The first chapter of LEGENDARY SURFERS Volume 3: The 1930s:
The human act
of riding ocean waves on flotation devices has been going on for thousands of
years. We, in fact, do not know how many thousands of years. It has been
reasonably estimated that the act involving wooden boards could date as far
back as 2000 B.C. (4000 B.P.), before the beginning of the Polynesian migration
across the Pacific Ocean .[1] If we count canoe surfing, the act
must be far older than that and if we include bodysurfing, then we must
consider the span of time in terms of tens of thousands of years.
Surfing on
boards – he’e nalu – rose to a high level of development in the Hawaiian
Islands sometime after Polynesians first settled the Hawaiian chain beginning
around 300 A.D. (2300 B.P.). “Wave sliding” using boards – along with canoe and
body surfing – not only became important parts of the lifestyle of all
Hawaiians prior to European contact in the later 1700s, but was also integrally
connected with Hawaiian culture.[2]
In stark contrast to this “golden age,” surfing fell to an almost ignominious
near-death during the 1800s – mostly due to European and American cultural,
political and religious influences.[3]
During “The
Revival” period of surfing at the very beginning of the Twentieth Century,
surfing’s decline was arrested and set back on a course of natural evolution. Since
that time, surfing has grown vastly in popularity and now is practiced in most
every corner of the world. Key figures in this resurgent interest in surfing
include: George Freeth, Alexander Hume Ford, Jack London, Duke Paoa Kahanamoku,
Dad Center ,
Dudie Miller, “John D” Kaupiko and numerous beach boys and surfing wahines
at Waikiki , on O’ahu, in the first two decades
of the 1900s.[4]
A little
surprisingly to those of us looking back at it now, surfing’s growth was not
explosive following its resurgence, but rather a slow and gradual progression. For
this reason, the surfing years between 1912 and 1928 are not well known and,
predictably not well documented.[5]
We, of course,
know the historical context. The 1910s were dominated by events that would lead
to the First World War. The war, itself, was vastly different than any other
war that had preceded it. “The total number of casualties, including killed,
wounded, and missing, is figured at 37.5 million… An outbreak of influenza in
the autumn of 1918 compounded the death toll as it swept through populations
already weakened by the nutritional privations of total war.”
In Europe and other nations that had been caught up in the
global struggle, “Wartime disruption helped cause a sharp recession in 1920-21…
For most nations, prosperity returned only in the mid-1920s.”
“The
catastrophic toll of the war also resulted in a new, looser code of morality,
especially in a growing urban environment. A new generation, decimated by war,
felt betrayed by their elders and rejected the more austere standards of
conduct they had been taught as children.” [6]
To truly
appreciate the great surfing decade that the 1930s was, it is important to
understand this time leading into it, in the Earth zones where surfers were
riding waves in the Hawaiian style: Australia, Southern California and – of
course – Waikiki.[7]
Australia , 1910-1930
It is still a
common misconception that surfing in Australia began in 1914-15, with the visit
of Duke Kahanamoku to New South Wales and the surfing demonstrations he gave at
that time. In fact, Australia ’s surfing roots
go much further back – as far as the late 1800s, before legal rights to swim in
the open sea had even been won.[8] This was because “In Australia,”
emphasized the Australian authors of Surfing Subcultures, “the origins
of surfing were based on body surfing rather than on traditional board
riding... the early Australian settlers – mainly of English origin – found no
native surfing tradition to encourage or restrict either body or craft-based
surfing, as was the case in Hawaii .”[9]
Australian
surfing’s Polynesian connection came in the form of Alick Wickham and Tommy
Tana. In the 1890s, Alick Wickham, a native of the Solomon
Islands , became an important influence on Australian swimming when
he demonstrated a “crawl” stroke that was later exported to the rest of the
world as the “Australian crawl.”[10]
Around the
same time another South Sea Islander, Tommy Tana – a youth employed as a
houseboy in the Manly district – was body surfing at the beach there. Tana
hailed from the Pacific island of Tana , in the New Hebrides, which is now called by its
traditional name of Vanuatu . He amazed
onlookers at Manly Beach and inspired others to dive in. His
style was studied and copied by Manly swimmers like Eric Moore, Arthur Lowe and
Freddie Williams. Williams soon became the first local considered to fully
master bodysurfing. Later on, Freddie Williams became a public figure when he
made the first publicized rescue of another swimmer at Manly Beach .[11]
After the
turn of the century, Alick Wickham shaped the first surfboard in Australia . Hand carved from a large piece of driftwood
found on Curl Curl beach, this board was so bad it actually sank.[12]
Wickham’s knowledge of stand-up surfing using a board was obviously limited and
is a testimony of how far surfing had fallen in such Polynesian locales as the Solomon Islands by the late 1800s.
When more
novice swimmers and non-swimmers started ocean bathing off unsupervised
beaches, accidents became numerous and soon raised hell with the public.[13]
At Manly Beach alone, there were 16 drownings in the
space of 10 years. Local government authorities and regulars at the beaches eventually
figured out that the general public would need to be either regulated or
monitored. This realization became the driving force for the formation of the
Australian Surf Life Saving movement.
By 1909, the
newly formed Australian Surf Life Saving Association published that there were
eleven clubs active in New South Wales .
According to the report, no lives had been lost in the previous twelve months
while beach patrols had been operating. Thereafter, similar reports were made
with similar statistics even though “surf bathing” and surfing grew at a
dramatic rate across the beaches of Australia .
By 1964, there would be 112 clubs operating in New South
Wales alone.[14]
The first
Surf Carnival was held on January 25th 1908 at Manly Beach .
Six clubs competed and the first surfboat race, with various craft, was won by
Little Coogee (now Clovelly), using their whale boat. Surf Carnivals quickly
become a popular method of revenue for the Live Saving Clubs. The revenue from
gate receipts were used to purchase gear and improve facilities.[15]
Tamarama Carnival, alone, attracted fifteen thousand spectators in February
1908.[16]
That same
year, Alexander Hume Ford – the man who more than anyone helped publicize
surfing at Waikiki during the first two
decades of the Twentieth Century – visited Manly. He wrote, curiously, that “I
wanted to try riding the waves on a surf-board, but it is forbidden.”[17]
Many writers
– including myself, once upon a time – have written that before Duke Kahanamoku
came to Australia and became the first one to
really popularize the sport, there were no surfers riding surfboards. The
historical record proves that this is not correct.
While
assisting with the 1908 trade agreements between Hawai’i ,
Australia and New Zealand ,
Alexander Hume Ford introduced surfing to Australian Percy Hunter, the head of
the New South Wales Immigration and Tourism Bureau. Two years later, when Ford
visited Australia again in 1910, he noted that
there were already several surfboards stashed at Manly Beach .[18]
This was a full four and a half years before Duke Kahanamoku visited Australia for the first time and got credited for stoking
Australians on stand-up surfing.
During this
time, amongst some surf lifesavers, there was an understanding of what
surfboards were. It was noted that “Fred Notting painted a brace of slabs and
named them Honolulu Queen and Fiji Flyer; gay they were to look at but they
were not surfboards.”[19]
In 1912,
well-known Australian swimmer, local businessman and politician[20]
Charles D. Paterson, of Manly Beach , Sydney , brought a
solid, heavy redwood board back with him from Hawai’i .
He and some local bodysurfers tried to ride it, but with little success. “When
he and his mates couldn’t figure out how to ride it,” Duke biographer Sandra
Hall wrote, “his wife used it as an ironing board.”[21]
Yet,
Patterson and his mates were not the only ones who had attempted surfboard
riding or were surfing prior to Duke’s visit. Early in 1912, the Daily
Telegraph reported on the second Freshwater Life Saving Carnival held on
January 26th. In the account of the day’s events, there is mention of surfboard
riding: “A clever exhibition of surf board shooting was given by Mr. Walker, of
the Manly Seagulls Surf Club. With his Hawaiian surf board he drew much
applause for his clever feats, coming in on the breaker standing balanced on
his feet or his head.”[22]
Whether the board Walker rode on was a
knock-off of Patterson’s, Patterson’s, or an entirely separate board is
unknown.
We do know
for sure that following the arrival of C.D. Paterson’s board at Manly in 1912,
a small group – the Walker Brothers, Steve McKelvey, Jack Reynolds, Fred
Notting, Basil Kirke, Jack Reynolds, Norman Roberts, Geoff Wyld,
Tom Walker, Claude West (then aged 13) and Miss Esma Amor – all attempted surf
riding on replica boards. Some of these tried surfing before and some after
Duke’s visit. Made from Californian redwood by Les Hinds, a local builder from North Steyne , they were 8 ft long, 20” wide, 11/2” thick
and weighed 35 pounds. Riding the boards was limited to launching onto broken
waves from a standing position and riding white water straight in, either prone
or kneeling. Standing rides on the board for up to 50 yards/meters were
considered outstanding.[23]
In Queensland , by 1913-14, prone boards four to five feet
long, one inch thick, and about a foot wide were in use on Coolangatta Beaches.[24]
These were made from slabs of cedar or pine and probably used as bodyboards. Charlie Faukner read of Duke Kahanamoku’s
surf riding and used a board as an aqua planner on the Tweed River ,
to ride at Greenmount in 1914.[25]
Sometime slightly before 1914, at Deewhy, “Long Harry” Taylor “made a board
resembling an old-fashioned church door, but his efforts in the surf were so
futile they became ridiculous.”[26]
So, yes,
surfing on wooden boards – or their facsimile – had already begun by the time
Duke Kahanamoku first visited Australia in
1914-15. Even so, it is undeniable that it was Duke’s shaping his own board and
then riding it at Freshwater that really got surfing going in Australia .
