I’d like to thank the Academy for…oops, wrong speech.
The first person to blame, er, thank is Steve Hawk, who handed this project off so he could free up personal time to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater with his kids.
Hawk handed me off to Michael Dregni at Voyageur Press, who could not have known what he was getting into. Surfing USA! was supposed to be a fifty-thousand-word book with a deadline of October 2004. Instead, it was a two-hundred-thousand-word manuscript that took many more months to write and edit back down to fifty thousand words—finishing, appropriately, on April Fool’s Day 2005.
Michael Dregni had all the qualities desirable in an editor: patience, communication, patience, style, and patience. He did a good job editing this book, considering he is from Minnesota—and because he was from Minnesota I could not hear his screams. Editing this book was like fighting a Malibu fire in 100-mph offshore winds. As soon as he had it batted down to a reasonable size, I would submit a forty-thousand-word chapter on surf music, and he had to suit up again.
My thanks as well to Margret Aldrich, copy editor extraordinaire, for keeping me honest.
Some of this chapter was taken from a history I wrote for the Surfing for Life website (www.surfingforlife.com/history.html); thanks are due to Matt Warshaw and David Brown.
Thanks to James D. Houston and Ben Finney for their surf scholarship in Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport. (In the 1970s, I ran for student body president of Del Mar Junior High in Santa Cruz against Houston’s daughter, Cori, and lost, which ended my political career; I want to thank Cori for that.)
The sidebar on Greg Noll is reprinted from my article in Hawaii Magazine. Thanks to Greg Noll, his wife Laura, and son Jed for letting me prowl in the woodshed—and for the fresh-caught and -cooked salmon. Thanks to Drew Kampion and Jorge Salas for their woodshed photos.
“The First Surfers in California” was first printed in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Thanks to Rich Novak of NHS/Santa Cruz Skateboards for permission to use his illustration.
Thanks to Bishop Museum archivists DeSoto Brown, Judith Kearney, Ron Schaeffer, Leah Pualaha’ole Caldeira, Janet (B. J.) Short, and Patrice (Patty) Belcher for letting me raid their archives.
Information for the Lurline sidebar came from the Matson Lines website (www.matson.com/corporate/about_us/history.html), Maritime Matters (www.maritimematters.com/matson.html), and Lynn Blocker Krantz’s To Honolulu in Five Days: Cruising Aboard Matson’s S.S. Lurline.
While working for Surfer magazine in the 1990s, I surfed Mala Wharf with Woody Brown. He was ninety-one at the time, and remains one of the most interesting chaps I have ever met.
For images, thanks go to David Brown (no relation) and Woody’s daughter, Mary Sue Gannon.
The aloha shirt sidebar borrowed from a number of sources, including Dale Hope and the websites for Kahala, www.coffeetimes.com, www.mauishirts.com, and other shirt manufacturers. Thanks to Brian Chidester for his input.
Chapter three was written about Malibu, in Malibu, either at the Cross Creek Starbucks or the bar of the Beach Café at Paradise Cove. The story was cobbled together from articles I wrote for the Surfer’s Path, Surfer’s Germany, Surfer, the Surfer’s Journal, and Malibu Monthly magazine.
The Tubesteak interview first appeared in the Surfer’s Journal, so thanks to Tube S. Steak, Pez, Scott the Hulet, and also to Tube’s wonderful wife, the concrete heiress and former Miss Phyllis French.
Thanks here and elsewhere to LeRoy Grannis for being on top of it for so many years.
Thanks to Sol and Jay at the Paradise Cove bar for not always charging me for raiding the salad bar to load up my baked potato.
The first draft of chapter four could have been a book on its own. Information came from the website dedicated to the music of the Frankie and Annette movies, www.beachpartymoviemusic.com. I also got input from Phil Dirt at www.reverbcentral.com and Beach Boys aficionado Andrew Doe at www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/. Jan & Dean’s website (www.jananddean-janberry.com/) and www.theventures.com were essential.
