Monday, April 23, 2012

Tuckin' In For A Tube Ride


My shoulder was still not improving even after going thru the punishment of several months of physical therapy. My doctor reluctantly agreed to schedule surgery to clean up my rotator cuff and shave down the bone spur in my left shoulder. The surgery date was set for January 13 (my grandma’s birthday), 2003. At twenty four years old I was pretty sure I was going to die during surgery from some sort of genetically inherited family curse passed on by my father. My Father had his palm read when he was young and the palm reader told him that we would die before he was thirty years old, and he did. 



I have no memory of him because he died when I was two years old. I have a few pictures of my father and I look just like him although my mom says I look slightly better than him. I didn’t tell anyone about my fear of dying before I turned thirty, I didn’t want anyone to worry about me or think I was paranoid.

I figured this day may be the last time I got to go out surfing so I had better make the best of it. Skip and I checked out the avenues and ended up at Burnout. There was only a few heads out and the rights were super clean. The sun was bright and there was only a slight off shore breeze and a few people sat on the big storm sand berm’s to watch the surfers brave the cold water. We paddled out and I was already dialed in after just a few waves. I did a lot of one arm paddling back to line up to limit the stress on my bad shoulder. All the waves barreled and I had a good chance of making it out of most of them. I didn’t mind not making it out of the barrel, because when I did make it out I wondered if I could’ve gotten in deeper. 

Surfer: Eric Cedeno
Location: Burnout, Torrance CA


Between waves I saw a man sitting on the sand berm with a big camera and a very long lens. He must’ve been shooting for a magazine or something and of course I wanted my picture taken so I kept getting barreled. It wasn’t the biggest wave to come by but I could tell it was lining up to be a good one. I made the quick drop and tucked into the pocket. The sun’s reflection off the water was bright and dragged my right hand in the water to slow down just a little. I was surprised the wave held up as long as it did. It’s true, when I’m in the barrel time does slow down. I calmly made it out of the pocket and kicked out over the top of the remaining wave. I paddled back out for more hoping that the guy with the big camera would stick around long enough for me to find out if he got any pictures of me, but he soon left.

Two days later (Thursday November 23, 2002) Skip calls me up and tell me that I have to go buy the news paper. Skip said,” There’s this guy on the second page of the Daily Breeze that you know. Go get one and check it out.” So I did. I opened it up and saw a picture of me surfing Burnout. I knew the exact wave, the precise moment that the picture was taken. I'll never forget it.


Surfer: Eric Cedeno
Location: Burnout, Torrance CA
Published: Daily Breeze
Date: November 23, 2002

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Beginner Surf Lessons 110%

I forgot that some of you out there haven't started surfing yet and might need a few helpful hints on how to start. I found a good youtube video that covers a lot of information about learning how to surf (both longboard and shortboard). It gives detailed pointers with great visual examples about  surfing basics, surfing etiquette, surfing techniques and surfing terms. I think this film was made in England so some of the terms used are a little different than what we use here in Southern California, but it's close enough to get the point across. It's also the longest video on Youtube that I have ever found. Chances are it will be removed sometime in the future so take a look while you still can.


Hope this helps you get started in your adventures in surfing....

A Real Christmas Story…..


I stopped surfing in August of 1990 because summer was over and the water was just too cold for me. I was already looking forward to Christmas in hopes that I might get a new body glove wetsuit to keep me warm. I just had to get thru the next few months of school. It was nice to see my friends again when school started up. I didn’t notice but my friends all noticed that my voice had changed sometime over the summer. I guess surfing changes a person. I’m not sure why but the seventh grade was tough and I got in a lot of fights. I didn’t start them, I just finished them by pinning my opponent down on the ground in a headlock until a teacher or watch guard came over to break up the fight. At home I would fight with my moody older sister over who got to pick what to watch on TV. For some reason I still looked up to her and not just because she was taller than me at the time. 

Sometime that November my sister and her friends decided it was a good idea to clean up the garage so it could become a hangout area. I think the initial idea was a good one. I helped stack the forgotten boxes from our move from Hawthorne and the older boxes from our other move from Oklahoma to California. The dusty garage started looking a little brighter even though the garage door was still closed.  Around the time it started looking pretty cleaned up a friend of my sister asked if they could tag it. I asked them what they meant by tagging and they said that it meant you get to write your name on the wall. I didn’t see why anyone would want to do that, but figured I’d better keep my mouth shut because I was out numbered and I didn’t want to sound like a stupid kid. I’m not sure where the spray paint cans came from but somehow they appeared and people were writing their nicknames on the walls. I didn’t have a cool nickname like all of them so I drew a red happy face instead. 

