surfing as we know it today. But it could have happened earlier. Way earlier. That’s Martin Potter in 1987 whipping into a Third Reef Pipe swell with an assist by Herbie Fletcher. But the idea...
“IN TRIM: GARY PROPPER,” BY PAUL HOLMES
Paul Holmes’ profile on Gary Propper ran in the November 1999 issue of Longboard magazine. * * * Before he even hit his teens, little Gary Propper was already a streetwise hustler. Growing up in a troubled single-parent family situation, he gravitated to amateur boxing at the local Boys Club in Miami, just a jab...
“MANUAL OF SURFBOARD TECHNIQUE” by TOM BLAKE
Manual of Surfboard Technique, by Tom Blake, was a 22-page pamphlet made by the Robert Mitchell Company of Cincinnati, one of the makers of the Blake-design hollow surfboard. The text was originally a two-part article published in the January and February 1935 issues of Paradise of the Pacific magazine. Just a guess, but the Mitchell Company...
THAT EMPTY FEELING: AN ILLUSTRATED SERIES OF MOSTLY UNKIND THOUGHTS ON TOM BLAKE’S HOLLOW SURFBOARD
“And now, in 1935, it is with pleasure I see the surfriders at Waikiki building their own hollow surfboards after my new, perfected riding design. Everyone who tries them is enthusiastic. They paddle so much easier than the solid board, catch a wave so much easier, and the vibration, caused by the wave undulation, reaches...
DIY 1935: BUILD A PLANK SURFBOARD
“Better Ways to Build Surf Boards,” by Hi Sibley, ran in the August 1935 issue of Popular Science. Four boards types were described: a plank, a hollow, a “toboggan type” (think wooden sled), and a child’s paddleboard. The text below is taken from the plank section of the article. * * * At the California beaches, there...
DIY 1939: BUILD A HOLLOW SURFBOARD
“Improved Hollow Surfboard for All-Around Sport” ran in the June 1939 issue of Popular Science. The text below is slightly edited and shortened, and some of the fractions have been converted to decimals. * * * Native Hawaiians taught Tom Blake to ride the waves, but he wasn’t satisfied with their crude boards. After years of...
GARD CHAPIN, THE LIVING END: AN ORAL HISTORY
Back in 2014, I posted a short piece on how Miki Dora was influenced by his two fathers. “My own father taught me a gracious way of living,” Dora said, “while my stepfather showed me how to survive. One showed me how to atone for indiscretions and the other demonstrated how to commit them.” The...
NEW: RANDY RARICK REMEMBERS ’72 WORLD CHAMP JIMMY BLEARS
Sam George once wrote that Jimmy Blears is surfing’s “least-known world champion,” and while I’ll always wave the flag for disappeared two-time champ Sharron Weber, Sam ain’t wrong. Blears won his title in ’72, in San Diego, and all anybody remembers about that shitshow of a contest is that a board belonging to crowd favorite...
MOTEL HELL: SURFERS SACK LOCAL TRAVELODGE DURING THE ’72 CHAMPIONSHIPS
I sort of hate myself for the enjoyment I took in putting together this little showcase of bad behavior, all of which took place during the 1972 World Surfing Championships in San Diego, either at the Harbor Island Travelodge or nearby. Bunch of punk-ass surfers being dumb and destructive, is what it comes down to....
“A NINE-DAY ACID TRIP!” DREW KAMPION REPORTS FROM THE ’72 WORLD TITLES
This is a slightly edited and condensed version of “Winning and Losing in Fat City,” which ran in the February 1973 issue of Surfing magazine * * * Official headquarters for the 1972 World Surfing Championships was the Travelodge on Harbor Island, San Diego. The events there, and at the contest site, have been succinctly...
READ: DARRICK DOERNER PROFILE BY BRUCE JENKINS. “I NEVER FEEL CLOSER TO MYSELF THAN WHEN IT’S 30-FOOT”
“Waterman: Darrick Doerner Seeks Perfection in the Danger Zone,” by San Francisco sportswriter Bruce Jenkins, ran in the September 1990 issue of SURFER. * * * Pops Aikau passed away in late October 1989. He had withstood the pain of untold tragedy—the death of one son, then another, and the passing of his beloved wife....
LONG READ: “THE DIVIDED RULERS OF WAIMEA BAY”
This article on Mark Foo and Ken Bradshaw first ran in the May 1988 issue of Outside magazine. In the front of the mag, they did a little “behind the scenes” column, which I hadn’t looked at since the piece came out. Part of it reads: “Warshaw says the 20-foot monsters that Foo and Bradshaw...
READ: MARK FOO’S 1985 “OCCURRENCE AT WAIMEA BAY”
January 18, 1985, was a springboard for Mark Foo’s big-wave career. That afternoon he bailed his way through what might still be the biggest Waimea Bay closeout set to ever roll through an occupied lineup, and afterward he paddled into, and was annihilated by, another closeout wave. More importantly for his career, Mark wasted no...
CHRIS BROWN: 1970-2019
Chris Brown of Santa Barbara died yesterday, at age 48. Details of his death are still unknown. This afternoon I had this email exchange with Derek Rielly of BeachGrit. * * * BeachGrit: I got vague memories of a kid with stiff white hair slinging it to Kelly in the late eighties, early nineties. Warshaw:...
PHIL JARRATT ON BRUCE RAYMOND: “HE WOULD HAVE MADE A GOOD CON MAN, OR GIGOLO. HE’S CHOSEN SURFING.”
After his stint as a self-described “total drug fiend,” but before he became a surf industry titan, Bruce Raymond was one of those hard-charging Free Ride-era Aussies who were busy reinventing the surf world in their own charismatic image. Bruce spent two years in the Top 16, then made a hard pivot away from pro...
GREG NOLL’S 1969 MAKAHA WAVE HAS THRASHED US ALL
Greg Noll’s monster drop-to-annihilation wave at Makaha on December 4, 1969, was the defining wave of surfing’s defining big-wave swell. World champ Fred Hemmings watched from the beach and said it was the biggest wave ever ridden. Noll himself said it was five or ten feet over his previous best, and not long afterward he...
“STORM WAVE WIPES OUT CHAMP SURFER,” HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN, DECEMBER 5, 1969
By Tomi Knaefler Star-Bulletin Writer Greg Noll, one of the best of the big wave riders, yesterday came uncomfortably close to being a victim of Oahu’s surf storm. Noll and six other big-league surfers were drawn to the challenge of the massive 25-foot waves at Makaha. About 1:30 pm, Noll chose his challenge which another surfing...