SURF
I spent my high school years at the beach.
Went to Newport Harbor High, sometimes.
On the off shore wind Santa Ana's days I would be walking to school and there was this one spot on the cliff overlooking the bay where I could feel the warm wind heading out towards the ocean.
Locally these were called "The Santa Ana Winds."
I knew the wind was going to hold up the fast breaking Newport waves for awesome rides.
And of course the day would be sunny and perfect in every way imaginable.
So I would turn around and go back home to hit the waves.
I was in the water every single day all year round no matter what.
Today my ear canals are some what closed up because of the exposure to so much water in my youth.
 |
| Alden Collins, Scott Clucas, and David Sloane |
I also had a back up system, there was this older hippy lady named Marcia Weed on my block who I would visit.
She would call me in sick on those days by impersonating my mother on the phone. "My son David won't be in today, he has a touch of the flu."
She was a blessing many a time.
Jack King,( the principle of Harbor High, who was nicknamed "Bring em back Jack" because he would go down to Blackies and catch those who played hooky like a truant officer), I beat you dude!
I was poor so I couldn't afford my own board at first.
Actually everyone around where I lived was poor.
Back in those days mostly poor people and college students lived at the beach.
Scott Clusas and Clint Reynold's families were well off.
Steve Parkford, the incredible water polo player at school, gave me his old Ramsey Jay long board.
It was red and came with the wagon wheel contraption to tow it behind my bike.
I was truly stoked!
I got up real early when it was still dark out and would tow my board from 45th street up to the river jettys in hope of catching a few waves before school.
There were no surfing wetsuits back then, no surf leashes and all of the other commercial things that have evolved since those early days of surfing.
With out the benefit of today's wetsuits I stayed out in the water during the winter months as long as I could until I no longer felt my feet because they were so numb from the icy water.
At the end of my surf session, if I caught a good wave I would be inspired and stay out even longer in the hopes that there would be a repeat wave...usually never happened.
I would shiver for an hour after getting out, all blue and red with teeth chattering and my body twitching trying to get warm.
But it was all worth it.
There were no plastic patio furniture back then in front of the rental beach cottages.
They had to remove the fire rings because of the surfers attempting to get warmed up with purloined patio furniture and such.
No police helicopter or police patrolling on quads to stop them.
The beach life guards were unconcerned with the surfers and their related activities it seemed.
We were mostly out on the beach alone in the mornings to do our mischief.
Surfing hadn't really quite caught on with the masses yet, so the waves were all ours to enjoy.
In fact you got stoked if someone else was out there with you and you didn't have to enjoy the waves alone.
Man how things have changed today.
I wasn't very good at surfing but I enjoyed it just the same.
I mastered skim boarding before anyone even knew about it.
There were these skimboarding guys down at Victoria Beach in Laguna that I had heard about.
So I went down there and they kicked me out and told me to never come back because at the time I wasn't a local boy.
I believe those dudes started the current skim boarding craze of today.
I personally started skim boarding myself in 1963 when I found a round wooden disk painted red floating in the ocean.
I was a part of surfing history with my friends.
All of us would go on Safari journeys together up and down the coast looking for waves.
There was no surfline or other sources of information, surfers had to physically search out waves.
Mike Grasso had this big US Mail truck that he converted for surfing safaris we could travel in.
It held all of us and our boards along with the food needed etc.
Scott Clucas, Steve Parkford, Lee Pope, Mike Grasso, David Hargrave, Steve Ward, Mike Rucker, Jim Trapp, Clint Reynolds and myself hung out at 45th street in front of Scott's house right on the beach at Sea Shore drive.
And of course there were the babes who hung around us.
I think my old friend Jim Trapp married one of them and had a few sons.
Jim told me that his dad was Tex Beneke, they did look alike and Tex lived in Costa Mesa where Jim was from.
Jim and I met each other when we both were 14 and became the best of friends.
At the time Scott's was the biggest house on the beach.
It was this big white house with Japanese roof lines.
Today that house is dwarfed by the mansionizeation of the beach front.
Because there was no groins yet, I would use Scott's house as a visual marker to know how far I was drifting in the ocean current.
I could start at Rivers and pass Scott's house at 45th street fast on those certain days when the current was eating away the sand towards the Newport pier.
There were a few times where the sand disappeared right up to the foundations of the houses on the beach.
It was the worst in the winter of 1967.
The Army Corps of Engineers would replenish the beach now and then until they put in the first experimental metal groins to try and stop the erosion of the beach.
Chief Reed of the life guards swore it wasn't actually sand that was brought in but mostly soil.
To prove his point he had planted a grass lawn in front of his house on the beach.
His lawn spoke reams to make his point.
I think that the waves changed after the groins went in.
It was a much better break before.
Although on certain swells the point could still break like Hawaiian waves.
It would really get some big sets rolling in at times.
Today if the point goes off, surfers fly in from all over the world to ride those epic waves.
And then there was the Wedge.
All of us got bruised and scratched up, but we were never fearful of the bowl.
We would body surf the wedge when no one else would on big swells.
Looking back now I realize how nutts we truly were...
Today the Wedge is incredibly popular and all kinds of activity can be observed there.
No one was out because the waves were so powerful and scary.
I was just standing there when a drunk Steve Parkford paddled out into them on the red Ramsey Jay.
I figured he was going to get killed. He paddled way out there until there was this red dot bobbing up and down.
As I watched he caught one of the massive walls and stood up at the top.
He runs to the nose and stands there in perfect nose riding pose as he slices the wall and actually makes it across without wiping out.
The beach went insane with cheers and hollering...we were all totally blown away.
Steve Parkford was the man of steel, he was epic, he was magnificent!
The most awesome ride I have ever seen in surfing.
And not one cam or picture of this historic ride.
But I remember it like it was yesterday.
Never have I seen such a thing since.
Never.
No comments:
Post a Comment