It was starting to get a bit stuffy with all the paint fumes and of course that was when my mom pulled into the driveway after her busy day at work. We all heard the car come to a stop and then just a few seconds later mom was struggling with the sticky lock on the garage door. I suddenly felt like maybe mom wasn’t going to like the tagging and we were going to get really busted. The garage door opened and the shock on my mom’s face was enough to make us all aware that we were in deep. After my mom had ripped into us about how disappointed she was my sister and I were banished to our rooms. My room was nothing special just the basics; bed, dresser, desk, small cassette tape AM/FM radio, a few books, no TV, no computer or gaming system. Most of my stuff I was sure was going to be auction off or donated to some more worthy kid as part of my punishment. My sister and I ended up doing some community service on top of being grounded. We had to clean up the parking lots on the Redondo Union High School campus, everything down the gum stuck on ground had to be scraped up and cleaned. It was embarrassingly hard work. I had almost forgotten about surfing altogether. I felt more like a prisoner of a chain gang in one of those old black and white movies that used to play on AMC (American Movie Classics) late at night.



It was already mid-December and Christmas was just around the corner. I was still hopeful that Santa would cut me some slack and not put me on the naughty list. My sister and I were notorious at Christmas time for taking things around the house and wrapping them up to be returned as gifts like spatulas from the kitchen, silverware, VHS movies recorded off the TV. It always helped make it look like there were a bunch of presents under the tree. Christmas Eve came and our bushy tree had a hand full of gifts that were put there by my sister and me. It seemed a little empty but I was sure Santa would help fill the voids with goodies. 

It’s always hard to sleep on Christmas eve, even when you’re a kid. Our general house rule on Christmas morning was to not disturb mom any sooner than 7:00 am. My sister and I awoke almost in unison 6:30 am and made our way quietly from our rooms to the living room to get our first glance at Christmas morning. Something was wrong, very wrong. It looked just the same as it did the night before, nothing changed that we could notice. We stared at each other in total shock. We slowly made our way to the other side of the room where our Christmas stockings hung on the wall. Coal, not the fake stuff, but the real deal was in our stockings. I guess we made the naughty list after all. My sister started crying.



We knew it wasn’t 7:00 am yet but this was an emergency, we had to tell mom. We knocked at mom’s door and she allowed us to enter. My sister tried to get the words out between sobs that Santa came by and left us coal and that there must be something that she could do to help save Christmas. My mom said that if we went back to bed until 10:00 am and if she didn’t hear any sounds from either of us then she would call Santa and see if he had any presents left that he would be willing to give us. It was the longest three and half hours of my life (up to that point). Somehow I managed not to go crazy in the silence. I watched the clock click forward one second at a time slowly making its way around again and again. From time to time I thought the clock started running backwards but there was nothing I could do to speed it up. 

At 10:00 am I still didn’t move just in case my clock was faster than whatever time my mom was using. At 10:04 am a knock of hope sounded at my door. I emerged from my exile and made my way back to the living room with my sister and her puffy red eyes. This time there was a few more gifts under the tree but nothing big, nothing like the years past, but we were grateful to get anything at that point. We opened the few gifts together and when all the gifts under the tree had been open we thought we were done. There were two green cards in the Christmas tree and it was easy to overlook them. One had my name on it and the other had my sister’s name. 

We asked mom if we could open them and she said ok. Mine said that I needed to tell my mom ten reasons why I thought she is great and then the next clue would be given to me. I was confused but I had nothing to lose so I raddled off ten things about my wonderful caring mom that loves me so much and how lucky I was to have such a great parent. Then the next clue was given and I had to do some chores around the house to get the next clue. Then a back rub for mom, after what seemed like an hour of running around my sister and I ended up in front of the garage. Even with the garage door shut it still showed signs of our painting fiasco that had dripped thru the wood slats in places and dried on the outside. I had no idea what to expect. My sister pulled the garage door open. We couldn’t believe our eyes. On the left side was a futon bed for my sister and she danced around screaming in happiness. On the right side was my gift, a ten speed mountain bike with a surfboard rack with a surfboard on it. It was my first real short board, a 6’ 4” make by Don Kadowaki.


My friends and I called it "the Donk" and it was awesome. I was so happy that I almost forgot that I really needed a wetsuit. We made the trip out to Manhattan Beach to meet up with the rest of the family and scored yet again. My grandparents got me a brand new body glove wetsuit and some bubble gum surf wax. It had turned into the perfect Christmas day after all.







CONTACT:  DON KADOWAKI












Test Driving My New 6’10” Mini-longboard


Rat Point and Haggs 3-5+ surf check Saturday 4-14-12
I did a quick drive along the Esplanade to check the surf before my nephew’s baseball game. It was breaking about 100 yards past the usual areas. I think there were no one out along the avenues and one guy at Rat Point. It was windy and cold out and I didn't have enough time to paddle out, but at least I got to take a look at what was out there.




2-4 on Sunday 4-15-12
I had spent most of Sunday cruising about with my 10 year old nephew. We went to the tide pools in San Pedro at low tide and gave him an oceanography lesson as we looked for treasure in the tide pools. Later I gave him a guitar lesson and a ukulele lesson. He’s a talented kid and I’m looking forward to this summer and taking him out for more surf lessons. Late afternoon I decided to go out for a quick session on my new 6’10” min-longboard. I had it all waxed up and ready to try out for about a week, but this was my first chance to finally get it wet. I figured I’d just make the best of it and at least give it a try for a little while. I suited up and headed down to the water. There were two other guys out just a little farther down the way, but they never made it all the way over to me. The waves were actually really fun. Don’t be fooled, there were some sneaker sets out there and I was lucky enough get on a few. I wished I had this board years ago, I’m sure it would’ve changed my life.

