These quotes were taken from "Malibu: of Characters and Waves," which ran in the November 1964 issue of Surf Guide. 


I'd come up here with my folks when I was four or five years old; I’d just sit on the beach and watch. I told my dad that riding waves looked like fun, and my dad said, “Well, I’ll get some plywood and make you a board.” And he did. Back then it seemed like it was four and five feet all the time. The crowd on the beach was about the same, but there weren’t quite so many guys out. The first guy I ever saw who impressed me was Mickey Chapin (Dora). He had an old black and white board, it was really ugly, with pigment smeared all over it, it looked like a zebra. He had “Fiasco Kid” written across the nose.


This is a weird deal—Tom Morey is virtually unknown! I don’t think it matters one bit to him; he’s just that way. He was right up there with Phil [Edwards]. He’s still great, still smooth; he has little tricks going for him like Dora does. Beautiful cutbacks, the whole shot. Tom is always trying something new. He was the first guy I ever saw do a spinner on the nose, or ride with the tail-block forward. He’s twice as good as the guys who have been rated as top surfers. In fact, this is from Dewey’s mouth: “Morey was the first guy to do a standing island pullout in six-foot waves, have the whole tail spin out and come over the top.” 


I remember the first time I saw Phil. It was down south. We got there early one morning—it was at Church. The wind was blowing offshore and the surf about five-foot and really good, with only one guy out. And this guy—I wasn’t too hot for his style because he was too conservative. I was jazzed by radical styles then; guys like Dewey. But this guy would come across standing straight up on the tip on these five-foot walls, hands at his sides. It really impressed me. I asked Doyle who it was and he said, “Oh, some guy from down south by Oceanside—Phil Edwards, I think his name is." We paddled out and Phil would pick up these waves outside, do a big snap cutback and come powering through a mountain of soup, wave breaking on him—and he’d come right through. Amazing.


I like to come across a wave and not see anybody in front of me so I can go up and get in a cutback. If I can get a cutback in now and then I feel good. Or if I can get locked into a long section, that’s great. I ride Malibu just for the wave and I can make out with [tolerate] the crowds. Mickey is different. I honestly think he loves the crowd. It’s a challenge for him to get out there and see what he can do next: go-behinds, jump on some guy, stab them in the back—I think he actually digs it. Out of the whole crew, Kemp [Aaberg] is probably the most fed up with the crowd. He’s not out to kill. He’s out to get his exercise. And he gets bugged when he goes out to “our old spot” and there are all these kids. Kemp is an individualist, and he likes to see things the right way. If they’re not, he gets irritated.

Lance Carson (1964)

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