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Showing posts with label Surfers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Surfers. Show all posts

Bel Air Bay Club Jetty, 1939.

In the late 1930s, Santa Monica teenager Don James roamed the California coastline with a band of friends and their 90-pound wooden surfboards. They slept in lifeguard huts and lived off of abalone scooped from the ocean, and avocados and oranges pilfered from nearby farms. They did it all in the name of surfing, which had recently landed in their home state.

James had seen Tom Blake’s surf photographs in National Geographic, and at the age of 16, he began taking his own with his dad’s Kodak Brownie—the first camera marketed and accessible to non-professionals. The black-and-white photos he made in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s show his friends riding waves in tandem and replenishing themselves after a long day in the water by catching lobsters, strumming on ukuleles, and lounging under palms.

He became one of the first to chronicle the culture developing around surfing as it spread south from Malibu to Santa Monica and San Onofre. By the 1960s, when the sport broke into the mainstream, James remained one of its most celebrated documentarians. Surfer Magazine tapped James and younger photographers like Ron Stoner to shoot the exploding California surf community. He updated his craft as the technology changed, too, eventually capturing teeming surf contests and crowded beaches in color.

Ralph Kiewit, Jack Quigg, Dick Reed and Roger Bohning, Malibu 1939.

During the post Gidget era his talents appeared in commercials and on posters, Don James has been described as "The Premier Photographer of Surfing".

Don's beloved best-seller book is finally back in print, Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume: 1936-1942 , tells the story of the heady and innocent years of Santa Monica's nascent surf scene just prior to America's entry into World War II. Beautifully designed, this intimate, album-sized collection of photographs, printed in rich duotones and evocative color, captures the optimism and experimentation, the styles, the flirtatiousness and the freedoms taken--all from an insider's point of view. They were made by the young Don James, a teenager who documented the scene with his father's old Kodak folding camera when he wasn't up on a longboard himself. Out in the surf, down on the sand, aboard somebody's boat, dancing around a campfire, back-flipping off the lifeguard stand, collecting lobster, drinking at the bar and generally wearing as little as possible, here are the regulars of the southern California beach scene, un-self-conscious and perpetually glamorous, alongside loving portraits of the beach and the ocean themselves.

"It was a balmy Sunday and the news about the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor was coming in over the radio. We were paying $60 a month for rent, which was split three ways, and life was good. Suddenly everything had changed. We all knew we were going off to war." For the half-decade preceding World War II, photographer Don James and his cronies lived in the balmy Eden of the southern California coastline, surfing from San Onofre north to Point Dume. "Surfing is life all the rest is details," someone once philosophized. In Don James's six-year diary of life in paradise, surfing is indeed life, but the beauty is in the details. James's sun-drenched remembrance of a paradise lost introduces us to a cast of golden children that Bruce Weber might well envy, and leaves us with at least one mystery: What ever became of Jack Power? According to Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume , "One day he walked down the beach and was never seen nor heard of again." Where did Jack Power go? Into the sunset, no doubt. Where the details hide.
Imagine surfing a perfect blue wave on a 90-pound redwood longboard, off a deserted beach of sparkling white sand. Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume takes us back to the halcyon days of pre-war California, when the earliest American surfers were busy inventing beach culture. Meet these tussle-haired free spirits who camped on the deserted beaches of Southern California, had lobster bakes and luaus with local Hollywood girls, and surfed at a time when nobody knew what surfing was. The beautiful and nostalgic photographs that surfer Don James took of himself and his friends capture the lost Eden of the California surf dream in all its glory and innocence.





Story by Laylan Connelly.

Mike Doyle, a regular on the Malibu surf scene during the ’50s.



Mike Doyle, a waterman known for his big-wave prowess — one of the original “hot doggers” — died in his sleep early Tuesday morning, April 30. He was 78.

Doyle, who had been battling ALS, was a champion, inventor, boardmaker — an icon in the sport of surfing. Born in 1941, he grew up in Lawndale and caught his first wave at the Manhattan Beach Pier at age 13. He would soon become a pivotal figure in the South Bay and Malibu surf culture.

He spent his later years as an artist in Mexico, at San Jose del Cabo, where he died.

