This article by Dick LaRue ran in the July 1972 issue of SURFER. One year earlier, the first Ranch parcels were put on the market. For over a century before that, the Hollister Ranch, with its eight-plus miles of beachfront housing some of the best surf in America, had been privately held and virtually inaccessible...

This full-page ad ran in the July 1973 issue of SURFER. Hollister Ranch parcels had first come on the market two years earlier, after 14,400 acres of virtually undeveloped Hollister property came under the ownership of the Mortage Guarantee Insurance Company, of Milwaukee, Wiscon. Similarly-worded ads, with a headline reading to “Own the Great California...

“In the Surf,” Sarah Park, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Oct 10, 1953 It’s a tossup as to whether surfers acquire un-dog-like dogs, or dogs become un-dog-like because they belong to surfers. Take Sandy, who belongs to Scooter Boy. Sandy is a surfing addict. His eyes turn glazy with happiness as he whistles through Queen’s Surf on Scooter...

“The Ranch,” by Drew Kampion, ran in the November 1968 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited.  *  *  * A lone surfer sits in a deep blue slick, watching the sun inch down toward golden hills. A light offshore drifts over the smooth water. Outside a shadow rises in the calm and...

“Mr. Clean: the Extraordinary Surfing Life of Randy Rarick,” by Bruce Jenkins, ran in the Fall 1998 issue of the Surfer’s Journal. This version has been slightly edited. *  *  *  There’s a classic beach-scene montage from Tracks, the 1970 World Surfing Championships film by Bob Evans. Michael Peterson, Terry Fitzgerald, Mike Purpus and Keith...

This single-paragraph editorial, by publisher Don Thomas, ran in the February 1972 issue of Surfing magazine. It was preceded, in the same column, by a short piece condemning the behavior of American surfers abroad. This version has been slightly edited.  *  *  *  Closer to home, conflicts are even worse. Every local area has a...

Mike Purpus’ short satire piece on localism ran in the February 1972 issue of Surfing magazine. *  *  * It was a crystal-clear morning in late January with a ten-foot swell pumping consistently from the far north. It was closed out in front of my house, so I had to travel. But where could I go?...

Mike Purpus’ localism-themed article on Seaside, Oregon, ran in the February 1972 issue of Surfing magazine. This version has been lightly edited.   *  *  *  Gary (Goober) Goodrum, Tim Lynch, Paul Mooney, Gary Keating, and myself had been planning a trip to France in September. However, bad reports kept coming in on the inconsistent...

John Grissim’s article on Bill Delaney’s Free Ride originally ran as a chapter in Grissim’s 1982 book Pure Stoke. This version has been shortened and slightly edited.  *  *  *  It’s a warm spring California night and the auditorium at San Rafael High is packed with five hundred very noisy, impatient movie-goers aged anywhere from...

Lael Morgan’s profile on the Calhoun women—mother Marge, and daughters Candy and Robin—ran in the May 5, 1969, issue of the Los Angeles Times. This version has been slightly edited *  *  * An interview with Marge Calhoun McClelland and her two daughters can be a pretty wet affair. They are surfing champs and they...

Patrick McNulty’s feature story on Marge Calhoun was published in papers across America in March and April 1959, usually under the headline “Champion Woman Surfboard Rider Says it’s a Great Weight Reducer.”  *  *  *  Marge Calhoun is a honey blonde with four loves: her husband, two daughters and a 10-foot surfboard. Here is Marge’s...

John Grissim’s profile on Australian national champion Kim McKenzie ran in the November 1974 issue of Tracks. This version has been slightly edited. *  *  * We were sitting at the table inside Kim McKenzie’s snug little caravan when a thunderstorm broke the warm night stillness. The sound of the nearby surf gave way to...

John Hughes, Executive Director of the Florida Surf Museum, which is housed in the Cocoa Beach Ron Jon Surf Shop, replied by email to the Ron DiMenna-themed Sunday Joint dated February 20, 2022. The text below has been slightly edited.   *  *  * Ron Dimenna is definitely one of surfing’s more interesting characters. I have...

