Milestones in Surf History Part Eleven (#63 - #69)

Milestones in Surf History Part Eleven (#63 - #69)

by Sam Bleakley

  

#63 : 1940s Pip Staffieri’s First Ride : Having been inspired by Jimmy Dix’s two cigar box style boards at the Newquay harbour in 1938, ice-cream seller Pip finished his hollow wooden board in 1940. He was 22. It was 13’ 6”, constructed from wood strips attached to oak frames by brass screws. The whole shell was sealed with varnish, with a nose plug to drain water. After a day’s work, Pip would experiment in Newquay Bay’s waves. Silhouetted against a setting sun, he had no language to describe what he was doing, no surfer-talk to capture his ‘trim’, or his evident ‘stoke’. On cold, windy evenings he would wear a sleeveless wooly pullover on top of his swimming costume to break the chill. Pip was ‘stoked’. His inner fires were certainly burning. He would need them to survive the winter Atlantic’s chill. A 1941 photo of Pip is the first image of a European stand-up surfer. “I don’t want you to think I was a great surfer,” said Pip at 86 years of age. “Nothing like all the acrobatic stuff young people do on waves today. Some waves I’d ride lying down or on my knees part of the way, in between standing, but every ride was always exciting.” As the WWII effort climaxed, Pip’s involvement with surfing waned, but in 1943, Australian Air Force officers on a reprieve from service stayed at the Great Western hotel and borrowed Pip’s board. Post-war, the British mainland surf story entered a lull. Pip did not have the time or money to keep surfing, until 1960. Now 42, Pip embarked on a world tour, which took him to Oahu, Hawaii. He hired a board at Waikiki. Europe’s ‘local’ first surfer had finally succeeded in living his dream - the one embodied in that inspirational photograph from Encyclopedia Britannica. Images courtesy of Roger Mansfield : The Surfing Tribe : A History of Surfing in Britain.

#64 : 1940 Gene ‘Tarzan’ Smith Paddles a 14 ft Board from Oahu to Kauai, Hawaii : Nicknamed ‘Tarzan’, after the character immortalized by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Gene Smith was one of the great ocean paddlers. The Surfer's Journal described him as "the greatest ocean paddler of the 20th century." An early California surfer, he was also a lifeguard, Waikiki haole beachboy, fighter, drinker, and - later a Honolulu cop. He's credited with helping rediscover the North Shore of O'ahu as prime surf territory and his inter-island paddles are the stuff of legend. In 1938 at age 24, during one of his many visits to Hawaii, Smith and fellow Californian Lorrin Harrison were among the first modern surfers to ride waves on the North Shore. Two years later, in October 1940, the recently formed Hawaii Surfing Association sponsored Gene's attempt to paddle a surfboard between Oahu and Kauai. He paddled his 14 ft, 90 pound hollow board the full distance of 100 miles, apparently hallucinating late in the 30 hour journey that he was floating down Hollywood Boulevard. Several years later Gene paddled from the Big Island to Maui. But Gene was recluse, and left surfing so strangely that mystery still surrounds him. One day in the late 1970s, he walked out into the California desert and was never seen again. Gene allegedly paddled to work off aggression. Perhaps he didn't paddle enough, as Tom Blake recalled that he personally knew six people who had their jaws broken by the handsome, well-muscled, frequently drunk, 6'4" Gene ‘Tarzan’ Smith.

 