“It is a beautiful day here in San Jose, the waves are perfect and we know Mike is in Heaven with a smile on his face, surfing an endless wave,” an announcement on the Doyle Surfboards Facebook page reads, noting he was with his wife, Annie, when he passed.

Doyle, who was inducted into the Surfer’s Hall of Fame in Hermosa Beach in 2013, noted then that his “biggest memory was winning the Hermosa Beach annual surf festival contest and winning the tandem event and getting married – all in the same day.”

Competitively, Doyle was among the world’s best in the ’50s and ’60s, earning numerous surf championships, including the Duke Kahanamoku title and the West Coast Surfboard Championship.

He’s also a member of the Surfers’ Hall of Fame and Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach, inducted to both in 2003, and the International Surfboard Builders Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 2009.

Doyle’s life as a surfer started in 1954, while he watched South Bay icons Dale Velzy, Bob Hogans and Greg Noll ride waves at the Manhattan Beach Pier, according to an article in the Daily Breeze. He worked as an apprentice to Velzy and Noll building balsa boards in 1959. He was also a Manhattan Beach lifeguard in 1960 and 1961.

According to the Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center in San Clemente, Doyle famously sold Kathy Kohner, aka “Gidget,” her first surfboard in 1956 and then worked as a stunt double in “Gidget” in 1959.

Boogie board inventor Tom Morey remembers seeing Doyle as a regular on the Malibu surf scene during the ’50s.

“When I first met him, he was already an accomplished rider in the South Bay area,” Morey, who lives in San Clemente, said recently.

He recalled Doyle’s big smile under a floppy hat his mother made — a popular character with a big stature and unique style in the surf.

“If there’s a show, Doyle’s in it … he’s one of the original hot-doggers,” said Morey, referring to a surfer’s showboating style on the waves.

The two surfers had something in common – a passion for invention.

Doyle, while working in Encinitas, used the boogie board material for the first soft-top board ever made, in 1970, the same boards that countless beginners use in waves today.

He also helped to create surf wax and a single ski, the Monoski, the seed for what would become the modern-day snowboard.

“To sum up Doyle in some kind of words, here’s a really fabulous guy, a real icon and definitely a champion,” Morey said. “I don’t know how many surf contests he’s won, but quite a few. And how many giant waves he’s ridden, but a lot. And how many innovations he’s had in the surfing world … revolutionizing, with his pals, the soft board is his deal and surf wax is a big deal.”

Doyle wasn’t in it for the riches, and in his book Morning Glass wrote about how people over the years would say “how rich I would be if only I’d had the good sense to invest in this or that project.”

“But I don’t look at it that way. Most people have to choose between money and freedom, and I made my choice a long time ago,” he wrote in an excerpt of the book published in the San Diego Reader.

He wrote that his heart still leaped when he saw a car full of surfers going down the highway with a rack of surfboards.



“Probably no man alive has gone on more surf adventures than I have, yet I still haven’t had enough,” wrote Doyle, who moved to Mexico in the ’80s to be an artist and to run a surf school. “If the conditions are right, I’ll walk away from anything to spend a day in the water with my friends.”

The surf is only good at certain times, and if you’re a serious surfer, you’ve designed your life around it, he noted.

“You have to make the time to be there when the surf is good.”
A paddle out held on Tuesday … at Surfrider Beach .. for Randy Nauert … a Malibu original. Nauert was never as famous as Dick Dale … but he followed a similar career ark. The teenaged surfer from the Palos Verdes Peninsula started making music in the surf wave of the early 1960s. His group was called The Challengers. Originally known as The Bel-Airs, they were one of the earliest “surf bands,” initially playing school dances and small clubs around Hermosa Beach. Words from 991KBU
Photos from Sandy Sandbakken


A paddle out held on Tuesday , April 16th … at Surfrider Beach .. for Randy Nauert … a Malibu original. Nauert was never as famous as Dick Dale … but he followed a similar career ark.

The teenaged surfer from the Palos Verdes Peninsula started making music in the surf wave of the early 1960s.

His group was called The Challengers.

Originally known as The Bel-Airs, they were one of the earliest “surf bands,” initially playing school dances and small clubs around Hermosa Beach.