Solo Session 2-4+ on Monday 4-16-12
The tide was getting higher and it was beginning to slow things down a little. The shore break was almost head-high when I arrived and there were only a few other people farther south surfing straight from the Torrance ramp. There a was nice hole that was breaking a consistent right just a little north of the drain at Burn-outs and with the rising tide I knew my time out in the water might be limited if the tide fills in too much. From the parking lot it looked a little small but had good shape so I was happy to give it a try. The waves were bigger than it looked from up at the parking lot, rolly with a fast take off and then a slow shoulder. I caught wave after wave and my new board reacted even better than I thought on the take-offs, wrap-around turns and floaters. A few people even sat on the sand and watched me catch some waves. After about an hour the tide was really slowing the waves down and they just weren’t breaking on the outside as much as earlier. Then the fog briefly rolled in and then disappeared like the people on the beach after just a few minutes. I caught a few more and had a hard time making it back to land thru the big shore pound. It was all worth it. As over crowded as surfing in California can be it is nice to know that I can still manage to get a some time surfing all to my self.

Torrance Beach 2-3 Tuesday 4-17-12
I checked it out at Burn out but it didn’t have the juice like the day before and I remembered see some heads out at Torrance so I figured I take a closer look. Straight from the ramp there was a hole that a framed up and made machine waves, both lefts and rights. I could see about eight kids out and it looked a little too crowded to add me in the mix. I watch for at least a half hour before deciding to call it a day and let my scabby neck rash heal for a day.

Torrance Beach 3-4+ Wednesday 4-18-12
I checked out Manhattan 26th Street after work and although it was bigger it just didn’t compare to the shape that I saw at Torrance the day before so I headed south. There was lots of street parking next to the big parking lot at Torrance for a change and I took advantage. I hopped down the ivy and made my way across the lot for my first look of Torrance for the day. It was like looking at a different country. The surf was bigger than yesterday and there were two holes on fire in the water. I suited up and put on a rash guard to help save my neck and ran down the lift guard tower at the bottom of the ramp. The hole on the left was the same one from yesterday and a new hole had opened up on the right with only two heads on the peak. I paddled out to the right (less people). It was breaking farther out than it usually does and the shape was awesome. It was a lot like burnout the other day but with longer rides. I was already dialed in before catching my first wave. I was a wave magnet. I even let the others guys have a few and they gave me a few waves too. It was a blast. My new board could catch the outside waves; make it thru the speedy first section and onto the soft shoulder with ease. Eventually the high tide started to slow things down more, but it didn’t bother me, I was too stoked. I stayed out for over two and half hours and just had a blast. It was the best session I’d had in years. It’s probably the best break in all of the South Bay on Wednesday.  Every day the swell, tides, wind, ocean bottom (sand, rock, coral, ect) and who knows what other factors come into place when choosing a spot to surf. For Wednesday it was Torrance, tomorrow could be somewhere else. I’m looking forward to finding out.

Torrance Beach 2-3 Thursday 4-19-12
I didn't waste any time getting to the ramp at Torrance. It looked about half the size as the day before so I decided to take the Pepsi challenge and take out my longboard. There was only one other longboarder out there and he was off to the far right. It also looked like the same group of kids out in the line up that have been there all week. I managed to get most of the bigger sets and had a good time hanging five and landing big floaters. On of the kids had a GoPro camera with him and I thing he may have caught some footage of me on a nice big right. I'll have to keep an eye out on YouTube. I stayed out for a few hours and when the tide pretty much shut things down I got out.






Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Closer to Home- Surfing Mainland Mexico at Costa Azul


My friends that surf 26th street in Manhattan invited me to join up with them for an eight day (seven nights) long surf trip to Mainland Mexico. They said the water would be warmer than Hawaii and the surf would be awesome. All you can eat and drink included at this surf resort Costa Azul where everyone stays. I ran the dates by my boss six months in advance to see if I could get the week off and at the time he said it was ok. Six months later he had forgotten all about it and was taking vacation during the same time I was planning on being gone too. I ended up getting only a few days off, but I figured it was better than nothing. I talked my friends into taking my 7’ 4” hybrid for me since I would have to change planes to get there. I called my travel agent two days before my trip and I guess they had forgotten about me too. They said they had no record of me. It wasn’t looking good. I got them straightened out and manage to get a room at Costa Azul after all was said and done.  I had never been there before so I asked if the hotel was sending someone to pick to me up at the airport or if I needed to get a ride there. They said that someone from Costa Azul would meet me at the airport just outside the baggage customs area and they would take me to my hotel. I planned on just bring a carry-on backpack (travel light as always) so should be easy going.

So the day finally arrived and I jumped on the plane with my flip-flops and backpack and caught the first leg of the trip. I had never been to the Dallas airport before and found that my 45 minute stop over was just barely enough time to make it to my next terminal on the other side of the airport. I wasn’t the last person to board the plane but it was a close race. Finally I was able to relax a little. Just a few more hours and I’d be landing at the Puerto Vallarta airport and then off to surf with my friends. Before I had left my friends told that there was this fun left beach break about a ten minute walk from the hotel called San Panchos and I was already day dreaming about riding some hot waves there. By hot I mean the actual water temperature (about 85 degrees sometimes hotter). 

