A TOWN WITH A BIG LINE UP

By Corky Carroll

 

Huntington Beach is a surf town first and foremost.  It has had more than it’s share of great surfers come from here.   Many of them have achieved fame around the world.  Some at least on a “west coast” level.  And some only locally.  Some of those local talents have had world class ability though.  With all the surf in this town both at the pier and up and down the beach breaks from the “river jetty” to the south to Bolsa Chica to the north it is easy to see why this area would produce more talented surfers than other beach towns.  There is more surf. 

 

When I was a kid there were a whole group of guys who surfed at the pier that had great chops and never became known outside the city limits.

 

In the early seventies when surfing sort of went out of the limelight and nobody really got much attention there was a group of guys that were surfing here that virtually came and went without notice other than within themselves and the locals at that time.  A few weeks ago I got an email from one of them.  A dude named Al Cyrino.  Al is now a fire Chaplin in Riverside but remembers that period here in Surf City very well.  At that very time I had taken off to the mountains to play music and ski.  I was not all that familiar with this group of pier rats so I asked Al to write me back and give me a little look at who was there and what it was like during those years.   The following is his email back to me:

 

“Surf city in the early seventies up through the early eighties was not anything like it is today. In fact beyond the “Locals” no one really visited the area unless to surf and that was dominated by the “Locals” as we referred to ourselves back then.

 

Main Street was all surf shops, which were dominated by Georges and Jacks. PCH by Plastic Fantastic and Infinity. Above the surf shops were dilapidated apartments inhabited by some of the older people than I was at the time. Unfortunately it was a haven for drugs and other illicit goings on.

 

Downtown had mainly abandoned oilman housing we called “Shacks”. Us surfers would squat one out as our own and stash our surfboards and such. A sort of clubhouse for poor surf kids with only two things in mind, girls and waves.

 

Our surfboards were all the backyard variety shaped by one of the local shapers (Chris Hawk/Carl Hayward) for about twenty-five bucks. Glassing was always done at Plastic Fantastic for about thirty bucks, totaling about seventy-five dollars including the blank.  Our wet suits were a hodgepodge of used dive suits “Beavertails and Long Johns”, anything to keep warm in winter.

 

Corky, we were a group of kids primarily of single working moms, no father, and a lot of time on our hands. We surfed, and we survived on Egg Heaven hash browns and coffee (seventy-five cents) and the occasional smoothie from Georges Surf Shop. We hitchhiked just about everywhere back then and rode bicycles around town or a skateboard made up of plywood and metal wheels.

 

It was an innocent time for all of us and we did what we could to survive. The point is out of this forgotten time came many of the hottest surfers of the time that received little or no credit for their contributions to surfing.

 

Greg Clemens for example. A David Bowie look alike with spiked hair and a zebra striped 5′ 6″ single fin Swallow Tail he shaped himself would tear up the south side. 360’s out of the barrel and through the pier. A nicer guy never lived, but he died tragically of a drug overdose some years later.

 

Jackie Dunn, a Pipeline Master also a “Downtown Local”, died tragically of an overdose as well. The era is overshadowed by the drug abuse of the time and “Surf City” would rather forget that it ever existed. The fact is we did!

 

Keeping in mind not all of us fell into the grips of drug abuse. I ran into Bobby Nishi some time back and he told me he provides rehab to some of the guys from then just leaving incarceration and those troubled with addiction still. Rick Fignetti still operates a surf shop in town, and old George can be seen on beach cruiser from time to time riding to Mothers Market.

 

Well, and then there is me. I am a Fire Chaplain with the Riverside County Fire Department. I am married to a wonderful girl form back east, who tries desperately to understand those days of old but has hard time seeing past the glamour of what is Surf City today.

 

I do hope you can shed a little light on those bygone days and those I affectionately refer too as the “Lost Boyz.”  Their ghosts still stand on the pier on those early morning days of winter with one hand on the railing and the other on their old bicycle handlebar checking out the first sets of a south swell.”

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WINTER BEACH DAZE

By Corky Carroll

 

This time of year it can be difficult to get in enough surfing to feel fulfilled.  Of course I guess that would depend on how much surfing you actually need to reach that magic zone of surf satisfaction.  Some people can surf once or twice a week, or month for that matter, and feel that’s all they need.  Others, like myself, have a greater need.  We would be what you would have to call, addicted to surf.  “Hi, my name is Corky.  I am a surf addict.”  I gotta have it on pretty much an everyday basis to feel right with the world.  Balanced and all that.  If I go for any extended lengths of time without going surfing I get all nervous and grouchy.  As my wife, the extremely kool Kika, she can tell ya.  She has been known to push me out the door and tell me not to come back until I have ridden at least twenty-five waves.  You just don’t wanna be around anybody going through “surf withdrawals,” it’s not a pretty story.

 

So whadda ya do on these freezing cold days when the wind is blowing a zillion miles an hour and the surf is horrible?  Bowling?  A few beers and greasy cheeseburgers at the Lanes?  That is only frustrating and fattening.  Movies are good but not the physical release that the body needs.

 

Sometimes I just go down to the beach and walk around.  A couple of bags of those cheesy tasting goldfish are good to take along.  Not for me, but to feed the birds.  They love those things.  Feeding the birds is really kinda fun.  Also taking along a big trash bag is a good thing because there is always trash that can be picked up and by doing that it always gives me a little warm feeling that I might be doing something socially redeeming, so to speak.  It’s points on the “good boy” side in the continuous ledger of life.  Looking back at my long ledger it’s pretty obvious that I need a ton of points to the good side to try and at least balance the thing out before the final day when the tally is taken and the decision on which way I will be headed from there will be determined. 

 

Not long ago I was on one of my afternoon beach strolls when I saw a whole bunch of dolphins riding waves and jumping in and out of the water right in the surf zone.  I have seen this many times before but it always amazes me and gives me a really nice feeling inside.  It’s hard to explain.  A few times I have actually been in the water right next to them when they were surfing.  They make these really cool underwater takeoffs and can actually ride inside the wave and jump out of the face at great speeds.  They are much better surfers than humans by far.  The coolest dolphin surf session that I ever witnessed was on a huge day in Puerto Rico.  I was standing on the beach at a surf spot named “Tres Palmas” getting ready to paddle out.  The waves were fifteen to twenty feet and perfect.  Nobody was out.  All of a sudden I saw a whole pack, maybe five or six, of dolphins take off inside this massive wave.  They were streaking down the line going really fast when all at once they came jumping right out of the face and into the air.  They continued down the wave surfing it perfectly and jumping in and out of the water.  Best ride I ever saw on a big wave.   There is a guy who lives in Laguna Beach that is a master body surfer and he can ride inside a wave like a dolphin but I have never seen him be able to jump out of the face like that. 

 

Another cool thing to watch is the birds who soar right in the curl of waves.  They usually come in squadrons and can surf the air pockets in the faces of waves.  That is cool to watch.  Especially cool if you are in the water and you see them coming in on an outside swell and they go screaming right by you.  I would really love to be able to do that. 

 

The other day I saw a big whale that was blowing it’s stack and jumping out of the water about a half-mile out.  Almost always there is something cool to be a part of, at least visually, near the water.  If you can’t go out and ride it at least it’s sort of a tranquilizer to walk next to it and feel the energy.