Harlow, Warren

Unheralded big-wave rider of the 1960s, originally from Manhattan Beach, California. "He doesn't care for beach discussions and all the trimmings," Petersen's Surfing magazine said of Harlow in 1965. "But ask any well-known surfer in Hawaii, and they'll tell you that Warren is one of the best."

Harlow began surfing in 1947 as a junior high school student on a 50-pound hollow board. He moved to Oahu in the late '50s, and rode big waves on the North Shore because "it was the only way to escape...