Artist: Eric J. Cedeno
Title: San Panchos
Oil on Canvas 12 inches by 12 inches

They also said it that from the airport to the hotel there was a time change which always messes people up when they try and leave and make the 45 minute drive back to the airport that turns into an hour and 45 minutes. I didn’t care about the drive I was just looking forward to getting out in the surf and catching some of those waves they kept talking about.
The plane landed and I filled out whatever customs paperwork the flight attendant handed me. I grabbed my bad and followed the herd of people thru customs. There a big button that everyone presses in front of big Mexican military looking guy with a machine gun. The button turns a light above it either green (no search required) or red (get ready for a strip search and interrogation). When I pressed the button the light turned green and I was on my way to find my ride to the hotel.

The airport was full of people and nearly all of them were speaking fluent Spanish and all I could think of was that I should have paid more attention in my high school Spanish class all those years ago. There were many people holding hotel signs, some with passenger names, some without. I looked and was having a hard time finding my name, or my hotel name. Soon the crowd dispersed and I was almost all alone. I check out side and looked around and still no one with a Costa Azul sign with my name on it. I was getting nervous and tried continue to look calm, like I take this trip all the time. I didn’t want to stick out and get robbed or kidnapped after all I was in Mexico and bad stuff was known to happen there. I asked the row of cab drivers if they had seen the van from Costa Azul and they said that it didn’t come today.  I asked if they knew where the hotel was and they didn’t seem so sure.  I said that it was next to San Panchos and one of the drivers said he knew where that was and agreed to take me there.

It was a long ride and I had no idea which direction my hotel was really in, but I kept a calm appearance. The city roads faded into lust tropical jungle and about 40 minutes into the journey I saw a large billboard on the right side of the road that said Costa Azul Surf Adventures and I felt much better.  The cab driver went thru a very small town with cobble stone roads with big pot holes and loose dogs.  I saw the Costa Azul hotel and was happy to make it there in one piece. I got out of the cab and met the hot tropical air and the driver demanded his $65 payment for the ride. I was thinking 65 pesos, but no he meant $65 US Dollars. It was all the money that I had brought with me, but there was no way I was going to be able to talk my way out of it so I gave him the money and he quickly left.



I checked in. My friend saw me on my way to my room and said the surf just came up and to put on my trucks and they’d bring my board to me. I put on my trunks and grabbed a rash guard just as my board arrived. I pulled out my 7’4” out of my travel bag and it was still in good shape. I put the fins back in, grabbed my leash and headed to the beach.  The guys where hanging out at the “all you can eat” restaurant. They said the surf was getting better and to go down the beach to the left and hit up San Panchos. The other Eric and T-Bone were also headed that way.



 The sand was softer than I thought it would be just out front of the hotel. The shore break was surprisingly big and gutless, dumping about head high on nearly dry sand. I was a little nervous and was beginning to think that maybe the surf was bigger than I could handle, I kept walking. I could see a few heads out down the beach that was rimmed with palm trees and jungle. I finally made it to where the waves were breaking and I could tell it was going to be bigger out there than it looked from shore. I strapped my leash to my right ankle and jumped over the shore break onto my board and started to paddle out to the peak. The ocean water was really 85 degrees, maybe hotter. I know people that don’t even wash their dishes in water this hot and I couldn’t help but laugh. At least I wasn’t going to get cold for a change.

The other Eric was already out there in the right place since he had all week to get the place dialed in. I sat next to him and we waited for the next set as T-Bone sat on the beach with her camera ready to take pictures of us surfing. A big set roll up and the other Eric had the right of way. He smiled and said “take it. I’ve been here all week. I’ve had plenty.” I was stoked. I paddled hard and made the big drop.


The wave was fast and pretty clean and I had no idea if T-Bone could even see me, but it didn’t really matter to me. I headed out for more. We traded off on sets and I caught as many waves as my arms could handle. I knew there was more action coming my way in the next few days and didn’t want to burn completely out on my first session. It’s a strange feeling being so comfortable in a new place. I imagined that I was going to move into one of the houses on the little peninsula and live there forever. Another fun wave rolled up to me and I easily caught it. Big bottom turn into a smooth off the lip, this never happens back in the South Bay for me. These waves were roomy with lots of face and time to play on.



A few hours later I got out and headed back to my room to change, and then I was off to the restaurant to find out if they really meant all-you-can-eat. I ordered three dinners. I had almost forgotten that the last time I ate was before the sun came up and it was already dark out but still really warm out. Cliff told me that they were planning on going to Santa Cruz the next day and that I should ride with them. He said it should be really good, like 200 yard lefts. I thought he might be exaggerating but then again he was right about the water temperature. He said we’d meet up early around 6:00 am at the restaurant for a light breakfast and then we’d jump in the van and head about 45 minutes north to Santa Cruz. I tried to rest but there were two things that kept me awake for most of the night. One was that I kept re-living each wave that I caught at San Panchos and how the hot salt water would burn my eyes just a little whenever I would duck dive under a wave. The other thing keeping e awake was the Air Conditioner that rattled like a World War 1 gunner plane in a dog fight. I tried turning it off and almost melted in the August heat. It was a matter of survival, it had to stay on. Eventually I got used to it enough to get a few hours sleep.



