Chapter: 3
Malibu Swing
- Freezing the Moment with Doc Ball
- A Touch of Glamour
- Bob Simmons, Gnarled Genius
- Darrylin, Oh Darrylin
- The Magic Wave
- Velzy's Pig
- Dewey Weber, Hotdog Jesus
- Tubesteak Abides
- A Rebel for All Seasons
- The Valley Cometh
- Hawaii Calls
- Rocket to Makaha
- Buzzy Trent, King of Beasts
- Surfing's Beat Generation
- France and Peru Join In
- A Restart for Australia
- Bud Browne Presents
- Point Surf '58
- The Viking King of Mead Hall
- An Exorcism at Waimea
- A Farewell to Clubs
Rocket to Makaha
George Downing (left) and Wally Froieseth, late '40s
George Downing, Makaha. Photo: Don James
William Bascom
George Downing, left, mid-'50s. Photo: Walter Hofman
George Downing was 14 when he reshaped an old redwood plank into a sleek hot curl he named “Pepe.” Whittling his new craft into existence, Downing collected the shavings in a pair of burlap potato sacks, which he occasionally slept on.
There were still a few challenging surf spots waiting to be discovered along the sparkling four-mile necklace of reefs between Diamond Head and Honolulu Harbor, and this allowed Waikiki to remain a force in contemporary surfing (unlike California’s San Onofre) during the 1950s. But the real Waikiki, the soft-lit beachfront of song and story—Queen’s Surf and Canoes and the rest of the interlocked b...
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