His riding was widely publicized and resulted in huge enthusiasm for stand-up
surfing in New South Wales . Unfortunately,
this stoke was rapidly dampened by the onset of World War I, when many young
Australians lost their lives on the battlefields of Europe, including Manly
captain and Olympic swimming champion, Cecil Healy. Surfing, like most other
Australian recreational activities, was largely put on hold until after 1918.[27]
Duke Kahanamoku’s
tandem partner while in Australia , Isabel
Letham, continued board riding at Freshwater up to 1918 when she moved to the USA to work as a professional swimming instructor.[28]
Other prominent boardriders in the Manly area, post-Duke, were Steve Dowling, “Busty”
Walker, Geoff Wyld, Ossie Downing, Reg Vaughn (Manly), Tom Walker (Seagulls),
Barton Ronald, Billy Hill and Lyal Pidcock.[29]
Circa 1915,
seventeen year old Grace Wootton (nee Smith) was encouraged to try prone
boarding – body boarding – at Point
Lonsdale , Victoria . Using
a board brought to Australia by “a Mr. Jackson
and a Mr. Goldie from Hawaii ,” and after some
basic instruction, Grace Wootton became a proficient and stoked surfer. A local
carpenter was commissioned to make a board for her, for the following season. This
board was solid timber, approximately 6 feet x 16 inches and a little over
1-inch thick. The cost of 12 shillings included her initials (GW) carved at one
end. Photographs of Grace Wootton taken in 1916 show her surfing and her
personally modified woolen swimsuit, purchased from Ball and Welch
(Outfitters), Melbourne.[30]
Following
Duke’s surfing demonstrations in Australia and
New Zealand , many boards were made in Oceana based
on his handcrafted design.[31]
Circa 1915,
Collaroy Surf Life Saving Club member, Alf “Weary” Lee saw Duke Kahanamoku’s
Dee Why demonstration and built his own board according to Duke’s design. Since
the board was stored in the club house, it was available for younger club
members to have a go of it.[32]
Duke’s most
stoked pupil, Claude West, was initially at the Freshwater Club but later moved
to Manly. He became Australia ’s top boardrider
for the next 10 years. Starting out riding Duke’s original pine board, West
really got into stand-up surfing and encouraged others, including “Snowy”
McAllister of Manly and Adrian Curlewis of Palm Beach .
He went on to become a professional lifesaver at Manly Beach
for many years.[33]
In Queensland , two copies of Duke Kahanamoku’s pine board
were made for the Greenmount Surf Lifesaving Club. The arrival of the two
boards prompted further replicas made and surfed by Sid “Splinter” Chapman,
Andy Gibson and a surfer known only as Winders. Prices varied from two
shillings and sixpence to seven shillings and sixpence.[34]
In 1919 Louis
Whyte, a Geelong businessman, and Ian
McGillivray visited Hawai’i and purchased
solid redwood boards from Duke Kahanamoku. The boards were subsequently ridden
at Lorne Point , Victoria .[35]
John Ralston,
a Sydney solicitor and land developer,
introduced surfboards at Palm Beach , Sydney in 1919.[36]
With such encouragement, Palm Beach became a
popular board riding beach, producing several champions and a strong
pro-surfboard lobby within the ASLA.[37]
Some of the
Surf Life Saving clubs became centers of board riding, clubhouses becoming
storage facilities for boards, in addition to being places where club members
could gather and hang out.
With the end
of World War I in 1918, military technological developments like industrial
glues and varnishes were applied to marine craft, including surfboard
construction.[38]
In the early
years of its establishment, board riding was given little support by the Surf
Life Surfing Association. Competitions as part of carnivals were judged
subjectively. For example, a headstand scored maximum points although it had
little to do with how well one rode the wave. With a growing emphasis on rescue
techniques, it was paddling skill that became the focus when it came to
surfboard use. Record keeping for surfing events was an after thought. Often,
board events were either not held or not recorded, and since the ASLA was in
its infancy and basically a New South Wales
organization, results were open to dispute.
Amazingly, it
was not until 1946 that the first officially-recognized Australian Longboard
Championship took place.[39]
However, the first credited Australian surfing magazine was published in 1917. This
was Manly Surf Club’s The Surf, which first published on December 1,
1917. It ran for twenty editions, until April 27, 1918.
In February
1920, Claude West used his board to rescue a swimmer at Manly. The rescuee was
the Australian Goveror-General, Sir Ronald Mungo Fergerson, who presented his
rescuer with his silver dress watch, in appreciation.[40]
A newspaper
report of the “Australian Championships” at Manly, March 1920, records the
results of a surfboard race:
1. A.
McKenzie (North Bondi )
2. Oswald
Downing (Manly)
3. A. Moxan (North Bondi )[41]
A similar
newspaper report of the Bondi Championships, April 1921, records the results of
a surfboard race as:
1. A. McKenzie
(North Bondi )
2. A. Moxan
Other
starters were Oswald Downing and Claude
West (Manly).[42]
By 1921, the
Surf Life Saving Association printed their first handbook. It probably formed
the basis for subsequent publications later entitled the “Handbook of the Surf
Life Saving Association of Australia.”
At the
Australian Championships at Manly in 1922, the board event results were:
1. Claude
West (Manly)
2. A.
McKenzie (North Bondi )
3. Oswald
Downing (Manly)
West, who had
apparently dominated the demonstrations, was soon to retire.
Oswald
Downing was an early board builder and a trainee architect who had drawn up his
own surfboard construction plans. These are possibly the plans printed in the
1923 edition of The Australian Surf Life Saving Handbook.[43]
In
celebration of Collaroy SLSC’s victory in the Alarm Reel Race at the Australian
Championships at Manly in 1922, swimmer Ron Harris’ family commissioned Buster
Quinn (a cabinet maker with Anthony Hordens) to make a surfboard. Quinn made
the board from a single piece of Californian Redwood at the Dingbats’ Camp. Before
it was completed, however, Harris’ father died and the family left Collaroy. Chic
Proctor acquired the board in Harris’ absence and it remains in the clubhouse
to this day as the Club’s Life Members Honour Board.[44]
With growing
numbers of surf board riders, the Manly Council considered banning surfboards
altogether, in 1923, in the interest of the public safety of bodysurfers. This
idea was forgotten when one day at the beach, three city councilors witnessed a
rescue of three swimmers in high surf by Claude West using his surfboard. Reversing
their position, the Council commended the use of surfboards as rescue craft.[45]
At the 1924
the Australian Championships at Manly, the surfboard display was won by Charles
Justin “Snow” McAlister of the Manly Surf Club. As a kid, he had watched Duke
ride in 1915. Thereafter, Snowy soon began surfing on his mother’s pine ironing
board. “I used to wag school and rush down to the beach with it,” he recalled. “I
got away with it a number of times, but she eventually found out because I
would come home sunburnt.”[46]
The pine ironing board was followed by a self-made plywood board and his first
full size board, a gift from Oswald Downing.[47]
Later, Snow
made his own solid redwood board. “I used to go into the timber yards in the
city and buy a ten by three foot piece of wood about two feet thick (sic, inches?), which I had
delivered to the cargo wharf beside the Manly ferry.
“I’d lug it
home, then carve it, varnish it overnight and try it out the next morning.
“We were
getting murdered in those days.
“The boards
had no fins.
“We’d go
straight down the face of the wave instead of riding the corners as the Duke
had done. When we saw him do that we thought he was just riding crooked.”[48]
Starting out
on an impressive competitive record, Snow McAlister won board displays in
Sydney in 1923-24 (Manly), 1924-25 (Manly), 1925-26 (North Bondi) and 1926-27
(Manly, second Les Ellinson).
His record at
Newcastle was even more outstanding, with wins
in 1923-24, 1925-26, 1927-28, 1930-31, 1931-32, 1934-35 and 1935-36. All these
victories were on solid boards. He competed to 1938 and then made a comeback at
the 1956 Olympic Carnival, Torquay.[49]
Snowy was the nation’s unofficial national surfboard champion from 1924 to
1928. He visited South Africa and England on the way to the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928,
accompanying another Manly Surf Club member Andrew “Boy” Carlton .[50]
Following the introduction of the Blake Hollow board to Australia
in 1934, Snowy turned to the surfski as his preferred wave riding craft.
Another noted
surfer of this formative period in Australian surfing was Adrian Curlewis. Around
1923, Curlewis bought a used 70 pound board from Claude West, so he could surf
regularly at Palm Beach . This board was
replaced by one of similar design in 1926, a board built by Les V. Hind of North Steyne for five pounds and fifteen shillings,
including delivery.[51]
Curlewis became a noted surf performer, becoming somewhat of a star thanks a
photograph printed in an Australian magazine in 1936.[52]
Sir Adrian
Curlewis was born in 1901. He graduated from Sydney University
and was called to the Bar in 1927. He served in Malaya
in World War II and was a prisoner of war from 1942
to 1945. He held the Presidency of the Surf Life Saving Association of
Australia from 1933 to 1974, his position as sole Life Governor of that
Association from 1974, and his Presidency of the International Council of Surf
Life Saving from 1956 to 1973. Curlewis served as a New South Wales District
Court Judge from 1948 to 1971, retiring at the age of 70.[53]
Perhaps because of his early board riding experiences and long association with
surf lifesaving organizations, he was a noted 1960s opponent of the growth of
an independent surf culture centered on wave riding.[54]
At
Coolangatta, boardriding continued to expand during the 1920s. Basic
competitions (using a standing take-off) were organized and riders included
Clarrie Englert, Bill Davies, “Bluey” Gray and later, Jack Ajax .
Bluey Gray, in fact, wrote to Hawaiian and Californian surfers in an attempt to
learn more about current developments in the sport. Problems in sourcing
suitable redwood saw “Splinter” Chapman, one of the coast’s top riders, use
local Bolly gum to build boards.
North of
Coolangatta, the first full-sized board was probably owned by John Russell of
the Main Beach Club, circa 1925.[55]
Circa 1925,
The North
Steyne Surf Life Saving Club promoted their 4th annual carnival, scheduled for
December 19, 1925 at 2:45 p.m., with a flyer printed by the Manly Daily Press.
The noted “Surf and Beach Attractions” included: “1200 Competitors, 18 Leading
Surf Life Saving Clubs Participating - Surf Boat Races, Thrills and Spills,
Board Exhibitions, All State Surf Swimming Champions Competing.”[57]
The
Australian Surf Life Saving Association promoted their annual surf
championships, scheduled for February 27, 1926 at 2.30 p.m., with a flyer printed
by the Mortons Ltd. Sydney. It emphasized: “Surf Boats, Surf Shooting and Surf
Board Displays by Real Champions.”
In the late
1920s, Collaroy SLSC member Bert Chequer manufactured surfboards commercially
and 15 shillings cheaper than North Steyne
builder Les Hind. In the early 1920s, Chequer had been captivated by the likes
of board riders such as Weary Lee, Chic Proctor and Ron Harris and made his
first surfboard at 17 using a design similar to Buster Quinn’s. As the years
progressed, Chequer refined Quinn’s design, producing a board which was held in
high regard by many other board riders in the Club. Dick Swift requested he
build him a board (the board is still in the Club house) and with delivery of
the board a flood of similar requests came his way. So, with this development
and little work in his father’s building business to keep him busy, Chequer
decided to try his hand at commercial surfboard building – one of the earliest
such enterprises in the country. The cost of a Chequer board was £5 which
included delivery.