I met the gang in the morning in front of the restaurant and grabbed a few snacks for the road. Everyone was excited about the swell that had rolled in when I showed up the day before. They all said I was lucky and had great timing. Turns out the last few days were nearly flat and I hadn’t missed anything. Our driver took us thru the jungle roads north to Santa Cruz. I’ve never seen so many palm trees before; they went on and on as far as my eyes could see. Eventually the road ended on a little empty beach and we piled out to check the surf. Sure enough, 200 yard lefts, some longer.



We all paddled out hungry for waves. I ended up surfing off to the far left with Alonzo (a top 10 surfer in Mexico) were the waves were shorter but had a nice barrel off the take offs. A 200 yard left sure makes for a long paddle back and eventually everyone was spaced out enough that it almost seemed empty. It was incredible fun. Most of the waves were around head high. They just kept coming in breaking super fun all morning long. It was hot out and I think the water may have been warmer than the air. We all paddled till our arms were pretty much useless. There were some snacks and drinks waiting for us at the van and he happily accepted them before heading back to the hotel.



Most of the crew ate a big lunch and then disappeared for a long siesta. I ended up surfing San Panchos again for a little bit before the daily thunderstorm arrived in the late afternoon like clockwork. At Dinner we decided to take a boat in the morning to get to our next surf destination. I think they the locals called it Punta Bonita but it could’ve been Punta De Mita. After diner I was too exhausted to worry about the AC keeping me up, it didn’t. In the morning we did the usual morning ritual of a light breakfast and loaded up the van and headed for the harbor. We charted a boat to take us to a cove that is only accessible by boat, my kind of trip. I had never take a boat out for a surf trip before this I had always travel by land to go surfing. It was way cool. It took about 30 to 45 minutes at mostly top speed to reach our secluded cove. The surf had dropped in size from the day before but it still looked fun to me. We jumped off the boat and headed for the line-up. Before long I noticed Cliff was way off to the left (if you are looking towards shore) and I told the other Eric that I was going over there to surf with Cliff. The other Eric said it might get crowded knowing that only Cliff and I would be there.  I paddled over to Cliff and he said that it breaks real shallow and there’s a bunch of sea urchins down there so the trick is just don’t fall. Perfect a frame pitched up on us and we took turns wave after wave. “This is what it’s all about. This is why we work so hard so we can do stuff like this” Cliff said. It was getting hotter and I figured I’d beat the rush back to the boat for a snack. I had some fresh ceviche and some juice and was feeling refreshed. I put on my hat and paddled back to the peak where I last saw Cliff. The tide was dropping and Cliff headed back to the boat and I stayed behind catching wave after wave, shallow barrel after barrel, alone. Kimy later told me that every time she looked over at me surfing the point I was riding a wave, she never even saw me paddling and wondered if my surfboard had some sort of motor on it.



It was an amazing experience getting to surf those jungle breaks with my friends. I went back to Costa Azul the next year and went to a few other breaks like Chacala and Platanitos. Chacala breaks just like Haggs (Haggerty’s) back home and I was extra stoked when Alonzo (#4 on the Mexico Surfing circuit) gave me the wave of the day. Platanitos was a great break, but a little scary to get to, after all you have to paddle across a river that was known to have caiman crocodiles in order to get the main surf break. 

Artist: Eric J. Cedeno
Title: Platanitos
Oil on Canvas 12 inches by 12 inches


If the caiman don't get you the mosquitos will for sure. Mainland Mexico is a great place, even better when you have good friends to share waves with, but for me nothing compares to San Panchos. Whenever I make the long walk from the hotel down the soft sand beach to San Panchos I always feel like I’m walking home. I later painted a five foot by six foot oil painting of San Panchos so I could be closer to home, while at home.

Artist: Eric J. Cedeno
Title: San Panchos
Oil on Canvas 60 inches by 72 inches







Friday, April 13, 2012

Eat Your Vegetables (#1) at Caine's Arcade

When I was a kid I didn't like to eat my vegetables. At the time I didn't see a need for them. I used to joke to my mom that I would catch up on eating all my vegetables at our next Thanksgiving dinner which of course was months away. I understand now that my mom wanted me to be healthy and vegetables are good for me. This segment is about eating your vegetables, well mentally. The vegetables that I'll be dishing out to you are for your own good. It's a dose of getting exposed to something that might be new to most of you, even outside of the usual surf culture. It's ok if you don't like it, but like my mom said,"at least give it a try before next Thanksgiving."


Caine's Arcade


This a great true story about a nine year old kid with a great imagination. I know there are lots of great people out there, young and old. Obviously some people have it better than others, some people make the best of what they got and some people really do like helping others. I encourage you to support creativity like this wether it's for this kid of some other person who is trying to make our world a little better.