The final draft was thoroughly combed over by Brian Chidester, a true aficionado of surf music who can tell you who the third bongo player was on any song you choose.
Thanks to Patti McGee and Gordon McClelland for sharing memories.
Special thanks to Jim Fuller and Tony Andreason for talking about “Wipe Out!” and “Surfin’ Bird.”
Dick Dale and Dean Torrence were kind and willing proofreaders.
The main text was taken from an article I wrote called “The Price of Gas” that appeared in the Surfer’s Journal.
A lot of the information about the Beach Party movies came from the www.beachpartymoviemusic.com website. Thanks to Mikey Mars.
Terry Dufoe was nice enough to let us use his interview with William Asher.
John Philbin was ever so kind to take time out from his jet-setting to sit at the Malibu Starbucks and talk about North Shore and Point Break.
Much here comes from the horse’s mouth: Kelly Slater’s autobiography Pipe Dreams.
For information on the surf industry, thanks go to Danny Kwock, Bob McKnight, Gordon Merchant, Gary Dunne, Claw Warbrick, Paul Naude, Pat O’Neill, Dick Metz, Shaun Tomson, Steve Pezman, and Bob Hurley.
Information on Rick Griffin came from a Surfer’s Journal article that appears on Ira Opper’s www.surfhistory.com. Quotes from Ida Griffin, Jerry Garcia, and R. Crumb were used, with permission, from www.drowningcreek.com/06_manifesto/09_griffin/griffin_6.html. Bits and pieces were also gathered from an online piece by Tim Stephenson at www.myraltis.co.uk/rickgriffin/bio.htm.
Gordon McClelland is the author of a book on Rick Griffin, and was kind enough to edited this chapter. Thanks to Steve Pezman for his Tales from the Tube.
Thanks to Cindy Love for faxing me the tribute to John Severson I wrote for the Waterman’s Ball.
And special thanks to Ida Griffin for proofreading and granting us permission to reprint Rick’s work.
Background information came from the www.legendarysurfers.com website as well as Matt Warshaw’s The Encyclopedia of Surfing.
History on Marge Calhoun and Mary Ann Hawkins came from hangtags I wrote for Malibu Shirts. Thanks as well to Gary Lynch for info on Hawkins.
My sidebar on Hollywood’s treatment of women surfers also appeared in Foam magazine.
Thanks to Barry Haun and the Surfing Heritage Foundation for the Hawkins photos, and also Dr. Norman Ball for letting us use his dad’s photos.
Thanks to Laird Hamilton and Jane Kachmer for letting us run the story and photos of Laird. Background information came from Dan Duane’s article in the December 2004 Outside while quotes were taken with permission from Riding Giants, Stacy Peralta’s excellent documentary. Thanks to Stacy for sitting for our interview.
Thanks to Jack Johnson, Chris Malloy, Thomas Campbell, and all the talented artists who are keeping the culture alive.
Thanks to Barry Haun, Spencer Croul, Dick Metz, and Steve Pezman of the Surfing Heritage Foundation for keeping the past alive and preserved.
And once again, I can’t thank enough the Surfing Heritage Foundation, Matt Warshaw, Brian Chidester, Michael Dregni, the Noll family, Steve Hawk, and the staff of the Surfer’s Journal.
My appreciation to Malcolm Gault-Williams at www.legendarysurfers.com and Keith Eshelmann for sharing their research and collections.
Thanks as well to Jeff Divine, Ron Dahlquist, Jeff Hall at A-Frame Photo, Ben Seigfried, and LeRoy Grannis.
And thanks to the likes of Gregg Brilliant, Bill Kalmenson, Karen Gallagher, Jay Butki, and the charming and glamorous Kristie Griffith.
Speaking of Kristie, special thanks to Robin and Jim Griffith for letting me invade their home, watch their TV, do my laundry, and eat all their Wheat Thins, ice cream, Nick’s Burritos, and whatever else was around.
And, of course, my thanks to old King Neptune for providing the waves.