A-frame

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Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

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advertising and surfing

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air-drop

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alaia board

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Alexandre, João (Dapin)

Allen, Chuck

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Alvarez, Pepe

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Anderson, Simon

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angle

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Benson, Blanche

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Bermuda

Quirky pre–World War II surfer and boardmaker from Laguna Beach, California; a model for the irrepressible and irresponsible Southern California surfer. "He was the buffed, blond, attractive, intelligent California-surfer prototype," surf historian Craig Lockwood wrote. "A skilled shaper and designer, a free and adventurous spirit, a kind of surf-shaman, with an enduring nickname 'Peanuts.'"

Larson was born (1916) and raised in Laguna, and began surfing in the late '20s. During the depression he made surfboards, usually out of redwood and balsa, using a draw-knife, for most of the two or three dozen Laguna surfers.

In 1939, Larson rode a wave at a spot called Church, just south of Trestles, that became legendary among Southern California surfers of the period. "The whole thing walled up and crashed on him," eyewitness Hevs McClelland recalled in 1953. "Nobody'd ever seen anybody ride a wave that big." Larson, a first-rate raconteur, later told a female friend, "My god, honey baby, that thing was 40-feet high! I was smokin' through the tunnel with my candle lit!" A photo of Larson on a smaller but still impressive wave at Dana Point, taken around the same time by Doc Ball, became an iconic image of early California surfing.

Larson sometimes worked as a Laguna Beach lifeguard, but was essentially unemployed throughout his life. He died in 1986 at age 70, still living at his mother's trailer house in Laguna Beach.

Larson is featured in two surfing photo books: Ball's seminal 

Larson, George "Peanuts"

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features