Corky Carroll won the 1969 Smirnoff Pro-Am, at Santa Cruz, 44 years ago today. The surf pumped for the finals; double-overhead-plus Second Reef Steamer Lane, with bigger waves slow-grinding all the way through Cowell's. Carroll (above) took home a $1,500 first-place check, which at the time was the biggest ever awarded in surfing.

The drama extended beyond the surf zone. Dan Levin covered the event for 

, and the article he turned in pings back and forth between being impressed by the waves and the performances, and amused by all the surf-flavored politics and misadventures. "The night before the competition began," Levin noted, "someone pushed the judges' stand over a cliff into the boiling surf, following them with a VW bus." At one point the contest director folded up the entire show and told everyone to meet in an hour at Moss Landing. Once there, the surfers marched over the sand dune just in time to watch it blow out, at which point they turned around and drove straight back to the Lane. In another incident, Corky Carroll got all the remaining competitors to refuse to paddle out because the tide was too high. "The first strike in surfing history," Levin wrote.

It went on and on. Five boards were stolen from the Hawaiian team. Local surfers refused to leave the water and dropped in on competitors. "Three or four times," Levin said, the judges "made mistakes adding up the scores, and with $1,500 on the line there was much screaming."

Levin said of Carroll: "He is the Puck of surfing, and ashore he dressed accordingly, in a red and blue wetsuit, a corduroy jacket and a black felt Indian hat." Corky did some PA announcing during the amateur heats and tried to get a group of locals to clear the water. "Hey, we'd really dig it if you left! Pleasure Point is better anyway! Eight feet, perfect shape, naked girls, dealers!"

Does anybody out there really think that surf contests were any less ridiculous back in the day?

Corky, anyway, flourished in the chaos. He always did. We had an email exchange earlier this week.

For Southern California guys, at least when I was a kid, Santa Cruz always seemed kinda of gnarly. Big waves, rocks, cliffs, locals. Was that your take as well?

Nah, I loved Santa Cruz. First time I went up there I was only about 13. My sister lived in Capitola. I liked the vibe of the place. I got along fine with the locals. When I got older and started surfing the spots north and south of town I liked it even more, except for the cold. Never liked the cold.

The Smirnoff contest up there sounded pretty epic. Your memories?

Yeah, it was a sort of wild affair. I remember I kind of led a walk out of sorts when they wanted to start the contest at high tide in cliff-slapping mush when we all knew that later on when the tide went out, it would be good. The whole thing worked out fine for me as I won, got a board with a check on it. Good money. I liked the board, too!

Hard to imagine now, but you guys were all surfing big Lane without leashes. Few boards get destroyed or what?

I remember sitting outside on that massive peak in the finals thinking that if I ate it I was in deep trouble because I would never see my board again. But "no biscuit if ya don't risk it," as they say. There was a sort deal where you were trying to be aggressive and go for it, yet at the same time maintain enough control to not lose your board. For all of us, I think. That was the third year of that event, the first two under the name "International Pro-Am Surfing Championship." I somehow won all three. And never once lost my board into the cliff, thankfully.

The surf looked really good. It got pretty big for the finals.

Yes, the surf was excellent and the final was pretty heavy. All three years they had good big surf for that event, but the '69 version had the biggest and best for the finals.

First place earned you $1,500 bucks. That was a lot at the time, right?

You know, in '69 that was a decent amount of money. Nothing compared to what those guys are pulling down today. But I was very happy to get it, trust me on that.

Then Smirnoff bailed on Santa Cruz and moved the contest to Hawaii the next year. I'm surprised they hung in there at all, as a pro contest sponsor

Honestly, I didn't see a real connection with surfing and vodka myself, but it was just good that somebody was putting up some prize money and it helped push pro surfing along at that time. I could have much more understood it if it had been a tequila company or a beer company, or even somebody like Coca-Cola. You don't see too many surfers coming in after a hard days surfing and downing a martini or two. Beer and tequila, more like it. In any case, that was an interesting part of pro surfing's early history and I am glad to have been part of it. I had to miss the next year because I stepped on a broken bottle the day before the event started, in Hawaii, and it was severe enough that I had to fly home that night. I don't think it was a vodka bottle though.

[Photos: Dan Merkel, Brad Barrett, LeRoy Grannis, Dick Graham]

SMIRNOFF PRO '69: MONEY, VIOLENCE, BIG WAVES

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