#65 : 1930s/40s Mr Positivity Lorrin ‘Whitey’ Harrison : Surf historian Matt Warshaw explains that California surfer Whitey Harrison “was born in 1913 in Garden Grove, south of LA, and as a child travelled to and from the family summer house in Laguna Beach by horse and wagon. He began surfing in 1925 at age 12, and eight years later was among the first to ride San Onofre; in 1933 he won the Pacific Coast Surf Riding Championships. Harrison laboured as a surfboard builder, lifeguard, dry cleaner, and night watchman, but the majority of his work life - for roughly 30 years, beginning in 1946 - was spent as a lobster and abalone diver. In 1932, Harrison stowed away on a cruise ship bound for Waikiki, but was caught and sent back to the mainland without having set foot on Hawaiian soil. Less than 24 hours after his return to California he again stowed away, and was again caught, but this time allowed to remain in Hawaii; during a return visit in the late '30s, he was among the first to surf the North Shore of Oahu.” Following Hawaii trips, Whitey and Pete Peterson were instrumental in helping transplant elements of Polynesia culture onto the beaches of Southern California, particularly San Onofre. "The Hawaiian beach boys taught us to love their music and instruments as well as their waves," explained Whitey. Matt Warshaw continues, “Harrison steeped himself in Waikiki beach culture, and decades later, when presented to a nationwide TV audience in 1990 as a lively senior citizen surfer…he was usually outfitted with a brightly coloured aloha shirt, a coconut palm-frond hat, and a ukulele.” Whitey died in 1993. The Whitey Harrison Classic, a 20-mile outrigger canoe race from Dana Point to Laguna and back, was founded in 1971. "Lorrin was the stuff life was made of," Mickey Muñoz said. "Lorrin was always true to himself. He wore his coconut hat and would get up in the morning with a big smile on his face. He was always enthusiastic and positive. Lorrin was…one of my guiding lights. If I was ever feeling down about stuff, just being around him would be uplifting." "I've enjoyed every minute of my surfing life,” Whitey said shortly before his death. “Of course I hate all the changes. You even have to pay to get to the beach now, nothing's free anymore. But what can you do? Stop going?" This picture (courtesy of Jack Huff) is from 1941. Whitey is in the black shirt, and Pete Peterson in the foreground, strumming away.

#66 : 1940s Big Wave Pioneer Woody Brown : New York born Woody Brown worked for aviator Charles Lindbergh at age 15, just before Lindbergh made his historic transatlantic flight in 1927. Woody moved to Southern California in 1936 passionate about glider flying. He applied aeronautics design to surfboard construction and kick-started the Windansea scene, soon the beating heart of La Jolla surfing. Woody was a national hero in 1939 setting gliding world records for altitude and distance in Texas. But returning home his triumph was followed by tragedy when his wife died in childbirth in San Diego. Woody broke down, abandoned his son at the hospital, left all his possessions in La Jolla, and sailed to Hawaii. "I couldn't live without her," he later said. "Nothing had any meaning in life to me anymore. I abandoned everything, including myself." Woody settled on the beach at Waikiki where he immersed himself in the ocean lifestyle. He continued to apply his knowledge of aerodynamics to the hydrodynamics of surfboards and built the first modern catamaran. Brown married a local Hawaiian hula dancer. They lived atop the Waikiki Tavern, still a semi-paradise before more hotels arrived. A pacifist, vegetarian and atheist, Woody refused to fight in World War II, and following construction of the first two modern catamarans, he worked as a boatbuilder. Honolulu surfers Wally Froiseth, John Kelly, Rabbit Kekai and Fran Heath all used the new Hot Curl board design, which enabled them to ride bigger waves than ever before. Woody began surfing Makaha, as well as the North Shore, pioneering big-wave riding. A December 1953 photo (by Clarence Maki) of Woody catapulting across a solid wall at Makaha, with George Downing and Buzzy Trent, was purchased by Associated Press and published in newspapers across the US, triggering an influential migration of surfers from California to Hawaii to launch a new era of big wave daredevil treachery.

 

#67 : 1943 Dickie Cross Dies at Waimea : Honolulu born Dickie Cross, along with older brother 

Jack, was a fixture on the Waikiki surfing and paddleboard racing scene in the late 1930s and early '40s. While still in school, the two boys made a sailing canoe in their backyard, and sailed it, alone, from Waikiki to Molokai, a distance of 40 miles. On the afternoon of December 22, 1943, Woody Brown drove from Honolulu to the North Shore, with teenage Dickie, to Sunset Beach, where the waves looked to be 10 ft. Dickie was eager to learn how to ride bigger surf. Woody was known for his sleek Hot Curl boards, designed in part to take on heavier rides. They paddled out. The swell came up quickly, soon 25 ft. Nobody had seen them enter the water, the sun was setting, and they failed to make it in at Sunset. They had no choice but to paddle miles down the coast to Waimea Bay, where they might be able to get in through a deep-water channel. But Waimea was also washed out. Dickie suddenly bolted toward the shorebreak, lost his board, and disappeared under the next set of 40 ft waves. His body was never recovered. Woody timed his approach and made it, washed to shore unconscious, and dragged to safety by a group of soldiers who happened to be on the beach. Woody never again rode the North Shore, and for years the terrifying big-wave episode kept surfers away from Waimea. Californian big-wave rider Greg Noll described the "Waimea taboo" - a general fear that kept surfers from riding the break until 1957. This image of tombstoned boards caught inside at Waimea is from the early ‘60s taken by Val Valentine.