In January 1963 they released “Surfbeat” …. it became a massive hit and helped put the surf rock genre on the map.

Nauert moved to Malibu … his T V show Wave Watch was a staple on malibu public access television for 104 episodes.

Nauert lived in Encinal Canyon … he was a familiar sight in his Arson Watch van around Malibu.

His compound burned in the Woolsey Fire … he suffered a heart attack while clearing land two months after the fire.

At the paddle out … his longtime friend and TV show associate Peter Townsend said it was the fire.

“I would think that those fires had an effect on Randy. Because t was his nature to help everybody. And every time you would see a photo on Facebook, he loved his Facebook, there would see a photo of him helping somebody. You know Randy was in his 70s now. And he was up there clearing properties, and friggin’ treating them as if he was a teenager. And I’m sure that didn’t help him when he finally has a heart attack.”

Randy Nauert was eulogized by his longtime friend … John Mazza.

“He really was the spirit of Malibu.”



Randy's band still has their music on Amazon:



A 5 minute micro-documentary on acclaimed surfboard maker and Venice Beach local, Guy Okazaki. A behind-the-scenes look at how he creates his hand-crafted surfboard designs, something he has been mastering in Venice Beach for more than 30 years.


Topanga's Shane Borland heads down south for some waves in Mexico.

Venice surfer, USFS Firefighter Steven Moak, who was one of the local hero's during Malibu's Woolsey fire is currently in critical condition and on life support right now.


"This is my best friend and my uncle Steven Moak. He fell to his sickness and addiction on Tuesday afternoon. 2018 was a year that I wanted to move forward from and was hopeful that 2019 was going to be great but that’s just not in the plans at the moment. He’s a fighter and is fighting strong for his life. Right now he is on life support and around the clock dialysis which is our last ditch effort at the moment. Please send prayers to Steven. We also ask that if you know him, PLEASE respect the PRIVACY of our family and DO NOT COME to the hospital right now. He is in very critical condition and cannot have any visitors other than DIRECT family. We love you so much Steve. Stay strong my brother." - Lyon Herron


"He is a real life super hero, who risked himself for the well being of others, and helped to lead a whole community in the face of tragedy. He is resilient and strong and we are all praying 🙏🏼❤️ to see him walk away. We love you Weeeeze. Your family still needs you Brother." - Mighty Under Dogs.

For those who know him, please, do not come to the hospital per the request of family and medical staff. Respect their privacy during this very critical and private time. 🙏❤️ Thank you!


The last eight days have been truly remarkable and both good and bad. The stories we could tell would fill a library. The short of it is when many people evacuated these guys stayed behind, fought the fires & protected Point Dume Malibu on their own. The media has branded them as "surfers", which is true, however they failed to mention that they are also County Lifeguards, Off-duty FD, Woodsmen, Outdoorsmen, Production Coordinators & Ex-Military. Without all of their expertise in every different facet & their local knowledge of the canyons/streets, they wouldn't have been able to accomplish what they did. These MEN posted up on mountains overnight to spot fires, tactically strike Hot-spots, put out Flare-up's, coordinated boat deliveries and delivered of all the supplies in their trucks to the local elementary school where locals again handled the situation. This amazing Band of Brothers had their metal tested over the last 8 days, barely sleeping, barley eating, putting their bodies in harms way to protect what they love and never once complained. I’ve never been so proud to work with such a rare group of individuals. All I ask is that you post a picture tomorrow morning (Tuesday Morning) and give them a little love. That’s it….


If anyone asks “why the Bomberos?”…It's a nod to the old school Point Dume Bombers (As in to “Bomb" a wave i.e. drop in on a heavy wave). Here is a quote from Lyon Herron, a life long Point Dume Local and amazing surfer. “The bombers were an infamous group of true local Point Dume locals that regulated the point in not always the best way. Our take is to truly give back and teach history to the coming you about their home. Teach them how to earn respect and love one another. The Point Dume Bomberos today are a representation of our home that has given us so much. We stand together to keep our community strong and not let it fall apart."