Chequer
bought his timber from Hudson ’s timber
merchants where it was kiln dried before delivery. While he preferred cedar,
its expense meant that he was forced to use Californian Redwood. The board was
crafted from a single piece of wood, meaning that Chequer’s small workshop was
usually a sea of wood shavings. A board took just two days to build and was
totally shaped by hand. Once shaped, the board was coated with Linseed oil,
before two coats of Velspar yacht varnish was applied. In his initial
experimentation with the varnish on his own board, the yellow finish it gave
off prompted the board to be known as the “Yellow Peril.” Boards were usually
intricately marked either with a name, the initials of the owner, or with the
Club emblem.[58]
Chequer was
soon supplying individuals and clubs up and down the New
South Wales coast and as far away as Phillip
Island in Victoria .
While the business was relatively successful, there was a downside for Chequer.
Because he was a surfboard manufacturer, making money out of what was now
regarded as a piece of life saving equipment; the Association claimed he was no
longer an amateur by their definition. He was therefore prohibited from surf
life saving competition between 1932 and 1936.[59]
In the late
1920s, T.A. Brown and A. Williams used a corkwood board from Honolulu
at Byron Bay NSW.[60]
Eric Mallen
purchased a cedar slab that was once the counter of the Commerical Bank, and
had it shaped into a fouteen foot board by Jack Wilson. Proving to be too
unwieldy, the board was later cut down, decorated and named “Leaping Lena.” On
large days, Eric Mallen would leap off the end of the large jetty that ran out
from Main Street to save paddling.[61]
On Sunday,
April 26, 1931, a belt and reel rescue attempt at Collaroy in extreme weed and
swell conditions resulted in the death of Collaroy SLSC member, George “Jordie”
Greenwell. Even though the use of the reel was questionable in thick weed and
high swell conditions, the inability of Greenwell to release himself from the
belt was the main reason for his demise. Despite demands on the SLSA’s Gear
Committee, the “Ross safety belt” – designed to ensure the lifesaver from just
such an entanglement – did not become compulsory for member clubs until the 1950s.
Greenwell was posthumously awarded the Meritious Award in Silver, the SLSA’s
highest honor.[62]
While
Greenwell’s drowning resurrected the debate on surf belts, there were two more
immediate and positive developments from the drowning. The first was an
intensification of Association trials using waxed line to see if it would “overcome
the difficulty of seaweed.” The other was the Association’s endorsement of the
use of surfboards as life saving equipment.
In the Greenwell drowning itself, the surfboard had proved its usefulness
in surf with a high seaweed content.
In the 1920s,
surfboards had been used by a number of clubs as rescue apparatus. While the
line and reel remained the predominant rescue technique, the surfboard rivaled
the surf boat for the number of rescues accorded to it each season. Such use,
however, had been against the wishes of the Association and lifesavers like
Manly’s Claude West were reprimanded for their use.
During the
1929-30 season, the Collaroy Annual Report recorded rescues performed using
surfboards, noting two such. The following season, four surfboard rescues were
recorded. The figure was probably much greater, in reality, due to the fact
that surfboards were often used to assist tired swimmers before they got into
actual difficulties. While confined almost exclusively to surf club use,
surfboards were usually only used by members who were not on patrol duty.
The data in
club annual reports demonstrated to the Association that most clubs saw
surfboards as useful rescue craft. Within the Association, individuals such as Greg
Dellit, Adrian Curlewis and Bert Chequer (who had joined the Board of
Examiners) began to champion the surfboard. Eventually, interested parties
agreed that surfboards should be trialed so their usefulness could be gauged. These
trials were held in the swimming pool of the Tattersals Club in Sydney . The trials confirmed the usefulness of surfboards
as flotation devices in multiple and lone lifesaver rescues. The fact they
mostly went over rather than through sea weed was also noted.[63]
Long Beach , USA , 1910-1927
By the start
of the 1930s, Southern California ’s surfing
epicenter was located at Corona del Mar. But SoCal surfing had begun up the
coast first at Venice in 1907, then Redondo
and Huntington , spreading out from those
beaches.[64]
Surfing’s
evolution in the Los Angeles area can be seen
in a reading of the local newspapers of the period, especially the ones around Long Beach .
Surfing in Long Beach ? It is hard to
imagine today, but once upon a time – before the breakwater was built in the
early 1940s and before the area’s massive landfill was undertaken – not only
did excellent surf break upon its shores, but Long Beach
was once considered “the Waikiki of the Pacific
Coast .” Today, despite the
disappearance of the long beach that gave the
city its name, some surfers still remember the old days and for those of us a
bit younger, we have the newspaper record:
“W.P. Wheeler
of Monroe , Mich. ,
who has arrived in Long Beach to spend the
summer after a winter in Hawaii , suggests that
some enterprising man with a little money build and put in operation a lot of
surf boats, for which Waikiki beach, Honolulu
is famous.
“Mr. Wheeler
says that Long Beach is the only beach he has
ever seen which can compare with the famous Waikiki ,
and that the surf rolls here exactly as it does at that beach.
“‘When I saw
those catamarans, or surf boats, operated at Waikiki ,’
said Mr. Wheeler, ‘I wondered why the Pacific coast beach resorts did not take
to them. I was told while in Honolulu , by an
admirer of Waikiki, that no beach on the California
coast was as shallow and long as Waikiki . Now
I know that the fellow was not well informed, for the beach here is exactly
like the Hawaiian beach.’”[65]
To my knowledge,
the first recorded lifesaving action using surfboards in U.S. Mainland waters
took place on September 3, 1911:
Daily
Telegram,
September 4, 1911 – “TWO LIVES SAVED BY SKILLFUL USE OF HAWAIIAN SURFERS
“One of the
most novel rescues every pulled off in the surf at Long Beach was accomplished
yesterday afternoon on the beach west of Magnolia Avenue when Paul Rowan of
Long Beach and a stranger who slipped away before his identity could be
discovered, were saved from drowning by Charles Allbright and A.J. Stout.
“The two
rescuers were also nearly exhausted and were helped to the beach during the
latter part of their spectacular trip by the hotel life guard, John Leonard,
who was unaware of the trouble until he saw the men struggling to reach shore
against a strong rip tide.
“Both the
rescuers met and became close friends in Honolulu
and brought Hawaiian surfboards over with them recently to try them out in the
local surf. Paul Rowan, who is a strong swimmer, was out beyond the end of the
lifelines, which extend from the beach to a point beyond the breakers. He was
swimming about, enjoying the exercise when he heard a cry from a man who was
nearer the shore, but just beyond the breakers.
“‘For God’s
sake, help me. I have a wife on shore,’ gurgled the stranger, a man of about
thirty years of age, as he began to sink.
“Rowan went
to his help with a swift overhand stroke and caught him just as he was sinking
a second time in the strong offshore current.
“The stranger
immediately grabbed hold of Rowan and held him so that he had to fight to free
his arms. Rowan was also dragged under. It was at this point that Allbright and
Stout, on their surfboards, became aware of the situation.
“Allbright
grabbed Rowan, who was dizzy from his forced immersion and placed him on his
surfboard. Stout did the same for the stranger. Just then a succession of big
breakers came along and the two men, with their burdens, coasted magnificently
inshore against the rip tide.
“The peculiarity
of the Hawaiian surfboards was to a large extent responsible for the
effectiveness of the rescue of both the stranger and his first rescuer, Paul
Rowan. The boards are made of the beautifully grained koa wood of the Hawaiian
Isles and are six feet long. They are three inches thick and eighteen inches
wide.
“Both
Allbright and Stout are expert surfboard riders and for years coasted on the
foaming breakers which run in on the beach between Diamond Head and Honolulu . There the mountain high breakers travel at
great speeds for a distance of nearly half a mile. Yesterday they were riding
the breakers with the greatest ease in front of the Virginia Hotel
and a large crowd was watching them as they stood up on the boards and coasted
rapidly ashore. The rescues yesterday were probably the first of the kind. The
success of the men with their boards may result in the general use of the same
type at the beach.
“Both
Allbright and Stout made light of the incident, and from information supplied
from other sources it was learned that they frequently make similar rescues out
in the Hawaiian Islands .”[66]
Long Beach
Press, February
26, 1921 – “NOVEL SURF BOARD AND CANOES MADE
“Surf-boating
has made such an appeal to visitors to Long Beach
during the past year that Victor K. Hart, manager of Venetian
Square ; and T. Bennett Shutt, local building contractor, have
completed arrangements to manufacture surf boards and surf canoes here in
quantity. A temporary factory has been opened and twenty of the surfboards and
a dozen canoes are now being built.
“Erection of
the flood control jetties has checked the ocean currents to such an extent that
splendid surf-boating is now to be enjoyed on the west beach. The surfboards
under construction here were designed by Hart and Shutt and are said to be
lighter and different in shape to the Hawaiian island boards.”[67]
One of Long Beach ’s first surfers was Haig (Hal) Prieste, who
won an Olympic diving medal at the 1920 Olympics. There, he met Duke Kahanamoku
and accepted an invitation to visit him in Hawai’i ,
where he took up surfing and became an honorary member of the Hui Nalu:
“Haig
Prieste, Long Beach boy and former Poly High
student, winner of third place in the Olympic games diving contests, leaves
Friday for San Francisco en route to the
Hawaiian islands, where he will enter the junior national high diving contest
which is to be a feature of a big aquatic carnival to be held in Honolulu . Prieste will be the only swimmer to enter the
meet from the mainland, a special request for his presence having been made by
the swimming officials at Honolulu .
“Following
his appearance at Honolulu , Prieste may
continue to the Antipodes where he has been
requested to enter a number of contests with the best of the Australian
swimmers and divers. Whether he will make this trip or not depends upon
contracts which he has with motion picture concerns. Prieste formerly was
connected with Mack Sennet and with the Rollin and Gasnier studios doing ‘dare
devil’ stunts in comedy productions. He has achieved quite a reputation locally
as a sleight of hand entertainer in addition to his prowess as a high diver.”[68]
Daily
Telegram, August
15, 1921 – “HAIG PRIESTE HOME FROM THREE MONTHS OF HAWAIIAN TOUR: HAS MAMMOTH
SURFBOARD GIVEN HIM
“Haig
Prieste, Olympic diving champion, returned to Long Beach
with a ukulele, an oversize surfboard and an interesting story of three months
in the Hawaiian Islands . He intended to remain
three weeks when he left as the only American entrant in the Hawaiian carnival
staged in the latter part of May. The charm of the islands, the determination
to master Hawaiian surf board riding – and the ukulele – and an opportunity to
gather a couple of spare diving championships kept him several weeks overtime.
“He won the
junior national high diving title and the springboard diving championship of a
half dozen islands. He brought with him the Castle and Cook trophy and several others
of lesser significance. He was the guest of honor and an honorary member of the
Hui Nalu swimming club, the leading aquatic organization of the islands.