Thursday, April 12, 2012

What do you mean you never heard of the SouthBay....

Well if you haven't heard of the SouthBay then here's a few videos to help bring you up to speed.... (I'll add more to this later...)



80's Surf Stars of the South Bay, Chris Frohoff, 

Ted Robinson, Kelly Gibson, 02-10-88


 
(El Porto, 1988)

Redondo Breakwall 02-05-91 

Frohoff, Robinson, Gibson, Cukr, Martinez, Frosty, 

Shy



(Break Wall 1991)

Somewhere in the South Bay 12.8.07

(Burn-Out 2007)


Haggerty's Surfing 02-04-93

(Haggs 1993)

Surfing in Palos Verdes 1979-1982

(PV 1979-82)

Surfing the Palos Verdes Coast In Los Angeles, California

(PV 2010)

Lunada Bay Surf - Winter 2012

(Lunada 2012)

“The best place to be, is here. And the best time to be, is now.” -Bill S. Preston, Esquire and "Ted" Theodore Logan

“You really missed it. You should’ve been here yesterday” said the longboarder sitting way outside the lineup waiting for the biggest set at Topaz in Redondo Beach.  I paddled over on my longboard to find out what I had missed out on. He went on to say how great the surf was back in the 60’s and how different the beach was back then.  I pictured myself hanging 5 my 9’ board on some uncrowded waves at Topaz back in 1960’s. I wanted to find out a little more of what was going on back then so I did some internet searching and found some great pictures taken by LeRoy "Granny" Grannis of my home breaks in the South Bay.

Redondo Beach 1964 (LeRoy "Granny" Grannis)
This picture started to bother me a, like a mosquito bite that keeps reminding you to itch when you look at it. The back drop is very familiar to me, because I have been surfing that area for over twenty years. It’s the people in the picture that get to me. Why are there so many people out there on boards out there? Shouldn’t the beach be nearly empty with only a hand full of guys out there stretched out as far as the eye could see? Guess not. So what ruined it? That’s where I began my quest to find what caused the explosion of surf nuts in Redondo in the 60’s and whether or not it would really be worth it for me to go back in time to surf my home breaks back in the 1960’s.

In 1959 it is estimated there were approximately 5,000 surfers worldwide. In 1963, there were two million surfers, most of them in California. One of the sparks that ignited the surf explosion was a movie about a surfer girl with big dreams. The movie Gidget was released in 1959 and with its popularity it drastically changed the landscape.
 



I think I can probably deal with the crowd of people sitting on boards that call themselves surfers back in the 1960’s. I know there were some excellent surfers back then, but my guess is that most of them would be surfing Malibu or Hawaii and not Redondo Beach.

So if a lot of the other cool surfers weren’t hanging around the south bay then what was I going to do in my free time? I needed to find out more about what was going on, not in the surf sub-culture but also in the American culture too. As it turns out 70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults in the sixties.  The movement away from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the cultural fabric of American life. Young people wanted changes that affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment.  During the sixties, college campuses became centers of debate and scenes of protest more than ever before.  Great numbers (statistics)  of young adults, baby boomers, reaching military draft age (selective service) and not yet voting age (minimum was voting age was 21 did not become 18 until 1971), caused a struggle which played out on many campuses as the country became more involved  in the Vietnam War (timeline). The generation gap became a growing phenomenon. The young seem curiously unappreciative of the society that supports them. "Don't trust anyone over 30," is one of their rallying cries. Another, "Tell it like it is," conveys an abiding mistrust of what they consider adult deviousness. The Civil Rights movement made great changes in society in the 1960's, but it was a bloody road.  It seems to me that the sixties were the decade of assassination, war and rioting. Compare the 1960’s to today or even to the last ten years, it seems like it’s not so bad out there now. Sure people still fight about inequalities, but in comparison to the 60’s we are actually pretty close to being as equal as you can get (except for some places in the south).

Some Surf culture (From http://web.me.com/uromastyx.studio/Radsurfing(new)/Surfing_history.html )


Surf culture includes the people, language, fashion and life surrounding the sport of modern surfing.
The culture began early in the 20th century, spread quickly during the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to evolve. Touching fashion, music, literature,
 films, jargon, and more, its basis is the love of surfing, the hunt for great waves, the desire for the ultimate ride, and life in and around the ocean. Localism or territorialism is often a large part of surf culture in which individuals or groups of surfers designate certain key surfing spots as their own. Surfers, who come from many walks of life, are generally bound by an intense love of the sport.
The fickle nature of weather and the ocean, plus the great desire for the best possible types of waves for surfing, make surfers slaves to rapidly changing conditions. Surfer Magazine, founded in the 1960s when surfing had gained popularity with teenagers, used to say that if they were hard at work and someone yelled "Surf's up!" the office would suddenly be empty. Also, since surfing has a restricted geographical necessity (i.e. the coast), the culture of beach life often influenced surfers and vice versa. Aspects of 1960s surf culture in Southern California, where it was first popularized, include the woodie, bikinis and other beach wear, such as boardshorts or baggies, and surf music. Surfers developed the skateboard to be able to "surf" on land; and the number of boardsports and spin-offs has grown ever since.