Go Fund Me Page: Malibu Disaster Prevention & Relief


Allen Sarlo talks about his Total Knee Replacement at Saint John’s Health Center.
Banks Journal introduces their newest Comrade West Adler



Fourteen miles from the center of LA lies the famous seaside town of Venice Beach. What first started out as the 'Venice of America', a short lived residential concept by tobacco tycoon Abbott Kinney, the heavily neglected 2 mile stretch of coast quickly transgressed into the 'Slum By the Sea'. The waterways and canals that first drew so many people to the area on the Westside soon became clogged and unnavigable from local oil drilling. Corrupt politics, mismanaged money, and gang violence indirectly became a perfect melting pot for hippies, weirdos, punks and surfers alike. It was here where a homeless bum, Jim Morrison, started writing his first lyrics and booze induced poetry. Jack Kerouac called it a jungle. Andy Warhol called it plastic.


A few blocks inland and the scene transforms to a burgeoning mixture of foodies, socialites and techies. Locals know it as Abbot Kinney Boulevard where more often than not, money is no object. But there's still pockets of the ol' Venice stretch, just visit the boardwalk on any given day or night and you'll be bombarded by the sights, sounds, and yeah, smells. For some, it's a bit easier to navigate than the clogged canals and selfie taking influencers.


We meet West out front of his house. He's 18 and just graduated high school, drives an old Benz and has a couple small dogs that bravely try to chase us away until we bribe them with belly rubs. As the newest comrade to our Banks Journal team, we saw it only fitting to spend some time with the Venice local and (admittedly) make him remind us of what it's like being fresh out of school with nothing but surf on the agenda.

BANKS: Hey West! So tell me about yourself, were you born and raised in Venice?

WEST:
Yeah, not always in the same spot but yeah, Venice it is. I actually was in Topanga for a few years, but came back for my last year of school.

BANKS: How is it up in Topanga?

WEST:
It's cool man, just really far from basically everything. You're close to the valley I guess, but nobody wants to be close to the valley, it's hot and boring. Having to navigate traffic around that area is a nightmare. Surfing Topanga, was just as hard to get to as any of the other local breaks, and if you don't leave before the sun comes up you'll be stuck for hours. Both ways, even though I lived right there. I love surfing Topanga though, I like the left better than the right... if you know, than you know.

BANKS: Bit of localism there, huh...

WEST:
Oh yeah, it's always been like that, such a protected beach even though everyone surfs there. Everyone surfs there and everyone gets yelled at, but it still doesn't deter anyone from going out. It's kinda weird, kinda funny. I've seen people snap fins out of other boards there... Stuff like that isn't even a big deal anymore. I mean it used to be more when I was younger, but it's kinda phased out now, almost. Localism in general, how fast it phased out, was kinda crazy. I remember seeing people get their ass beat in the parking lot with lead pipes and that wouldn't fly anymore. BANKS: I wonder if it's because people film everything these days... WEST: Yeah, and just the volume of people that have moved to Venice or vacation here, is so insane. There's no way you could stop it all, even with heavy localism. It's like a horde of locusts. You can try to catch 'em all but you'll never be able to. It sucks haha. But hey, at least Venice has good food now! LA food used to be such trash. Now it's kinda become a mecca. I like that part about it, there's a few businesses that I appreciate being here that have added some value.

BANKS: What's your go-to spot to surf around here?

WEST:
The Pier. Although I've been finding these fun little novelty waves in, uhh, we'll say in Dockweiler. And yeah, more recently I've been surfing those but most often you can find me at the pier. Always the pier. There's always gonna be something I can stand up on there cuz the waves are usually shit around here. So at least I know it'll be working. It's close to my house, I know where to park, and I don't have to give a shit, I can just do whatever. It's Venice, it's a little fun, piece of shit wave.

BANKS: Welcome to LA.... What are you usually surfing on?

WEST:
It depends. Usually in the summer, there's a super fun peak that forms off the north side, so I'll surf a shortboard or something. I've been having a ton of fun on this Rabbit's Foot that I have, it's amazing. It's a Lovelace board that I actually got to shape with him back in 2014, but I just glassed it. It's been wrapped in plastic for like 4 years haha. That thing goes great around here actually, I was surprised. It's an asymmetrical finless, it relies more on channels with a bit of hull influence. There's a lot of different edges and concaves on the board, it's a trip, something you need to see and feel. I love finless boards, I've been surfing them since I was thirteen, I actually bought an alaia for my birthday that year. Like a 6'2" Wegener. It happened to be too big, pretty funny actually, because I traded that in for my first longboard! So that's when I picked up longboarding, kinda random haha.