“Prieste and
Duke Kahanamoku palled around together at Hilo
for a time. Prieste astonished the natives when he learned to ride the gigantic
surfboards standing on his hands. ‘It’s the greatest sport in the world,’ he
said today.
“Prieste says
that the expert Hawaiian surfriders are able to ride for three-quarters of a
mile on their boards. They have grown up with a surfboard in one hand, and by
learning the formation of the coral reefs and the various currents, they are
able to pilot their boards for great distances in a zigzag course. The waves
bowl them along at a speed of 35 miles per hour. There is a great knack in
catching the wave at the proper angle, Prieste says. Unless the board is
pointed diagonally at the correct angle at the correct moment both board and
rider will be dumped on the coral floor of the ocean. Prieste spent from 8 to
10 hours in the water each day.”[69]
Press-Telegram, December 31, 1926 – “BEACH
GREATEST
“Board
surfing has been growing in popularity year by year. While most of the boards
used are short and only for the surf after it has broken, yet there have
developed some who have learned to ride the waves while they are still huge and
green without any white water. Some of the beach guards have mastered an art before
confined to the surfing beaches of the Hawaiian Islands .
“Even some of
the Long Beach girls have become proficient in
this exciting water sport.”[70]
Early California tandem surfing:
Press-Telegram, March 18, 1927 – “TWO DARE DEATH
“A special
exhibition of fancy riding on surfboards will be performed by Elmer Peck and
Miriam Tizzard at Alamitos
Bay . Peck has attained national
stunts that he has performed in all parts of this country as well as in the
waters off Hawaii and the South American
republics.
“Miss Tizzard
is a local girl and though she has only been under Mr. Peck’s direction for two
weeks he regards her as one of the most apt pupils that he has ever trained. He
says that she is perfectly at home on the elusive surfboard. Special stunts in
which the two combine will be a feature of the program offered.”[71]
Corona del Mar, 1923-1927
Although
there were small numbers of “Roaring ‘20s” surfers riding waves at a limited
number of breaks from Santa Monica to San Diego , the most popular break was Corona del Mar. This
had probably as much to do with the nightlife at Balboa, north across the
channel leading to Newport Harbor ,
as it was to Corona ’s exceptionally nice
set-up, surf-wise. The good surf at Corona was
all about the south jetty.
Not
originally intended for surfers, the cement jetty at Corona del Mar was a boon
for surfriders. The 800-foot long jetty stretched from the rocks at Big Corona
all the way to the beach. When the swells were running, a surfer could launch
from the end of the jetty, ride in next to it for approximately 800 feet, then
climb up a chain ladder, run out on the jetty and do the same thing all over
again. Perhaps more importantly, waves jacked up at Corona
unlike they did anywhere else – also due to the jetty.
In 1923, two
beacon lights were installed at the jetty entrance. These were written about in
a Long Beach Press article, in December: “The two beacon lights at the
end of the jetty protecting the entrance of Newport
harbor are complete and have been turned over to the care of Antar Deraga, head
of the Balboa life saving guards… The lights are about thirty feet above the
ocean level and can be seen by all ships passing on the east side of Catalina.
“The outer
beacon light is equipped with a three-fourths foot burner and will burn about
160 days. It flashes one second and five seconds dark. It is equipped with a
sun valve for economy of operation. The inner beacon light is equipped with a
five-sixteenths-foot burner without sun valve. It should burn 200 days. This
beacon flashes every two and a half seconds.
“The government
lighthouse service will also supply the keeper here with a lifeboat for use in
rescue work. It will be in charge of Mr. Deraga, who is known as one of the
most efficient lifeguards on the coast. Before coming here he made an enviable
record in Europe and has recently been made a member of the Royal life saving
guards of England and given a service medal in
recognition of heroic service in the English Channel
and also for saving the life of an English lady in this harbor last summer.”[72]
Antar Deraga
was also one of those who, along with standout surfer and Olympic champion Duke
Kahanamoku, helped rescue the majority of the crew of the Thelma when it
floundered off Newport Beach in 1925:
“Battling
with his surfboard through the heavy seas in which no small boat could live,
Kahanamoku, was the first to reach the drowning men. He made three successive
trips to the beach and carried four victims the first trip, three the second
and one the third. Sheffield , Plummer and
Derega were credited with saving four; while other members of the rescue party
waded into the surf and carried the drowning men to safety…
“The accident
occurred at the identical spot near the bell buoy where, almost to a day a year
ago, a similar accident occurred and nine men were drowned. Two of the bodies
were carried out to sea by the undertow and were never recovered.
“Captain
Porter expressed the belief yesterday that at least eight or ten more would
have been drowned had not Kahanamoku and Derega been ready with immediate
assistance…
“The Hawaiian
swimmer was camped on the beach with a party of film players and was just going
out for his morning swim when the boat was wrecked. The lifeguards were just
going on duty.”[73]
There was an
established record of difficulty for boats leaving and entering the Newport
Channel on a good swell. In 1927, the city of Newport
voted $500,000 for a harbor expansion that included changes to the jetties. In
1928, the city approved $200,000 for work on both the west and east jetties. It
was this later work that would forever change surfing at Corona del Mar –
especially the surf adjacent to the east jetty – and be lamented by surfers who
considered Corona the main surfing beach of Southern
California .[74]
Surfing’s
first dedicated surf photographer Doc Ball eulogized the early surf scene at Corona
del Mar, when he later wrote in 1946: “We who knew it will never forget buzzing
the end of that slippery, slimy jetty, just barely missing the crushing impact
as the sea mashed into the concrete. Nor will we forget the squeeze act when 18
to 20 guys all tried to take off on the same fringing hook. And do you remember
the days when you waited near that clanging bell buoy for the next set to
arrive? Corona Del Mar’s zero surf was hell on the
yachtsmen but – holy cow – what stuff for the Kamaainas. Yes! Those were the
days.”[75]
During the
area’s boom-days of the 1920s, a housing development originally named Balboa
Bay Palisades was created in 1923 and morphed into what we now call Corona del
Mar. During that decade, the area’s income came mostly from the Rendezvous
dance hall, gambling and bootleg liquor. The Rendezvous Ballroom was the place
to be and a major destination for touring big bands of the time. On a Saturday
night the town bore a resemblance to Bourbon Street ,
in New Orleans , during Mardi Gras. A number of
businesses were involved in gambling. More on the Rendezvous when we get to
talking about Gene “Tarzan” Smith.
First Pacific Coast Surfriding Championship, 1928
While Corona
del Mar was in its glory days as the center of Southern
California surfing, history was made there with the creation of
the Pacific Coast Surfriding Championships. Word of it began on July 16, 1928
when a Long Beach Press-Telegram
announced: “SURFBOARD CLUB WILL HOLD TITLE MEET AT HARBOR.” The article read: “The
Corona Del Mar Surfboard Club, which claims to be the largest organization of
its kind in the world, will hold a championship surfboard riding tournament at
the Corona Del
Mar beach at the entrance to Newport
Harbor on Sunday, August 5.
“Some of the
most notable surfboard riders in the world are expected to compete, including
the famous swimmer and surfboard rider, Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaiian champion; Tom
Blake of Redondo, who won two championships, and Harold Jarvis, long distance
swimmer of the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Some of the surfboard riders are
predicting that new world records will be made here during the meet. So far
fifteen surfboard artists have signed up, including some from as far away as San Francisco . It is planned to make it an annual event.”[76]
On the day of
the contest, August 5, 1928,[77]
the Press-Telegram reported: “PLANS COMPLETED FOR SURFBOARD RIDING TILT.”
It went on: “Preparations have been completed for the Pacific Coast surfboard
riding championship tournament, to be held at Corona Del Mar, the entrance to
Newport Harbor today. Part of the entrance to the harbor is said to be only
surpassed by some Hawaiian beaches for surfboard riding.“Duke
Kahanamoku and other well-known surfboard artists will compete. Besides
surfboard riding the program will include canoe tilting contests, paddling
races and a life-saving exhibition by surfboard riders. In addition to
Kahanamoku, other well-known members of the club include Tom Blake of Redondo,
Gerard Vultee and Art Vultee of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, Clyde Swedson of
the Hollywood Athletic Club, and others.”[78]
More
important than the results of who won what, the big story of this first-ever
surf contest on the U.S. Mainland was the first-ever unveiling of the hollow
surfboard in competition. Tom Blake brought his drilled-hole hollow board
innovation and a regular 9-foot 6-inch redwood surfboard back with him by boat
from Hawai’i . Armed with his partially hollow olo
replica, Tom subsequently won the first Pacific Coast Surfriding Championships
– which he had also helped organize.[79]
Held under
direction of Captain Scheffield of the Corona del Mar Surfboard Club, the
championship’s main event was a paddle race from shore to the bell buoy,
followed by a surf ride in. “500 yards and
back; 1st back to win,” Tom remembered. In later documenting the
event for his protégé Tommy Zahn in 1972, Tom wrote: “Situation: about 8 or 10
men, including Gerard Vultee (late co-founder of Lockheed; an aeronautical
engineer; designer of aircraft and surfboards). He had the longest board;
11-feet. I had a 9’6’ broad riding board. I figured he would be 1st
out at the break and therefore should get the first wave in.
“I had this
(1st one only) 15-foot paddle board with me for the paddling race
(115 lb.). So I decided to use both boards in the surfing race. Had them both
on the beach as the starting gun went off. Everybody got a good head start;
Vultee in the lead. I slowly proceeded to put the 15’ P.B. in the water, then
went back to get the 9 ½ job; placed it upon the P.B. and started after the
field, now 50 yards out. Slowly caught and passed them at 300 yards and arrived
at the starting break [the bell buoy] alone with a minute to spare – discarded
the long board and lined up for the 1st wave. They were about 6 or 7
feet high; not large, but strong.