So what was going on back then... Take a look...

1950’s
For a time in the early 1950s, southern Los Angeles became the site of significant racial violence, with whites bombing, firing into, and burning crosses on the lawns of homes purchased by black families south of Slauson. In an escalation of behavior that began in the 1920s, white gangs in nearby cities such as South Gate and Huntington Park routinely accosted blacks who traveled through white areas. The black mutual protection clubs that formed in response to these assaults became the basis of the region's fearsome street gangs.[3]

1960

Four black college students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina stage a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter, protesting their denial of service.  This action caused a national campaign, waged by seventy-thousand students, both white and black, over the next eight months, in sit-ins across the nation for Civil Rights.

·       For What It's Worth in 1960
·      The cost of a new house $12,700
·      The mortgage interest rate 1.8%
·      The cost of new car $2,600
·      The average income $5,315
A gallon of gas
25 cents
·      A gallon of milk 50 cents
·      A US Postage stamp 4 cents
·      Unemployment Rate 5.5%

1961

·       Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba fails
·       Vietnam War: The war began with the landing of nine hundred military advisors in Saigon.
·       The construction of the Berlin Wall begins by the Soviet bloc
·       The Soviet Union detonates the biggest explosion in history over Novaya Zemlya
·        
1962
  •  Cuban missile crisis
  • Three thousand troops quell riots, allowing James Meredith to enter the University of Mississippi as the first black student under guard by Federal marshals
  • Marilyn Monroe died
  • The First Wal-Mart discount store is opened by by Sam Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Crowds watch as huge waves turn Redondo Beach, California, into a surfers' paradise in 1962. (AP Photo)


1963          
Birmingham Protests, 1963


  • ·      March on Washington: Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the "I have a dream" speech before a crowd of 200,000 during the civil rights march on Washington, DC.
  • ·      President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Tex
  • ·      A peaceful settlement to the land dispute between Mexico and the United States is enacted with the signing of the Chamizal Treaty, establishing the boundary in the El Paso Juarez Valley
  • ·      California surfers took to skateboards as a way to stay fit out of season, and by 1963, the fad had spread across the country
  • ·      The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire, England. Greatest train robbery of all time with 5 million in cash and jewels taken In 15 minutes
  • ·      Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova - Russian Cosmonaut first woman in space.


Hermosa Beach, 1963

Henry Ford, 22nd Street, Hermosa Beach, 1963

1964


  • The 1964 'imaginary' Gulf of Tonkin incident allowed President Johnson to expand the Vietnam War through the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution without a Congressional Declaration of War.

  • ·      Rights Act restores tribal law to reservations (July 2) outlawing both segregation and major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, was passed.
  • ·      The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, or the USS Maddox Incident, are the names given to two separate confrontations, one actual and one now realized as non-existent, involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin
  • ·      British Invasion: January 13, 1964 - Beatlemania hits the shores of the United States with the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which becomes the Liverpool group's first North American hit
  • ·      Riots occurred in the Panama Canal Zone, The Panama Canal incident occurs when Panamanian mobs engage United States troops, leading to the death of twenty-one Panama citizens and four U.S. troops
  • ·      China detonates its first atomic bomb.
  • ·      Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa
  • ·      Three civil rights workers—Schwerner, Goodman, and Cheney—murdered in Mississippi (June).

     


  • ·       Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, are murdered by local segregationist law enforcement officials near Philadelphia, Mississippi. While searching for the boys which were found in a nearby earthen dam, the bodies of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, were also found who had been done in by the Ku Klux Klan.
  


  • ·       Alaska's "Good Friday" Earthquake is the most powerful earthquake in American history at a magnitude of 9.2. It kills 125 people and inflicts massive damage to Anchorage, Alaska.
  • U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), 66, announces her candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination and the first woman to run for President of the United States.
  • United States Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the first such statement from the U.S. government)
1964, Mike Hynson, Hermosa.  The brash and stylish San Diego surfer went on to costar in the 1966 documentary, The Endless Summer.  –Photograph by © LeRoy Grannis.  All rights reserved.  via

65

In March, 1965, King led marchers across the Edmund Pettus bridge into Selma, Ala., for a 50-mile march to the State Capitol in Montgomery. Thousands of civil rights marchers participated, demanding voter rights. (AP photo)
http://negroartist.com/WATTS%20RIOTS/slides/A%20montage%20of%20pictures%20of%20the%20Watts%20riots%20in%20Los%20Angeles,%20August%2011%2015,%201965.jpg
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http://negroartist.com/WATTS%20RIOTS/slides/A%20montage%20of%20pictures%20of%20the%20Watts%20riots%20in%20Los%20Angeles,%20August%2011%2015,%201965.jpg
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 Watts Riots

  • ·      State troopers attack peaceful demonstrators led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., as they try to cross bridge in Selma, Ala.
  • ·      In six days of rioting in Watts, a black section of Los Angeles, 35 people are killed and 883 injured and property destruction in excess of $200 million
  • ·      Vietnam War: Johnson escalated United States military involvement in the war
  • ·      Medicaid and Medicare were established
  • ·      Malcolm X, an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist, was assassinated in Harlem, New York
  • ·      U.S. Marines invade Dominican Republic, stay until October 1966
  • ·      Cigarette Ads banned on British TV

1965, Hermosa Beach, CA, Donald Takayama & Bettina Brenna.  –Photograph by ©LeRoy Grannis.  All rights reserved.