BANKS: What's your quiver like now?

West: My favorite boards at the moment are:

9’4” Thomas Surfboards Harry model
7’0” 88 Surfboard (always finless)
5’8” Dead Kooks 80s model...it has sick green airbrushed flames.
5’3” Ryan Lovelace Rabbits Foot
5’1” Thomas Surfboards Fish

See more of West in action on his Comrade Page here .


Join Crap surf fam Jared Mell in Malibu for a classic summer day of beach and beers and south swell.


Local grom, now on the WSL QS tour, Noah Hill is still trying to make vlogs, unfortunately they're still bad...
Watch the new film from Jeff Ho and Vissla.                                                                                                                                                                            
    
    
    
    
    
    

Here are photos from the paddle out for Santa Monica ripper, Cove kingpin and Zephyr Team member Ronnie Jay at Topanga. If you were out there, you probably got some surfing shots in the complete photo gallery, check them out, the link is down below.

















You can find these and some more photos from the paddle out, all full size and in high-resolution, in this photo galley:

Ronnie Jay Paddle Out Photo Gallery


Photos of the surfing are in this post:
Click Topanga Surf Photos - Sunday 7-1-2018
Santa Monica ripper, Cove kingpin and Zephyr Team alumni passes away with early Alzheimer’s at 66.




So young, it seemed, for a guy whose energy and smile seemed to light up any spot he chose to surf. As a top dog on the fabled Zephyr Team, Ronnie held down the Santa Monica surf scene during the 1970’s with a dynamic blend of exceptional ability and unquestioned authority, especially when it came to some of the more localized breaks like the old P.O.P. Pier, where he virtually ruled The Cove. Yet there was nothing dark about Ronnie’s presence in the water or on land. Stacy Peralta, a junior Zephyr Team member at the time, remembers Ronnie’s impact:

“Ronnie wasn’t just the hottest guy around, he was an inspiration. He lifted our entire beach every time he went in the water. And not just by how good he was, but with his spirit, with his sense of humor.”


L: Jeff Ho. R: Ronnie Jay. Photo: Dana Woolfe


An electrician by trade, in a different era Ronnie’s power-hungry surf style might have led him down another path.

“He was a really, really good surfer,” says Peralta. “In this day and age he probably could’ve had a career as a pro. But he was ahead of his time in his thinking. Back in the mid-‘70s, I got sponsored to go to Australia for the first time as a pro skateboarder. And I remember Ronnie coming to me and saying, “You’re getting an opportunity guys like me never got. You’ve got to respect that. Other guys might go down there and throw TVs out hotel windows, but not you. Respect it, and remember that you’re representing us.”

Ronnie Jay continued to surf hot, continued to be the local’s local, even when he began showing troubling symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Though his cognitive abilities waned, his interest in surfing never did — the sands and waves of his youth providing a constant touchstone right up until the end.


"Whenever you walked into Jeff Ho's Surf Shop in the 70's, Ronnie was easily recognizable with his high pitch voice and his friendly demeanor." recalls Robert Terris. "You knew you were at a special place in a special time. Some guys in the shop had ego's but not Ronnie you could easily talk to him about board design with their surfboards on display for sale. I got to surf with him several times in my late teens and early twenties at Bay St. And I also had Ronnie in my same heat in a Pacific West Surf Contest down at Bay St in the early 80's. I'll always remember Ronnie and the other's hanging in the Jeff Ho Surf Shop talking Story and drinking Carrot juice in the mid 70's not to many other's were into health foods like those guy's were in the 70's. I will miss Ronnie's friendly smile ingrained into my memory. Aloha Ronnie you belonged to a golden age of Surfing's past."

Ronnie’s ashes will be returned to the waves he loved at a small memorial to be held at Topanga Point on July 1st, 2018.