“Vultee
arrived first, then the rest; we all had to wait a few minutes for a set of
waves. Vultee and me took after the first one. He got it and took off on the left
side, for shore. But, the second wave was a bit bigger. I got it and slid
right. Vultee’s wave petered out in the channel; mine carried me all the way
in, opposite the jetty and to shore for a win. There was a movie outfit there;
a newsreel deal. I later saw the ride and had a close-up [made]; someone
probably still has it.”[80]
Tom used two
boards that historic day – a first, in itself. He used the drilled-hole hollow
board for paddling out and a more conventional board for riding waves in. Having
a board strictly for paddling was unheard of up to this point. Up to this
point, everyone had competed in paddling races on surfboards. Some California old-timers recalled of that day that it was
the first time they had ever seen a surfboard turned. Dragging either the left
or the right leg in the water accomplished this. His surfboard was 9-feet,
6-inches long, but the paddleboard was 16 feet and weighed 120 pounds.[81]
Blake wrote of his huge drilled-hole olo design paddleboard: “When I
appeared with it for the first time before 10,000 people gathered for a holiday
and to watch the races, it was regarded as silly. Handling this heavy board
alone, I got off to a poor start, the rest of the field gaining a thirty-yard
lead in the meantime. It really looked bad for the board and my reputation and
hundreds openly laughed. But a few minutes later it turned to applause because
the big board led the way to the finish of the 880-yard course by fully 100
yards.”[82]
“Later,”
after the main event, “they held a 440 yard board race, paddling. I let Vultee
lead for most of it, then breezed by him on the new semi-hollow paddle board. Received
a statue of a swimmer and a cup. Still have the statuette of a swimmer; the cup
is held by some club; don’t know who. It has Pete’s [Peterson] name on it for
many later winnings.”[83]
Next day, the
Long Beach Press-Telegram announced: “LOS
ANGELES MAN, TOM BLAKE, WINNER OF EVENTS OF SURFBOARD CLUB.” The article
continued: “The aquatic powers of Tom Blake, bewhiskered athlete of the Los
Angeles Athletic Club, enabled him to win over an assemblage of swimmers in the
meet held yesterday afternoon in front of the Starr Bath House on the Corona Del
Mar beach. Blake took two of the first places, winning easily the surfboard contest
and the paddling race. He was awarded silver trophies for his championship.
“Several
hundred people lined the beach to witness the contest held under the auspices
of the Corona Del Mar Surfboard Association. The fact that Duke Kahanamoku,
famous surfboard rider, could not be present did not detract from the
excitement of the day.
“The Corona
Del Mar Surfboard Club has been sponsored by Captain D.W. Sheffield, manager of
the Starr Bathhouse. It is said to be the only organization of its kind on the Pacific Coast .
“The results
of the contest were as follows: Quarter-mile surfboard race, won by Tom Blake,
L.A.A.C.; second, Gerard Vultee, Corona Del Mar; third Dennie Williams, Corona Del
Mar. Paddling race was won by Tom Blake;
second, Dennie Williams.”[84]
The first
first-place PCSC trophy “was first won by Tom Blake in 1928 at Corona Del Mar,”
confirmed Doc Ball in his classic collection of early California
surfer photos, California
Surfriders, 1946.[85]
Because the original trophy was not much to speak of, Blake had a nicely
embossed trophy cup made in order to pass on to succeeding winners.[86]
He donated this trophy “to be the perpetual cup for the above mentioned event. Winners
since 1928 are inscribed on the back of it.” A good photograph of it appears in
Doc’s book. He added that “World War II precluded any possibilities of a
contest from 1941 through 1946.”
The Pacific
Coast Surfriding Championships became an annual event, dominated for 4-out-of-9
years by Preston “Pete” Peterson, who reigned as California ’s
recognized top surfer throughout the 1930s. Other early winners of the trophy
included Keller Watson (1929), Gardner Lippincott (1934), Lorrin “Whitey”
Harrison (1939) and Cliff Tucker (1940).[87]
As for Tom
Blake, although he met with competitive success on the U.S. Mainland, his eyes
were mostly on the Islands . “My dream was to
introduce, or revive, this type of board in Hawaii
where surfboard racing and riding is at its best,” he wrote in his 1935 edition
of Hawaiian Surfboard, the first book ever published solely about
surfing. “This seems to have materialized...”[88]
Blake –
originally a competitive swimmer – rose to prominence in the emerging world of
surfing, following his restoration of traditional Hawaiian surfboards and his
creative innovation of those designs into what became known as “the hollow
board” – both surfboards and paddleboards.[89]
After restoring Chief Paki’s boards for the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum , Blake built some replicas for
himself. In an article entitled, “Surf-riding – The Royal and Ancient Sport,”
published in a 1930 edition of The Pan Pacific, he wrote: “I... wondered
about these boards in the museum, wondered so much that in 1926 I built a
duplicate of them as an experiment, my object being to find not a better board,
but to find a faster board to use in the annual and popular surfboard paddling
races held in Southern California each summer.”[90]
During the
1920s, surfboards weighed between 75 and 150 pounds. Because of the length of
the board and the wood it was made of, Paki’s olo was considerably
heavier than the heaviest Waikiki board of the
day, all of which were of solid wood construction. On a whim, Blake took his 16
foot olo replica board and, in his own words, “drilled it full of holes
to lighten and dry it out, then plugged them up. Result: accidental invention
of the first hollow surf-board.”[91]
Blake’s “holey” board ended up exactly 15 feet long, 19 inches wide and 4
inches thick. Because it was partially hollow, this board weighed only 120
pounds.[92]
This was the “hollow” board he used in the first Pacific Coast Surfing
Championships at Corona del Mar.
Hawaiian
Surfboard Championships, 1929-31
Following his
win of the first Pacific Coast Surfing Championship at Corona del Mar in 1928,
Blake took his hollow board back to Hawai’i
with him and took on the famous races held at the Ala Wai Canal annually. By this time, he had given
up on filled-in drilled holes in favor of a hollowed-out chamber approach.
“I introduced
at Waikiki a new type of surfboard,” Blake
wrote of his hollow board. It was, “new so the papers said, and so the beach
boys said, but in reality the design was taken from the ancient Hawaiian type
of board,” his 1926 replicas of them, and “also from the English racing shell. It
was called a ‘cigar board,’ because a newspaper reporter thought it was shaped
like a giant cigar.”[93]
Of Blake’s
hollow olo-inspired design, Dr. D’Eliscu of the Honolulu
Star-Bulletin wrote that “The old Hawaiian surfboard has again made its
appearance at Waikiki beach modeled after the
boards used in the old days. A practice trial was held yesterday at the War
Memorial Pool, and to the surprise of the officials, the board took several
seconds off the Hawaiian record for one hundred yards.”[94]
Blake referred to this modern olo design as the racing model; in essence
a true paddleboard. He built his surf riding model surfboard, “Okohola,” a
month later, in December 1929.[95]
The hollow
paddleboards and surfboards Blake now made, “differed from the olo in that they
were flat-decked, built of redwood, and hollow,” wrote Finney and Houston in Surfing, The Sport of Hawaiian Kings, many
years later. “They were excellent for paddling and also successful in the
surf. Like the olo they were well
adapted to the glossy rollers at Waikiki . A
man could catch a wave far out beyond the break, while the swell was still a
gentle, shore-rolling slope, and the board would slide easily along the wave,
whether it grew steep and broke, or barely rose and flattened out again.”[96]
Duke
Kahanamoku told his biographer that Blake’s first experiments had actually been
initially “predicated on the belief that faster rides would be generated by
heavier boards. But the turning problem became bigger with the size of the
board; a prone surfer was compelled to drag one foot in the water on the inside
of the turn, and this only contributed to loss of forward speed. If standing,
he had to drag an arm over the side, and with the same result of diminishing
momentum.
“Paddleboards
are still with us today, and they are obviously here to stay,” Duke affirmed. “Some
fantastic records have been established with them. And the sport of
paddleboarding has naturally drawn some outstanding men to its ranks. It is a
long list, a gallant list.”[97]
Recapping its
initial evolution, Blake said his first hollow board “was purely for racing,
and I soon followed it with a riding board sixteen feet long. The new riding
board model was a great success [‘Okohola’].” Blake added with some pride that “Duke
Kahanamoku built his great 16-foot hollow redwood board along about the same
time…”[98]
Tom Blake set
his first world’s record in paddling at Ala Wai in December 1929. It came after
years of discipline and development of skill in racing under stress. He had
swum in hundreds of races during the eight years previously and won the first
official California surfing contest (the PCSC)
just the year before. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin from December 2, 1929,
reported the event the day after: “BLAKE SETS 100-YARD SURFBOARD PADDLE MARK. Big
Crowd On Hand To Take In Sunday Races; Outrigger Club Clean Sweeps In Ala Wai Program of 18 Popular Events.” The Honolulu
Star-Bulletin went on:
“Demonstrating the possibilities of such a
surfboard, Tom Blake of ‘cigar surfboard’ fame, yesterday paddled his pet water
rider to a new 100-yard Hawaiian record (world’s record) at the Ala Wai where
he negotiated the distance in 35 1-5 seconds, bettering the old mark by five
full seconds in an exhibition witnessed by a crowd of 1000.
“The former
record was 40 1-5 seconds made last year by Edric Cooke. More plumes are added
to his [Blake’s] achievement when it is considered that he had to paddle
through the water against a stiff wind and a tide.
“The ‘cigar
surfboard’ just glided through the water without a splash and it was an uncanny
sight. Blake was in excellent shape and worked his arms tirelessly to set the
new world record.”[99]
“The
exhibition,” continued the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, “was the feature to a
program of surfboard races staged by the recreation commission of the city. The
events were put on to prepare those interested in surfboard paddling for the
big races to be held during the Christmas holidays.
“The number
of automobiles and the large crowds that gathered on both sides of the canal
surprised the officials who helped revive the interest in an activity which
typifies the islands…
“Sixteen
paddle events were conducted in two hours and the timers, judges, clerks and
other officials were kept running up and down the banks following the start
then taking the finish…
“The
Outrigger Canoe club, under the guidance of George (‘Dad’) Center, romped away
with all the honors, as the other organizations did not believe that a contest
of this kind would be successfully held.
“The
appearance of the smoothness of the cigar-shaped board, and the quiet, reserved
and impressive showing of its maker and paddler, Tom Blake, attracted more than
usual interest. Everybody wanted to use that type of board and the success and
speed of this board showed itself in the number of races that were won by the
individuals using it.
“Never before
in any open races have so many boards been collected in one place. It required
a private truck to haul all the surfboards from the Outrigger and Hui Nalu
clubs to Ala Wai...”[100]
Perhaps as
significant as the wins that day, were resentments by some surfers and paddlers
toward the hollow board and its creator. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin
noted the resistance to this new type of watercraft: “The question was raised
by the officials as to a standard board to be required in all future open
competition. The feeling was against this proposal. The officials felt that no
board designed to ride the surf could be barred from any of the races
scheduled.
“The result
of Sunday’s special events assures a number of new records on Christmas Day,
when a special program will be held for surfboard followers…”[101]
“This board
was really graceful and beautiful to look at,” Tom wrote proudly of his carved
chambered paddleboard, “and in performance was so good that officials of the
Annual Surfboard Paddling Championship immediately had a set of nine of them
built for use...”[102]
Not everyone
enthusiastically embraced hollow paddleboards and hollow surfboards. Later,
when hollow boards became the standard at many beaches, solid boards were still
preferred by some surfers. Doc Ball’s California Surfriders, featuring
photographs taken primarily during the 1930s, shows a large number of solid
boards in use.