 

#68 : 1944 Surf Forecasting Saves Lives : Pioneering swell, surf height and wind forecasts were crucial variables during for the Allied Invasion of Normandy. On the 1st February 1944, the British Admiralty's Naval Meteorological Service activated a Swell Forecast Section (with groundbreaking new work led by John Crowell, Charles Bates and Harold Cauthery) in order to obtain accurate wave forecasts for D-Day, the Big Storm (19th-22nd June 1944), and over-the-beach supply operations following the destruction of the artificial harbour at the Omaha beachhead. Two years before Operations Overlord (Normandy landings) and Neptune, US President Roosevelt sent a message to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill explaining that “bad surf on the Atlantic beaches is a calculated risk.” Charles Bates (Lieutenant Colonel of the US Air Force) indicated that the operation “needed a four-day period of low seas” to be successful. The Royal Naval Meteorological Service took on the responsibility for generating sea, swell and surf forecasts for strategic decision making. Graphs for relating wave height and period to wind speed and associated fetch and duration, as well as an estimate of their decay rate were created. Wave forecasters received aerial photographs of surf zones at designated beaches. ‘Notes on the Sea, Swell, and Surf in the English Channel’ was the first confidential report issued by the surf forecast team. The day of the attack was going to depend on the surf report. Staff meteorologists included Donald Yates, James Stagg and John Fleming. On the 5th June, the forecast for the following 48 hours read 2-4 ft wind waves for the assault areas. “Okay. Let's go” said Dwight Eisenhower. The observed wave conditions at Operation Neptune's beaches on the 6th June were 2-6 ft waves with “choppiness (that) makes personnel transfer difficult.” Although the Swell Forecast Section's wave forecasting models were soon updated, these early models made enormous contributions to the science of surf forecasting.

 

#69 : 1939-1945 WWII Shapes Surfing : Of course World War II dominated events in nearly every corner of globe. For most, surfing was put on hold. “(It) cramped surfing's style for long, too long,” said Duke Kahanamoku. “Most all of the able-bodied young men who had been contributing to the fast development of the sport wound up in the military service or in defense plants. It was a time of vacuum for surfing.” But WWII was also responsible for the continued spread of surfing. Peru and South Africa soon joined hotspots California, Florida, Hawaii and the Gold Coast of Australia as key surf coastlines. Peru’s surf-conscious fishing cultures had practiced wave-riding on reed mats and canoes for thousands of years. But Peruvian surfing stepped up when Carlos Dogny returned from Hawaii. In 1942 he founded the swank Club Waikiki on the beach at Miraflores, close to Lima. South Africans had brought back surf ski designs from competing at the 1938 Empire Games at Sydney. The Surf Life Saving movement was already strong, and lifesaver Fred Crocker built the country's first surf-ski, with standup surfboard designs soon evolving from the young livesavers. Key California surfers during WWII included Malibu innovators Gard Chapin, Bob Simmons, Bud Morrisey, Dave Sykes, Buzzy Trent, Matt Kivlin and Joe Quigg. Chapin was turning and cutting in an era when most trimmed. Morrisey contributed down-the-line shapes and was walking the board at Malibu. Sykes placed 15 layers of hand rubbed lacquer over his boards creating a hard shelled outer surface many years before the use of fiberglass and resin. Dale Velzy from Manhattan Beach joined the Merchant Marines, and while stationed in Guam, built a board, which he also rode in Malaysia and Australia. "It took a lot of finesse to ride those old redwoods. They were like old Cadillacs on a freeway - a real smooth ride, and everyone got out of your way." Dave Rochlen was another game-changer. He served as a Marine in the South Pacific. "And when the war ended - Boom - we were back in the environment," Rochlen recalled. "It was devotion, like… 'I'm never gonna leave!' We gave ourselves over to it entirely. I think it was because we spent four or five years in the war and we had survived. And it had all been bad. Now there was no question about what had us by the throat. It was the ocean. Everything else was secondary." This image is of Joan Crawford with a Pacific Homes Systems plank in the mid 1940s.