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Well-organized surfwear executive and surf magazine editor-photographer-publisher from Orange County, California; 

 magazine cofounder in 1964. Graham was born (1937) in Hollywood, California, and began surfing at age 18, while attending Chapman University on a basketball scholarship.

In 1960, following a two-year tour in the Marines, Graham was hired as a data processor for the Petersen Publishing magazine conglomerate; the following year Graham and surfboard manufacturing titan Hobie Alter wrote 

, an instructional handbook for beginners; in 1963, Graham served as coordinator on 

, the publishing group's debut surfing magazine. Later that year he became the "technical editor" of 

 magazine, and in 1964 he was promoted to editor.

Graham and California-based photographer Leroy Grannis founded 

 near the end of 1964 (the name was later shortened to 

), which soon established itself as the top rival to powerhouse SURFER. A photographer as well as a writer/editor/publisher, Graham had cover shots on four of six 

 issues in 1967. In October of that year, the short-haired, barrel-chested Graham traveled with the Windansea Surf Club to Australia, and was among the first Americans to see the new stubby vee-bottom boards that would mark the first phase of the shortboard revolution.

In 1966, Graham conceived and produced the International Surfing Hall of Fame Awards, in part as a countermove to the popular SURFER Magazine Poll Awards. The Hall of Fame Awards were held in 1966 at the Santa Monica Civic; the following year the event moved to the Hollywood Palladium.

In 1967, after his first visit to Australia, Graham left 

 and went back to Petersen's to convince them to try another surfing magazine. The second run of

—identified by its "Surfing Action Around the World" subhead— debuted in April 1968, with publisher/editor Graham breaking the shortboard news to the Americans. (SURFER wouldn't report on the shortboard until September.) Graham's magazine performed well throughout 1968. But SURFER reasserted itself the following year, and

 made a comeback in 1970 after briefly dropping off the scene in 1968; 

, a book of profiles on top wave-riders; then quit surf publishing altogether. From 1968 to 1975 he worked as vice president of marketing for Hang Ten beachwear, and from 1975 to 1985 he was co-owner of surf industry giant Lightning Bolt International.

Graham was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in 2006. 

, Graham's self-published book, came out in 2016.

Graham, Dick

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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