Blake’s world
record-breaking wins in both the 100-yard and half mile paddling events of the
Hawaiian Surfboard Paddling Championships actually put him into disfavor with
some Hawaiians. Resistance to his new designs hit a high
point in the December 1, 1929 race. There was an initial attempt
to disqualify him, some saying that he was not using a surfboard. Well, they
were right on that account. Up until the Pacific Coast Surfing Championship the
year before, there had been no such thing as a “paddleboard” specifically used
for paddle racing.
Popular local
Tommy Keakona, himself a champion of the 1928 Ala Wai races, refused to compete
against Tom in protest over his use of the hollow paddleboard.[103]
Other “purist” Hawaiian surfers and distance paddlers demanded that only
conventionally shaped and solid paddleboards be allowed to race. Other paddlers
lobbied for the new design, claiming, rightfully, that it “marked the beginning
of a new era in surfing and paddling.”[104]
The hollow
board’s detractors were not sufficient in number to keep Blake from competing,
that day, nor the other paddlers using hollow boards. Referring to Blake’s
board as “The Cigar Water Conqueror,” a Honolulu Star-Bulletin article
written by Francois D’Eliscu documented Tom’s win with this headline: “3000
WATCH SURFERS RACE UPON ALA WAI CANAL. Every Record in History of Sport is
Shattered; Cigar Board Comes Into Its Own.” D’Eliscu went on to write: “More
than 3000 spectators crowded the banks of the Ala Wai this morning to witness
the championship surfboard races in which every record in the history of the
sport was shattered.
“Never before
was such a contest so keenly fought. Remarkable times were made in the 10-event
program.
“The cigar-shaped
board was supreme. Each paddler showed speed, smoothness and wonderful control
in handling the thin, light, fast-moving planks.
“Tom Blake,
originator of the cigar shaped board, staged a surprise unknown to even his
coaches when he appeared with a hollow carved cigar board. In the first event
on the program, the half-mile men’s open, Blake won in 4 minutes 49 seconds,
beating the old record by 2 minutes 13 seconds.
“T. Keakona,
last year’s title holder, refused to enter the races, due to the type of board
used by Blake.
“The feature
event of the morning was the 100-yard open championship. Eight men from three
of the best surfboard organizations started. Tom Blake, O.C.C.; Sam Kahanamoku,
Hui Nalu; and Fred Vasco of the Queen’s Surfers, finished in the order named.
“The race was
exciting from the gun. Tom with his powerful, easy, mechanical stroke and
perfect balance found Sam a real competitor. The finish found Blake just a few
inches ahead of the versatile swimmer. The time of 31 3-5 seconds for this race
was better than last year’s 36 1-5 seconds.”[105]
Another Honolulu newspaper article, written by Andrew Mitsukado,
also documented Blake’s wins: “EIGHT RECORDS LOWERED IN MEET. Cigar-shaped Board Is Big Hit, Tom Blake Is
Big Star.” Mitsukado continued: “Eight old records went whirling into oblivion
and two new marks were established at the sixth annual Hawaiian championship
surf board paddling races, sponsored by the Dawkins, Benny Co., yester morn in
the Ala Wai before a monstrous crowd which was kept on the well-known edge
throughout the ten event program.
“The newly
devised cigar-shaped surfboards assisted tremendously in creating the new
marks.
“Tom Blake of
the Outrigger Canoe Club proved to be the big star of the meet, winning two
individual events – the 100 yards men’s open and the half-mile open – and paddling
anchor on the triumphant Outrigger team in the three-quarter mile club relay. He
used a cigar-shaped board of his own invention and came through with flying
colors.
“All of the
races were hard fought and competition was keen, furnishing thrills after thrills
for the spectators…”[106]
“The
half-mile record of seven minutes and two seconds was cut that year,” Tom wrote
of the 1929 Annual Surfboard Paddling Championship, “to four minutes and
forty-nine seconds and the hundred-yard dash was reduced from thirty-six and
two-fifths seconds to thirty-one and three-fifths seconds. This made me the
1930 champion in the senior events and, incidentally, the new record holder. But
as is true in yacht and other similar racing, I won because I had a superior
board. This was the first cured or hollowed out [paddle] board to appear at Waikiki . As the racing rules allowed unrestricted size
and design, I staked my chances on this hollow racer whose points were proven
for now all racing boards are hollow.”[107]
But Blake’s
win “was a ‘hollow’ victory,” underscored Tom’s friend Sam Reid, who also
competed in the Championship. Playing on words in a surfing memoir published in
a 1955 edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Reid added that “Blake had
hollowed out his 16-foot cigar board to a 60 pound weight, compared with an
average 100 to 125 pounds weight of the other 9 boards in the 100.”[108]
“Oh, yeah!” Santa Monica lifeguard Wally Burton told a little bit
about what was behind the resentment, adding his own take on it. “He was very
innovative. Yeah, he had a good, active mind and… when he was over in the Islands there, he was winning everything. You know, the
Duke was the all-time great over there, at that time. And he [Tom] went over
there and he took everything away from the Duke. As a matter of fact, they didn’t
like Tom too well over in the Islands [after
his competitive wins], because Duke was the hero.”[109]
“Reverberations
of the ‘hollow board’ tiff were heard from one end of the Ala Wai to the other,”
recalled Sam Reid around 1955, “and echoes can still be heard at Waikiki even
today – 25 years later. At a meeting of the three (surfing) clubs, Outrigger,
Hui Nalu and Queens, held immediately after the disputed races… it was decided
that… there would be no limit whatever on (the design) of paddleboards.”[110]
It is a sad fact that much resentment over his lightweight designs remained
after Tom’s Ala Wai wins. Because of the 1929/1930 Ala Wai controversies, Tom
only entered the race one more time, the following year.[111]
Impressively, Tom’s half-mile record of 4:49:00 stood until 1955. It was broken
by George Downing, who covered the course in 4:36:00 on a 20-foot hollow balsa
board. Blake’s board had been a 16-foot hollow redwood.[112]
Other long-standing records held by Tom include the world’s
record for the 1/2 mile open and 100 yard dash in paddleboard racing. They were
held for twenty-five years.[113]
When Tom
competed in the Ala Wai contest in early 1931, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin
published word of his participation, some of the history of the race and a
little about surfing’s history in Hawai’i: “Announce List of Officials to
Handle 1931 Surfboard Races,” headlined the article written by Francois D’Eliscu.
“Any Type of Board Can Be Used This Year; Races Will Be Held at the Ala Wai on January 4; New Kind of Board Will Be
Introduced.
“The seventh
annual surfboard paddling Hawaiian championships to be held Sunday morning,
January 4, 1931, on the Ala Wai canal, promises to be the most interesting
event ever held for the paddlers of Oahu … All
of the titleholders of last year are entered and the ruling permitting any kind
of board in the various races means new records...
“Tom Blake,
who startled the community with his cigar-shaped hollow board and smashed all
existing records, is reported to have another new type board that is faster and
lighter than the one he won with so easily last year.”
Under the
subheading of “‘Sport of Kings,’” D’Eliscu continued: “Surfboard racing in Hawaii is known as the ‘sport of kings’ on account of its
association with the history and tradition of old-time Hawaii
when the chiefs competed on large heavy boards.
“Many of
these relics are on exhibition in the museum and it is here where Tom Blake
spent many an hour studying the shape, weights and speed of the boards, which
prompted him to build his cigar-shaped board…
“Committees
and officials have been selected to conduct the meet. The group in charge of
the events are: Honorary chairman, ‘Dad’ Center; sponsors, C.G. Benny and H.L. Reppeto;
Gay Harris of the Outrigger Canoe Club; Charles Amalu from Queen Surfers, and
David Kahanamoku, representing the Hui Nalu swimming club.
“The
officials in charge of the meet are as follows: Referee Duke P. Kahanamoku;
clerk of course, David Kahanamoku; starter, G.D. Crozier; timers, Dad Center , A.H. Myhre,
R.N. Benny , C.A. Slaght, R.J. Thomas and William
Hollinger.
“Judges, Dr.
Francois D’Eliscu, T.C. Gibson, Henry Sheldon and V. Ligda; recorder, H.L.
Reppeto, and Gay Harris will be in charge of the equipment…
“Cecil Benny,
who has been responsible for the continuation of the surfboard races and
competitions, deserves a great deal of public commendation for his interest in
keeping the Hawaiian sport alive.”[114]
Blake’s
superior designs were not the only factor in his success. He was also a
tremendous swimmer, paddler and overall competitor. Two decades later, his
protégé Tommy Zahn paddled the Ala Wai, for practice, with Hot Curl surfer
Wally Froiseth’s protégé George Downing. At first he thought his watch was off
because he could not achieve Blake’s times on an evolved paddleboard with
superior training.[115]During this
period, Tom was coming out with a new board every year. He was driven to refine
his designs, and by the end of the 1930s, both his surfboards and paddleboards
were very different from what he had started out with a decade before. As far
as the controversies at Ala Wai were concerned, Tom learned that good
intentions do not always breed good feelings. Because of his competitive wins,
he later said that he became a version of “The Ugly American.” Specifically,
Tom recalled, “I discovered too late that beating the locals at their own game,
in front of their families, could sour relations with my Hawaiian friends.”[116]
When he had
first come to Hawai’i , he was accepted at the
beach, welcomed by the Kahanamoku’s and the beach boys, and “treated… like a
king.” Even so, he couldn’t shake the fact that he was an outsider and
consequently “… they paid no attention to you,” recalled Tom. “You roamed
around there, nobody knew you, and it’s a wonderful way to live, when you keep
a low profile. Like, nobody’s shootin’ at you, you know? That went on for
years, and it’s just like, I got interested in their sports, surfing and
paddling, and managed to build a little better board than they had, and beat
them in their contests. And then they began to look at you. There’s something
we don’t like, and that was the end of the real good days.”[117]
It may have
been the end of the “real good days” for Tom in the Islands ,
but he still had many good Hawaiian days to come. He would continue his love
affair with the Hawaiian Islands –
specifically O’ahu – for another 25 years.
