This interview ran in the June 1965 issue of Surfing Illustrated, and was recorded just a few weeks before Felipe Pomar, 22, won the 1965 World Surfing Championships, in Peru.

And of those five years, how many years in Peru?

Three in Peru, and almost two years here in the Islands.

The surfing you did in Peru, how much good do you think that did as compared to the two years you spent in the islands?

The problem in Peru was that surfing is not as developed as it is here. I came to a point of skill where I couldn’t improve much because I didn’t have anybody to watch. When I got over here it was different. I didn’t improve much until I got here and started seeing other real good surfers.

You’re attending school in Hawaii. What's the name of the college that you’re going to?

It’s the Church College of Hawaii [later renamed Brigham Young University], and it's located just a few miles away from Sunset Beach.

Give us a brief rundown on the way you’ve arranged your classes so that you’ll get the most from your surfing.

The schedule is set up so that myself and Bobby Cloutier, who also attends Church College, can surf every single day. One day we surf in the morning, and we have afternoon classes. The next day we have morning classes and in the afternoon, we surf.

Its become a kind of a joke around the North Shore that anytime there’s any surf you get out there and you just stay in all day. Do you feel that is one reason you are coming along in your surfing ability so rapidly?

Felipe, let me ask you about Kealoha Kaio. What do you think of his surfing?

Kealoha is one of the guys I surf with all of the time, and in my opinion he is great. His bottom turns, most of all, are what impress me. When I first got to Hawaii I had never made a bottom turn in my life. I tried to make bottom turns and now I am doing it a little better. I went surfing with Kealoha and Bobby Cloutier all the time and both of them have really influenced my surfing.



What other guys do you feel influenced your surfing since you have been here?

George Downing, who is a great rider on all surf, and Paul Strauch, whose style I think nobody can beat, he's too much. And then of course there's Peter Cole, Fred Van Dyke and Greg Noll who are always there when the surf is up, Those three are a lot of fun to ride with. You get a lot of experience just by talking to them about big surf.

I prefer big waves because. I don’t know, I just love big surf. When I got over here I had already ridden some big waves in Peru, although not quite as big as here. But I’m just stoked on big waves. It’s hard to explain. I think that you get so much more out of them—whatever pleasure or excitement you can get on a small wave is just multiplied, as far as I am concerned, on a big wave. Small surf I enjoy too, but most of all I see it as fun and, maybe, training for bigger surf. Whatever you learn to do on a small wave, you can then try to apply it on a big wave and therefore perform more on a big wave.

Why did you originally come from Peru over to Hawaii?

I started surfing when I was around 16 or 17, and I gave it a lot of time. When I went into college in Peru, I probably surfed a little too much and I never really got down to studying. About 18 months went by and I wasn’t doing too well in school. So finally my parents really got worried and we talked things over and they said, ‘‘Well, why don’t you go to San Francisco and you can study there? My sister was there at the time, so it made sense. They also told me that, when it was time for a vacation they would send money so I could go to the Islands and surf. Well, that sounded good, because I knew that if I stayed in Peru I was going to have to work, and that would mean less surfing and I didn’t want to do that. So I took off and went to San Francisco. But the water was so cold I almost died, and the waves really weren't as good as Peru. So after a while I wrote to my parents and said, ‘‘I can’t take this," and gave them all the reasons why I wanted to go to Hawaii and study there. I said "I hope you agree with me, please send your answer to Honolulu," and I gave an address. I actually left San Francisco before they agreed, but they agreed and everything was fine. So that was how I got to Hawaii. I was supposed to study and I figured that there was no place better than the Islands to do it, because you could surf.

What is Peru like from a surfing point of view?

Surfing in Peru is a sport for the richer people. In South America there is still a big difference in the social classes. There is very little in the way of a middle-class like there is in the States. So anyway, Carlos Dogny, a good friend of mine, was just coming back from a trip around the world. He stopped off at Hawaii and was very impressed by surfing and became a great enthusiast. As he was going back home . . .



This was in the 1940s, or earlier. Anyway, Carlos wanted to practice surfing back home, so as soon as he got back, this is very funny, he made trips all over South America looking for nice surf spots. He found a few, but, you know, they were far away from home and they weren’t really that good. And one day when he was back in his home in Lima he walked down about three blocks to the beach and he saw some beautiful surf right in front of his house. After looking all over South America, he had this place three blocks away from his home and he never knew it. So he got his friends who were also from this high social class, and he talked them into surfing and they got all stoked over it and they formed a little club called Club Waikiki. Today this is probably one, if not the most, beautiful surf clubs in the world. In those days, though, they were still using the big hollow boards which weighed around 100 pounds. These boards were used until 1954 when George Downing from Hawaii flew down to Peru. He was the first one to use a light, small board there. Then I guess it was ’57 or '58 when we got our first foam boards.

We have heard rumors that you have to be a millionaire to be a member of Club Waikiki. Is there any truth to that?

