This uncredited article, titled "Butch Van Artsdalen: Mr. Pipeline," ran in the August 1963 issue of Surf Guide. Van Artsdalen was 22 years old.


We moved to La Jolla from Norfolk, Virginia, in 1955, when I was 14. At that time I was really jazzed for baseball, and I hadn't ever seen a surfboard, ut a couple of years later, in 1957, I started going to the beach and I met Carl Ekstrom. I borrowed his board quite a bit, and learned to surf mostly at La Jolla Shores and Windansea. I kept borrowing boards for some time and finally Velzy gave me one of my own, made by Del Cannon. Later Del went to work for Hobie and I started riding Hobie boards—I have ever since. I begin using a 9'6", but now I ride a standard 10-foot board. It makes me feel pretty good to be getting my boards free . . . I guess that means a manufacturer thinks you're a pretty good surfer.


When I started, I really idolized Donald Takayama, and I still do, especially at places like Ala Moana and Velzyland. But now I also appreciate the style of surfers whom I didn't like so well before, like Mickey Dora. I like hotdogging, if you call fast turning and riding the nose hotdogging. Some of the best are Dewey Weber, Lance Carson, Johnny Fain, Mike Hynson, Skip Fry, and Del Cannon. Chuck Hasley is really good too, but he's not so well-known. In big waves there's no one who can compare with Pat Curren, but if I were to choose the surfer who is the all around best, I guess I'd have to name Phil Edwards. His style is different. He only rides the nose when it's completely necessary and he really has his turns wired. There are several up-and-coming girl surfers too—Linda Benson of Encinitas, for one, and Linda Merrill, who lives in Ocean Beach. The best I've ever seen is a 17-year-old girl from Hawaii I saw when I was in the Islands, I think her name is Joey Hamasaki. I watched her ride Ala Moana as well as any boy. She was fantastic at Makaha, too, but she caught the flu before the contest and couldn't enter. I didn't enter either. Only because I couldn't find anyone from whom to borrow the three-dollar entrance fee.


Most of my surfing has been on the California coast, and most of that at Windansea, but I really had a ball in the Islands, particularly at the Pipeline where I found the best waves I've ever ridden. When I went to the Islands, people built me up too much before I arrived. I was really scared there several times—once in particular. I arrived last October 13th and rode 12-foot waves the first day. Early the next morning, Diffenderfer loaned me a gun. . . I went out and rode for a while at Sunset, and it was pretty scary, particularly the takeoffs. Later, towards dark, Paul Gebaur lost his board, which was carried outside by the rip—or so he thought. Peter Cole and Ricky Grigg went out to help him look for it, but pretty soon the board was found on the beach. They were all still out there looking, so I went out to tell them the board had been found. As we paddled in, a huge set came all the way across the bay, and we had to paddle back outside like mad; the waves were huge and I was really panicked. It was completely dark and all we could see were the lights in the parking lot. Finally, after the sets calmed down we paddled back in. I've never been so frightened. I was glad to get back in, glad to be alive.



I love surfing, but it's getting a bad name. This is mainly due to the rowdy members of the gremlin group. Because they're young, they don't understand exactly what they're doing; they don't understand that when they're showing off and being destructive, they're destroying the sport. They're not building themselves up, they're tearing the sport down and it's hard for the older group to tell them different. Of course, today there's another additional problem—the growing number of people who pretend to be surfers, but really aren't. To them, surfing is just a fad and not a living sport, as it is to us. But these outsiders can be just as destructive to surfing as the gremmies. Real surfers are natural. This is basic to the sport—the spontaneity, cleanness, the water and nature. The surfer should be polite and help give it a good name. He shouldn't continually trying to impress people. To the surfer, all that is important is what happens between himself and the wave. The crowd on the beach doesn't even exist.


Aside from the young troublemakers, the rest of the sport is definitely moving forward. Sure, there are some phony businesses that make lousy boards, but most surfers can recognize quality when they see it, and high quality takes proper materials—which the back-alley shops don't have. Companies like Hobie, Jacobs, and Con, the honest ones, they're the kind that will last and contribute to progress within the sport. Recently we've seen how surfing is spreading around the world—to France, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and even England. The East Coast is getting the bug, and surf shops are opening up all over the place—soon the sport will be big there too.


I've surfed the Southern California coast pretty thoroughly, as well as Hawaii. Otherwise, aside from Baja, the only International safarai I've ever been on was down to Mexico where we found great four- and five-foot waves. I'd like to go to South America or some of the other places . . . if I had the money.


I entered my first contest in 1961, placing 2nd behind Rusty Miller. Since then I've entered and won five or six other contests and paddling races. But contests appear to be undergoing a change. Now there is beginning to be inter-school contests. Soon, I think there will be team contests. Sure, competition has its difficulties, but considering the increasing number of people who are interested in the sport, it will have to happen.


I love surfing, and it has affected my life pretty strongly. I had a good chance to play professional baseball, but surfing has pretty near monopolized my life. I was lucky to have found time to letter in football, baseball, and basketball for three years in high school. Except it kept me from my schoolwork and I was ineligible for football at one point. I graduated from La Jolla High in 1960 and I'm going back to school in the Fall. I don't want to be connected with surfing in a business way, like making boards. I'd like to be a plumber and spend my extra time surfing. It's free and clean. It helps me forget a lot of problems and keeps me in shape.

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