Hollow Board Evolution
Despite the
bad feelings surrounding Tom Blake’s wins at the Hawaiian Surfboard
Championships 1929-31, other surfboard shapers began experimenting with the chambered
hollow board concept. “Imagination of design,” Sam Reid remembered, “ran riot.”[118]
Duke
Kahanamoku gave Tom high credit and respect for his contributions. “Blond Tom
Blake... was a haole who accepted the challenge,” related Duke to his
biographer Joseph Brennan in their 1968 book World of Surfing, “and
proved to be one of the finest board men to walk the beach. Daring and
imaginative he always was. He, like myself, was driven with the urge to
experiment.” Addressing Blake’s hollow racing paddleboard, Duke acknowledged
that, “He was the one who first built and introduced the paddleboard – a big
hollow surfing craft that was simple to paddle and picked up waves easily but
was difficult to turn. It had straight rails, a semi-pointed tail, and laminated
wood for the deck. For its purpose it was tops.”[119]
Duke’s
shaping of a hollow made Tom unabashedly proud. He later wrote: “Duke
Kahanamoku built his great 16-foot hollow redwood board along about the same
time. He is an excellent craftsman and shapes the lines and balance of his
boards with the eye; he detects its irregularities by touch of the hand.
“I feel,
however,” Blake added in deference to the Father of Modern Surfing, “that Duke
has some appreciation of the old museum boards and from his wide experience in
surfriding and his constructive turn of mind would have eventually duplicated
them, regardless of precedent.”[120]
Duke’s
Blake-inspired design, shaped around 1930, was a 16 footer, made of koa wood,
weighed 114 pounds, and was designed after the ancient Hawaiian olo
board, as Blake’s had been.[121]
“With his rare expertise and outstanding strength,” Joseph Brennan wrote, “Duke
handled it well in booming surfs. He used to defend his giant board and kid
fellow surfers with, ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff. Reason? Because it’s small
stuff.’”[122]
After Tom’s
win at the Ala Wai, some surfboard and paddleboard builders who had not gone
hollow began “using alternating strips of laminated pine or redwood, instead of
one or several planks of the same wood,” historians Finney and Houston noted,
obviously influenced by Blake’s direction to lessen the weight. “These striped
boards combined the strength of pine with the light weight of redwood and were
believed to be more functional as well as more attractive. About this time
lightweight balsa boards were… tried, but were dismissed as too light and
fragile for practical use.”[123]
The 10 foot
redwood plank that Duke and the early Waikiki surfers had ridden since shortly
after the beginning of the century had been “in vogue until 1924,” Duke
recalled, “when Lorrin Thurston, one of Hawaii’s most enthusiastic surf riders,
appeared with a twelve-foot board. To Thurston also goes the credit of
introducing the balsa wood board in 1926. It was really a revival of the wili
wili boards used by the old Hawaiian chiefs except for design. The ten to
twelve-foot boards were used exclusively until 1929 when I built [after Tom
Blake] a successful sixteen-foot board, which is handled quite the same as the
old Hawaiian boards, and I feel sure will put surf riding on much the same
scale as it was before the white man came.”[124]
In the
progression of the hollow boards’ evolution, Step One (1928) had been the
almost accidental use of drilled holes filled in to make tiny air pockets. Step
Two (1929) saw the implementation of full hollow chambers. Step Three came in
1932 with Blake’s use of the transversely braced hollow hull. By using ribs for
strength, much as in an airplane wing, Tom brought the weight of the hollow
boards down even further. It is not definitively known for sure, but it is
probable that Tom’s friendship with aviator Gerard Vultee influenced him in
this further development of the hollow board. At any rate, the result of this
design was a strong 40-to-70 pound board, depending on length.[125]
A final
refinement to the Blake hollow board would not occur until the end of the
decade, when the board rails began to be rounded. Initially, Tom’s hollows were
built with 90-degree flat-sided rails. Whitewater would catch these and easily knock
a board right out from under a rider, sending him or her sideways. With the
rounded rail, which was an original component to the traditional Hawaiian
boards, water could move over and under the board with much less resistance.[126]
After 1932,
the Blake hollow surfboard and paddleboard spread worldwide – from as far away
as Great Britain and Brazil
and even Hong Kong . Although it would be years
after Blake’s death that true dynamic hollow surfboards could outperform
against solid wooden boards and even foam and fiberglass boards, it did not
take long for the hollow paddleboard to become an essential rescue device in
oceans, rivers, and lakes. As evidence of this, in the later half of the 1930s,
the hollow paddle rescue board was adopted by the Pacific Coast Lifesaving
Corps and used by the American Red Cross National Aquatic Schools for
instruction. Today, the rescue paddleboard can be found on almost any ocean
beach protected by lifeguards.[127]
As for the hollow surfboard, it is significant to note that today, many of the
more advanced epoxy boards are of hollow construction. While using technology
undreamed of by Blake, they are nevertheless take-offs on his original hollow
board concept.
[1]
Gault-Williams, Malcolm. LEGENDARY SURFERS Volume 1: 2500 B.C. to 1910 A.D.
©2005, pp. 17 and 39-41. See also Finney, Ben and Houston, James D. Surfing: A
History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport, ©1996, p. 21.
[2]
Gault-Williams, 2005, pp. 52-54.
[3]
Gault-Williams, 2005, pp. 174-177.
[4]
Gault-Williams, 2005, pp. 226-241.
[5]
Gault-Williams, Malcolm. LEGENDARY SURFERS Volume 2: Early 20th
Century Surfing and Tom Blake, ©2007. First two chapters.
[6]
The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth Edition, ©2001, p. 672.
[7]
Some duplication of material in this chapter with Gault-Williams, LEGENDARY
SURFERS Volume 2: Early 20th Century Surfing and Tom Blake,
©2007. The greatest detail exists in Volume 2, but some new insights have been
gained since its printing and are included here both for perspective into the
1930s and additional documentation of the first two decades of the 1900s.
[8]
Surfing Subcultures, “Origins and Development of Pacific Seaboard
Surfing,” chapter 3, p. 34.
[9]
Surfing Subcultures, p. 34.
[10]
Cater, Geoff. Pods For Primates, http://www.surfresearch.com.au
[11]
Young, 1983, 1987, pp. 35-36.
[12]
Pods For Primates citing Maxwell, p. 235 and Greg McDonagh in Pollard,
p. 55.
[13]
Bloomfield ,
1965, p. 4.
[14]
Bloomfield ,
1965, p. 10.
[15]
Pods For Primates citing Maxwell, pp. 90, 202-204.
[16]
Pods For Primates, http://www.surfresearch.com.au
[17]
“Australia Through American
Eyes,” The Red Funnel, Dunedin ,
June 1, 1908, p. 468. Quoted in Thoms, p. 14.
[18]
Noble, Valerie. Hawaii Prophet, 1980, pp. 57-58. See also Mid-Pacific Magazine, January 1911,
“Skiing in Australia ,”
by Percy Hunter. It may be that Hunter
was the one that noted the presence of boards in Australia in 1910, not Ford.
[19]
Pods for Primates, citing Maxwell, p. 235.
[20]
Warshaw, 1997, p.18.
[21]
Hall, Sandra Kimberly. “Duke Down Uner,” Aloha Magazine, Volume 19,
Number 11, November 1994, p. 57.
[22]
Daily Telegraph, January 27, 1912, p. 21. Quotes in Pods For Primates.
[23]
Pods for Primates citing Maxwell, p. 235 and Harris, pp. 53-54.
[24]
Pods for Primates citing Harvey ,
p. 8.
[25]
Pods for Primates. Geoff Cater mentions this claim as tenuous, but
plausible. He cites Harvey ,
p. 8.
[26]
Pods for Primates quoting Thomas, p. 30.
[27]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html
[28]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html
[29]
Harris, p. 55.
[30] Wells, Lana. Sunny Memories –
Australians at the Seaside ,
©1982, pages 157-158. 1982. Greenhouse Publications Pty Ltd., 385 - 387 Bridge Road , Richmond , Victoria 3126. Hardcover, 184 pages, black and white photographs, Chronology
of Events. Geoff Cater
wrote: “Expansive overview of Australian
beach culture and history, starting with James Cook’s description of ‘indians’
(aborigines) bathing in 1776. Surfcraft in Chapter 12. ‘Riding the Waves’ is
interesting; particularly the sections on Isabel Letham (sic) page 156, Grace
Smith Wootton (1915 Victorian surfer) page 157 and C.J. (‘Snow’) McAllister
page 159; but does not progress much past 1970. The Chronology is useful, but
note the 1964 World Contest at Manly is listed as 1960. Photographic
Highlights: “Andrew ‘Boy’ Charlton and Snow McAllister, both wearing V
shorts over their bathing suits, with their boards at Manly, 1926” pages 88-89, ‘St Kilda
Life Saving Club Member with a surfboard ... Manly’ circa 1929, page 151,
‘Grace Wootton Smith’ page 157. See
image of Grace Smith Wooton and Win Harrison, Point Lonsdale , Victoria ,
circa 1916, Wells page 157.”
[31]
Harris, Reg.
S. Heroes of the Surf – The History of Manly Life Saving Club 1911-1961,
©1961, p. 55. Published by Manly Life Saving Club, NSW. Printed by
Publicity Press Ltd. Hard cover, 100 pages, 132 black and white photographs,
extensive membership/results lists. Geoff Cater writes of this resource: “Well
written, extensively researched and comprehensive account of the Manly Club,
with background dating back to 1880, this book is also a photograghic feast.
Special mention: Manly’s Top Boardmen 1939-40, page Fifty-four -reproduced on
Pods for Primates index page as Photograph #1. ‘The Birth of
the Board’ pages Fifty-two to Fitfty-six. ‘Surfboats’ pages Forty-three to
Forty-nine. Queenscliffe ‘Bombora’ page Ninety. Now a significant historical
record.”
[32] Brawley,
Sean. Vigilant and Victorious - A Community History of the Collaroy Surf
Life Saving Club 1911 – 1995, ©1995, pages 33-34. Collaroy Surf Life Saving Club Inc., PO Box 18 Cllaroy Beach
2097. Australia .
Hard cover, 410 pages, black and white photographs, Notes, Office Bearers,
Bronze Medallions, Subject Index, Name Index. Geoff Cater wrote: “Highly detailed account of one of Sydney ’s first Surf Life Saving clubs and the
growth of its community. Although
boardriding plays only a small part of such an expansive work, the significant
details recorded here are not available from any other source.”
[33]
Maxwell, C.
Bede. Surf : Australians Against the Sea, ©1949, page
237. Angus and Robertson, Sydney . Hard cover,
302 pages, 22 black and white plates. Geoff Cater wrote: “Beautifully written
and expertly researched, this book is ‘a
wave-to-wave description of surf lifesaving from its inception’ (to 1949), Adrian Curlewis, in the Foreward. An essential
resource for this period, much of the text has been reproduced in subsequent
works. Surfcaft are detailed in Chapter Three, Mountaineering
in Boats, and Chapter Seven, Surfboards
and Surf Skis. Special
mention: The evolution of the surfboard, from old style ‘solid’ to
modern ‘hollow’. Maroubra board-men Bruce Devlin, Frank Adler, and Vince
Mulcay.”