Well, I don’t know about a millionaire, but it is expensive to join, yes. That is one of the reasons why there were very few young kids surfing down there. It is very hard to talk your old man out of a thousand dollars. That’s what it costs to join the club. So most of the guys who were surfing were older. I was one of the first younger guys to take up surfing.

We understand that they have a guy that carries the members’ boards to the water and who waxes them up.

We have some beach boys who are paid by the club. The head beach boy, who has been with us for years, is called Chino. We simply say, "Chino, bring my board please," and he goes down, gets your board, waxes it for you and carries it into the water. It certainly is a lot of fun, they should do it here.

What other unusual comforts are there in belonging to this club?

The beach boys are about the only thing that would be basically different. The club is just like any other nice club in Hawaii. It’s a club where you can go to have dinner or parties, once in a while, but now there is this problem down there. A lot of guys are getting into power who are not really that interested in the sport and they are trying to turn it into more of a social club. I guess it’s something like what happened here in Hawaii to the Outrigger Canoe Club.

My father used to run a cotton farm, about 100 miles from Lima, which is where we live. But now he's retired and lives off some property which he owns.

Are you the only one in the family who surfs?

Yes, I have a small brother who is 11 years old, but I haven’t talked him into surfing yet.



A Greg Noll semi-gun with a slot in it. I find that it is noticeably faster and quite a bit more stable than most boards I’ve ridden.

You've spent time in California, you spent time in the Islands and, naturally, you’ve surfed in Peru. How does the surf compare in your estimation?

We have a couple of big breaks that we ride in Peru, Kon-Tiki is the main one. When I left Peru, I went to Santa Cruz and the cold water was a great bother to me . . .

Just a second, Felipe. What is the water temperature in Peru?

Usually it is under 70 degrees, but we get our biggest surf in the summer and as Peru is near to the equator the sun is hotter. Although the water is quite cool, it really feels good to jump on your board and take a dip. Not like here in the Islands when you can still be hot in the water. Now, getting back to the time I spent on the Mainland, before coming over to Hawaii, I took a trip from San Francisco to Mexico, where there is supposed to be some nice surf. I took about three weeks down driving down there in June, but not once between San Francisco and Mexico did I take the board out of the car! I saw every surfing spot on the Coast. Not once did I take the board off the car. Everybody thought that I was crazy! But I just don’t like two- and three-foot surf that much, especially when there are 300 guys in the water.

Other than the fact that it was crowded, did you see good waves?

I saw Malibu at about three feet with beautiful shape, but it was terribly crowded. I looked at Rincon but it’s a winter break and there was nothing there. I saw a couple of other beachbreaks, but wasn’t impressed at all. I have seen some beautiful California surf in the movies, and I would like to be there sometime when it’s breaking, but I would say that Peru has definitely better surf than the Mainland.

In Peru we have consistent six- to eight-foot surf and when I say consistent, I mean consistent. In the years I have been surfing there I have hardly ever seen it under four feet. Although I saw beautifully shaped waves in California, they were small and very inconsistent. It was sort of a let down after all the fantastic pictures and movies I have seen in. You know, I had expected it to be great every day in California and it is not like that. When I got to the Islands it was summer and I got one beautiful big day at Yokohama around ten feet. It was just me and one other guy out there on a hot-dog board. I had never ridden a gun, so a lot of guys were sort of giving me some dirty looks, you know, but I didn’t know what it was all about. But I made some nice waves that day. Then later I felt let down because the summer surf in Waikiki was very small. I was expecting a lot more from the Islands. Then when the winter came along, of course, things changed and I got all that I was asking for. As a matter of fact, it took me quite a while to adjust to the bigger waves. We probably do have some breaks like that in Peru, but we just have never ridden them. In fact, the wave possibilities in Peru are really fantastic. I remember seeing a lot of spots that we never rode because the other ones weren’t crowded or we didn’t have big wave boards.

Most of the guys in Peru, correct me if I am wrong, seem to be content, to sit in the social atmosphere and ride at Club Waikiki. They are not really interested in getting out and finding new spots.

There are just a few younger guys who were in the Islands a couple of years ago. They just began to get guns before I left and they are starting to ride a few bigger breaks. But there is certainly a lot more coast to explore in Peru.

I would like to continue surfing as long as I can. It all depends on what type of surf I find when I go down to Peru for the World Championships. I hope to find some fantastic surf and if I do, I’ll definitely go back as soon as I finish studying. By that time the Islands will probably be too crowded to surf anyway. Get the best of Hawaii and then go down there and get the best of Peru. Even if the surf is as good there as I hope it will be, I don’t know exactly what I’ll do. I guess it will depend on what kind of work I go into.

In other words, you feel so strongly about surfing that there’s a possibility, if you don’t find what you are looking for down there, you might come back and live in the Islands?

Yes, definitely. Although the surf in Hawaii is getting so crowded that I hate to imagine what it is going to be like in a few years. If it weren’t for this, staying in Hawaii would definitely be my intention.


[Photos: LeRoy Grannis, Jose de Lavelle, David Darling]

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