Doug Maudlin’s feature on the California Coast Girls Surf Club ran in the May 19, 1963, issue of the Los Angeles Times.  *  *  * Although most boys are reluctant to admit it, some girls are good surfers. Proving this isn’t the main goal of the California Coast Girls Surf Club, but the girls are...

Kay Gilman’s profile of Kim McKenzie ran in the November 18, 1975, edition of the New York Daily News. This version has been slightly edited.  *  *  *  Kim McKenzie is the Australian women’s surfing champion. That’s what she does for fun. How she makes a living is something else. During working hours, the husky...

This profile on Johnny Fain, by New Yorker staff writer and novelist William Murray, ran in the 1966 Feb-March issue of Venture, a short-lived high-end travel magazine. This version has been slightly edited. Fain is described as being 21, but was either 22 or 23 at the time the article was published.  *  *  *...

Drew Kampion’s profile on Dick Brewer ran in the Spring 1999 issue of Surfer’s Journal. This version has been shortened and slightly edited.  *  *  *  Richard Brewer lives near Hanalei, about a mile up-country from the highway on a flat, relatively barren, five-acre prairie darkly backed by the twin towers of Kaua’i’s highest mountains,...

Phil Jarratt’s profile on Gary Elkerton ran in the December 1987 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited.  *  *  * Gary Elkerton is no wimp, that’s for sure. He’s number four in the world, among the best on the biggest days at Sunset and Waimea, and perhaps the most explosive surfer in...

Nick Carroll’s profile on Gary Elkerton ran in the June 1983 issue of Surfing magazine. This version has been slightly edited.  *  *  *  Gary “Kong” Elkerton is sitting on the newly erected, council-inspired sand dune that separates Narrabeen lagoon from the shimmering heat of North Narrabeen Beach itself. Today it is very hot indeed,...

This profile ran in the December 1985 issue of Tracks. The version here has been slightly edited.  *  *  *  Gary Elkerton has been a very visible figure in Australian surfing for a few years. When you think of the publicity he’s received over the last three years it’s surprising he’s only been a professional...

“The Incredible Ron Jon Story! Thrill, Chills, Millionaires! Successful Surf Shop! Buckets of Money! Respect! Fantastic Fabulous Hidaway in the Wilds! Fierce Dobermans, Curious Rheas, Pet Pigs and Peacocks! Mystery, Intrigue, Incredible Rumors, Bizarre Truths! A Guaranteed Dynamite Tale!” by John McAleenan, ran in the July 25, 1987, issue of the Orlando Sentinel’s Florida Magazine....

This article was originally posted on ESPN on September 13, 2011. The version below has been shortened and slightly edited. *  *  * The legend says he’s as camera-shy as Bigfoot, or Banksy. A rap sheet tells of a taste for fast living. The rumors? Oh, boy, where to begin? Let’s start with a story...

This article, by Robert Suhay, ran in the August 6, 1989, issue of the Asbury Park Press. This version has been slightly edited.   *  *  *  No sooner did Ron Jon’s Surf Shop open in Ship Bottom this summer than its logo of crimson bamboo lettering was seen on T-shirts up and down Long Beach...

This sidebar article by Bruce Jenkins was part of a larger feature, also by Jenkins, titled “The Show: Sunset Beach—Welcome to the Big Leagues, Kid,” which ran in the February 1992 issue of SURFER.   *  *  *  Determining the best surfer at Sunset—right now, as we speak—proved to be a maddening task. Mark Foo captured...

Michael Tomson’s feature-length article on Sunset Beach ran in the January 1985 issue of Surfing Magazine. This version has been slightly edited.  *  *  *  You see, the thing about Sunset is when you’re looking at it from the beach it often doesn’t look that gnarly. I mean, it looks big, for sure, and you...