[34]
Harvey,
Richard. A Surfing History of Queensland - Gold Coast
- The Sunshine Coast
- Byron Bay , ©1983, p. 5. Olympic
Productions and Publications Pty Ltd, Gold Coast Queensland . 1983, Soft Cover,
pages, color photographs, black and white photographs, numerous colour/two tone
advertisements. Geoff Cater
wrote: “A rich store of rare and
interesting photographs accompanied by an informative but disjointed text. A
case of poor editing, the text jumps across time and geography without any
recourse to headings or chapters, except for The Islands (Stradbroke)
by Greg Curtis, page 78.
[35]
Thoms, Albie, ©2000, Noosa Heads ,
Queensland 4567. Hard cover,
extensive black and white as well as color photographs, posters, flyers, record
sleeves, documents, filmography; 192 pages. Geoff Cater wrote: “This is an
outstanding book, exhibiting extensive personal knowledge, rigorous research
and a committed love of the subject. Even if the core of the book (the actual
film references) was omitted, the additional notes on surfing history,
surfboard design, music, magazines, fashion and culture (both surf culture and
general observations) themselves would be a significant achievement. An
essential text.”
[36]
Maxwell, page 238.
[37]
Brawley, page 57.
[38]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html
[39]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html
[40]
Wells, page 152.
[41]
Galton, Barry. Gladiators of the Surf: The Australian Surf Life Saving Championships
– A History, ©1984, page 29. Published by AH & AW Read Pty Ltd., 2 Aquatic Drive , Frenchs Forest
NSW 2086. Soft cover, 122 black and white photographs, Australian Championships
Results, Index. Geoff Carter wrote: “A detailed work true to its subtitle,
mostly concentrating on contest results, with some background information where
appropriate. Surfboats feature throughout the book, with occasional surfskis
and boards. Photographic highlights include: old and modern surfski (‘Snow’
McAllister and Michael Pietre), page 8; Australian S.L.S.A. team at Outrigger
Canoe Club, Honolulu, 1939, p. 64; Hollow boards at North Bondi, 1947, page 74;
Duke Kahanamoku at Torquay, 1956, page 108; US-Hawaiian team members (with paddleboards),
Torquay, 1956, page 112 (incorrectly captioned ‘first of the malibus’).”
[42]
Galton, 1984, page 29.
[43]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html
[44]
Brawley, (1995), page 48.
[45]
Harris, pages 55-56.
[46]
Wells, p. 159. Snow McAlister quoted.
[47]
Galton, p. 35.
[48]
Wells, p. 159. Snow McAlister quoted.
[49]
Galton, p. 35.
[50]
Wells, pp. 159-160. England
AND South Africa ?
[51]
Brawley, 1996, p. 55, Reference: L. V. Hind to A.Curlewis, Curlewis Papers,
SLSA Archives.
[52]
Maxwell, 1949, p. 239.
[53]
http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/sc%5Csc.nsf/pages/Bergin_261103
[54]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html
[55]
Harvey , p. 8.
[56] Wells, p. 153. See also Snow McAlister, Wells
pages 159-160 and Sprint Walker, “Solid Wood Boards and Victorian Surfing,” Tracks
Magazine circa 1972. Reprinted circa 1973 in The Best of Tracks, page
191.
[57]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html
[58]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html
[59]
Brawley, 1995, pp. 95-96.
[60]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html
[61]
Harvey , p. 8.
[62]
Brawley, 1995, p. 91-95.
[63]
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1920_Solid_Wood.html - #22 : SMH, 21 September
1931.
[64]
Based on the movements of George Freeth, “The Father of California Surfing.”
[65]
Long Beach
Press, April 7, 1910.
[66]
Daily Telegram, September 4, 1911.
[67]
Long Beach
Press, February 26, 1921.
[68]
Long Beach
Press, May 3, 1921.
[69]
Daily Telegram, August 15, 1921.
[70]
Press-Telegram, December 31, 1926.
[71]
Press-Telegram, March 18, 1927.
[72]
Long Beach
Press, “Beacon Lights at Balboa Are Set,” December 26, 1923.
[73] Los Angeles Times, June 15,
1925. The Long Beach Press-Telegram of the same date reported that Duke
rescued 6, not 8. Duke Kahanamoku, Antar Derega, captain of the Newport
lifeguards; Charles Plummer, lifeguard; T.W. Sheffield, captain of the Corona
Del Mar Swimming Club; Gerard Vultee, William Herwig and Owen Hale, were all
those who went to the rescue.
[74]
Gault-Williams. LEGENDARY SURFERS Volume 2: Early 20th Century
Surfing and Tom Blake, ©2007.
[75]
Ball, John “Doc.” California
Surfriders, 1946.
[76]
Press-Telegram, July 16, 1928.
[77]
The Santa Ana Daily Register, July 31, 1928. See Lueras, Leonard.
Surfing, The Ultimate Pleasure, ©1984, designed by Fred Bechlen. Workman
Publishing, New York , NY , p. 104.
[78]
Press-Telegram, August 5, 1928.
[79]
Lueras, 1984, p. 83. See Blake’s notations. Notation has it at “Balboa Beach .”
[80]
Blake, Tom. Notes for Tommy Zahn, November 14, 1972, Midland , California .
[81]
Lueras, 1984, p. 82.
[82]
Blake, 1935, 1983, p. 59.
[83]
Blake, Tom. Notes for Tommy Zahn, November 14, 1972, Midland , California .
[84]
Press-Telegram, August 6, 1928.
[85]
Ball, 1946, 1979, 1995, p. 103.
[86]
Lynch, Gary .
Notes on draft of Doc Ball, Early California
Surf Photog, May 1998.
[87]
Ball, 1946, 1979, 1995, p. 103.
[88]
Blake, 1935, 1983, p. 59.
[89]
Gault-Williams, 2007.
[90]
Blake, Thomas E. “Surf-riding - The Royal and Ancient Sport,” The Pan
Pacific, 1930. See also Blake, 1935, 1983, p. 59. Blake wrote of his
replica (with drilled holes): “This surfboard was sixteen feet long and weighed
120 pounds.” Blake, Thomas E., “Surf-riding - The Royal and Ancient Sport,” The
Pan Pacific, 1930.
[91]
Lueras, 1984, p. 82. Tom Blake quoted. See photo with annotations in
Blake’s handwriting on p. 83.
[92]
Lynch, Gault-Williams, et. al. TOM BLAKE: Journey of a Pioneer Waterman,
©2001.
[93]
Blake, 1935, 1983, p. 51.
[94]
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 1929, article by Dr. D’Eliscu, quoted in Blake,
1935, p. 59.
[95]
Blake, 1935, 1983, p. 59. It was incorrectly spelled in Blake’s book. Pictures
of the board clearly have the name “Okohola” written on the board’s deck.
“Okohola,” translated, means whaling or a variety of sweet potato.
[96]
Finney and Houston ,
Surfing, The Sport of Hawaiian Kings, ©1966, p. 74.
[97]
Kahanamoku, ©1966, p. 39. In the original wording in the book, biographer
Brennan seems to have confused what one did standing vs. prone. Prone, one
dragged the arm; standing, the leg was the drag and direction changer.
[98]
Blake, 1935, 1983, pp. 51-52.
[99]
Honolulu
Star-Bulletin, December 2, 1929.
[100]
Honolulu
Star-Bulletin, December 2, 1929.
[101]
Honolulu
Star-Bulletin, December 2, 1929.
[102]
Blake, 1935, 1983, pp. 51-52. See also Lueras, p. 82.
[103]
Honolulu
Star-Bulletin, January 1, 1930. Article written by Francois D’Eliscu.
T. Keakona’s name incorrectly spelled as
“Kiakona.”
[104]
Lueras, 1984, p. 82. Quotations are presumably Sam Reid’s.
[105]
Honolulu
Star-Bulletin, January 1, 1930. T. Keakona incorrectly spelled as
“Kiakona.” See also Lynch, Gary, “Thomas Edward Blake: Beyond The
Horizon,” May 20 1989.
[106]
Honolulu
newspaper, January 2, 1930, by Andrew Mitsukado.
[107]
Blake, 1935, 1983, pp. 51-52. See also Lueras, p. 82.
[108]
Lueras, 1984, p. 82. Honolulu Star-Bulletin from 1955, with Sam Reid’s
quotations.
[109]
Lynch, Gary .
Interview with Wally Burton, May 10, 2000.
[110]
Lueras, 1984, p. 82. Sam Reid quoted. Parentheses probably Lueras’.
[111]
The Santa Monica Heritage Museum ,
“Cowabunga!” exhibit, 2/94 and Young, p. 49.
[112]
Blake, Tom. Letter to Tommy Zahn, October 12 & 14, 1972, postmarked from Midland , California .
Tommy’s notation to this achievement.
[113]
Lynch, Gault-Williams, et. al. TOM BLAKE: The Uncommon Journey of a Pioneer
Waterman, ©2001.
[114]
Honolulu
Star-Bulletin, “Announce List of Officials to Handle 1931 Surfboard Races,”
by Francois D’Eliscu, January 1, 1931.
[115]
Lynch, Gary .
Interview with Tommy Zahn. Date not specified.
[116]Lynch,
Gary . “Thomas
Edward Blake: Beyond The Horizon,” May 20, 1989.
[117]
Lynch, Gary .
Interview with Thomas Edward Blake, April 16, 1989, Washburn , Wisconsin .
[118]
Lueras, p. 82. Sam Reid quoted.
[119]
Kahanamoku, Duke with Brennan, Joe. World of Surfing, ©1968, Grosset &
Dunlap , New York ,
NY, p. 38. “Haole” is a Hawaiian term for a white person.
[120]
Blake, 1935, 1983, pp. 51-52.
[121]
See Gault-Williams, 2005, “Ancient Hawaiian Surfboards” chapter
for a detailed description of the differences between the olo, kiko’o, alaia,
and kioe (paipo) boards.
[122]
Brennan, 1994, p. 23.
[123]
Finney and Houston, 1966, p. 74.
[124]
Blake, 1935, 1983, p. 51. Duke indicated 1929, but it was most likely 1930. A
Duke olo currently hangs at Duke’s Canoe Club in Waikiki ,
but it is a later model than his 1930 olo.
[125]
Lynch, Gary .
“Thomas Edward Blake: Beyond The Horizon,” May 20, 1989.
[126]
Lynch, Gault-Williams, et. al. TOM BLAKE: The Uncommon Journey of a Pioneer
Waterman, ©2001.
[127]
Lynch, Gary .
“Thomas Edward Blake: Beyond The Horizon,” May 20, 1989.