THE FIRST YEAR

By Corky Carroll

The first year was 1959 and the official title for the big contest was the “West Coast Surfing Championships.”  They would change that two years later to the “United States Surfing Championships.”  It began a tradition to hold the event on a late September weekend each year as that was when the big summer south swells would roll through.  Some years it was pretty big too.  The first one got lucky and had good size and quality surf at the same time.  I was an eleven-year-old wide-eyed gremmie and being at the event was like being in surf puppy heaven.  All these big name surfers from all over the world showed up.  This was even better than being at a surf movie. 

This was my first contest and I was pretty scared.  O.K., really scared.  There was a solid south swell running that I was thinking was about fifty feet.  Looking back at the photos now I can see it was closer to 6 feet, but it seemed huge to me then.   I got eliminated in my first heat and got to spend the rest of the weekend watching from the pier.  I loved it.  

All the big names were right there in front of my very eyes.   And the best of the locals were there too.  Jack Haley and Sam Buehl were standouts through the whole weekend.  Both of these two were the “big brothers” of two of the hottest surfers on the California coast, Mike Haley and Denny Buehl.  This, along with Robert August and Tim Dorsey, was the Seal Beach surf royalty at the time. 

On Sunday the surf was excellent and it was one of those beautiful fall days.  Jack Haley was using his local knowledge of the south side of the Huntington Beach pier to his advantage all morning.  The sandbar on the south side can be fickle at that time of year depending on the size of the swell and the tide.  When the Mens final heat rolled around it was pretty much a medium tide.  This allowed the waves to line up into the pier but not with overwhelming power.  It was big enough to be exciting yet still very hotdogable conditions. 

The wave that sealed the deal for Jack was what started out to be a normal clean looking overhead peak a couple hundred feet away from the pier.  As he dropped in the wave lined up nicely towards the pier.  Jack turned off the bottom and took a nice high line towards the pilings.  He was in perfect trim as he went into the pier.  Before coming out the other side the wave backed off a little bit and he did a cut back and rode straight up the middle of the pier for a couple of rows of pilings.  Then he turned back right and came back through the pier.  The crowd went crazy.  This was back in the days when “shooting the pier” was still a kinda wild and crazy thing to do.  Jack had not only “shot it,” but he had actually both “shot it and then unshot it.”  It was a miracle. 

Viola!  Jack Haley became our first champion.  He went on to become a surfboard builder and owner of Captain Jack’s Restaurant in Sunset Beach.  The next year his little brother Mike was champion.

FIFTY YEARS AND COUNTING

By Corky Carroll

I was sitting here pondering the fact that this year marks the 50^th anniversary of the United States Surfing Championships here in Huntington Beach.  It has gone through a few changes over the years but what it comes down to is the big dog and pony show right here.  All the top surfers in the world have been here for this event at one time or another. 

The first couple of years they held it, 1959 and 1960, it was actually called the West Coast Surfing Championships.  They changed it in 1961 to the United States Surfing Championships.  I think this year the official name is the “Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing.”  Bob Hurley being the Hurley in the title.  He is the Hurley in Hurley Surfwear, one of the biggies and the besties in the surfing industry.

The event in 1959 was my very first surfing competition.  I was a very scared eleven-year-old surf brat from up the beach in Surfside Colony.  The waves were pretty big on that Saturday in September as I paddled out for the first time in a competition jersey.  I got third in my first heat and did not qualify to go on.  However I did bask in the fact that I beat three other guys at least five years older than me. 

I fared about the same in the next few years until I finally broke through and won the Junior Mens and the Paddle Race in 1963.  

One of the cool things about the contest in the early years where the amazing characters that would show up each year.  Like there was this dude who was some sort of American Indian chief or something.  He would go out in his heat wearing a long Indian headdress; ya know the kind with all the feathers and stuff.  There was another dude who would light a torch.  Plus you could get a real up close and personal view of the best surfers in the world from the pier.  I would spend the whole weekend up there watching heat after heat and then go home and try to copy some of the cool moves I got to see the “good guys” do.  

We had lots of local heroes who did well in the contest each year.  Louie Tarter, Pete Kobzev, Denny Buehl, Robert August and of course Jack and Mike Haley.  Jack won the ’59 event and his little brother Mike won in ’60.   Tarter won the Juniors in ’59 and Kobzev won it in ’62.  Geeze, these years are sooooooo long ago.  This was back in the days when “shooting the pier” was still considered a wild and crazy thing to do.  Jack won the ’59 event because he shot it and then came back the other way and unshot it.   In 1961 Ron Sizemore won it because he shot it standing backwards. 

In upcoming weeks I will further reminisce about the years that I competed, ’59 to ’72.