1965, Johnny Fain, Miki Dora, Malibu, CA.  The infamous Dora “tap.”  Dora’s most famous prank was releasing a jar of live moths during a surf movie premiere.  –Photograph by © LeRoy Grannis.  All rights reserved.  via


66               



  • ·      Miranda v. Arizona: Landmark Supreme Court decision further defines due process clause of Fourteenth Amendment and establishes Miranda rights (June 13).
  • ·      The Department of Transportation was created.
  • ·      NBC, CBS and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) introduce full color lineups to their prime-time schedules.
  • ·      Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali declared himself a conscientious objector and refused to go to war.[1]  
  • ·      November 8, 1966 - The first black United States Senator in eighty-five years, Edward Brooke, is elected to Congress.  Brooke was the Republican candidate from Massachusetts and former Attorney General of that state.
  • ·      In 1966, James S. Coleman, commissioned by the government, published Equality of Educational Opportunity, a landmark study that led the way to forced integration and busing in the 1970s.
  • ·      The Palomares Incident. While fueling over Spain, a B-52 collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker dropping four 1.5 megaton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares. One in the sea was recovered and three disintegrated and dispersed plutonium around Palomaies. 2000 tons of radio active earth were scraped up and sent to America.


  • President Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended. He adds 8,000 more U.S. soldiers in February to total 190,000 and another 60, 000 by April to make the total U.S. troops in Vietnam total 250,000. B-52's begin drops on Hanoi and Haiphong
   

  •    Civil rights activist James Meredith is shotdown while in a civil rights march across Mississippi. A few weeks later Martin Luther King is struck by a rock thrown from an angry white mob in a civil rights march in





67

  • ·      Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, outlining the procedures for filling vacancies in the presidency and vice presidency (Feb. 10).
  • ·      Super Bowl I: In the first Super Bowl, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.
  • ·      July 1967 - Black riots plague U.S. cities.  In Newark, New Jersey, twenty-six are killed, fifteen hundred injured and one thousand arrested from July 12 to 17.  One week later, July 23 to 30, forty are killed, two thousand injured, and five thousand left homeless after rioting in Detroit, known as the 12th Street Riots, decimate a black ghetto.  The riots are eventually stopped by over 12,500 Federal troopers and National Guardsmen.
  • ·      The Supreme Court hears Loving vs Virginia and unanimously ends laws against interracial marriages.



  • ·       China takes only 2 years to go from Atomic to Hydrogen.

1967, Malibu.  When Grannis returned with a friend to Malibu shortly after World War II, they found a crowd of twelve people surfing. “That’s it,” he said. “This place is ruined.” –Photograph by ©LeRoy Grannis.  All rights reserved. via


68


  • ·       Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. (April 4).
·      


  • ·       Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, Calif. (June 5–6).

  •       On June 5, 1968 Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after his victory speech winning the California Primary. Sirhan Sirhan, an angry Palestinian with a grudge against the Kennedy's support of Israel in the Six Day War in 1967 was arrested at the scene. He was sentenced to life in prison where he still resides

  • ·       Chicago riots: Police clashed with anti-war protesters in Chicago.
  • ·       The first teacher allowed to teach pregnant (and showing) in Clear Creek School District.
  • ·       End 1968 - "Draftees" accounted for 38% of all American troops in Vietnam. Over 12% of the draftees were college graduates
  • ·       In the closing days of 1968 mankind took a break from the turmoil of the year and focused on the future as they first saw pictures of an Earth rise over the Moon. Colonel Frank Borman, Captain James Lovell and Major William Anders took Apollo 8 into orbit around the moon began a new age in space. A redemption of the Apollo 204 accident the year before when we lost astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee in a training fire.





  •       On January 30, 1968 North Vietnam began what came to be called the Tet Offensive. Communist forces simultaneously attacked hundreds of cities including Saigon. It lasted for about six months and other than hard fighting in Hue and Khe Sanh, it was a military failure for the North but caused more political problems back in America concerning what our military was telling us.

  • ·       The Tet Offensive also caused LBJ to halt to all bombing of North Vietnam in lieu of upcoming peace talks in Paris.
     




  •       The My Lai Massacre occurred in March 1968 but it was not until a year later that the media and America found about it. Lt William Calley ordered his men to line up 450 unarmed old men, women and children and shoot them all, which they did. After Calley was indicted he went on a successful speaking tour of American Legion posts. He was later found guilty of mass murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison. He spent 3 days in jail before President Richard Nixon, under heavy pressure from conservatives, commuted his sentence to 3 years of house arrest. After his time was up he magically found funding to open a chain of jewelry stores in Atlanta, Georgia.
    


  • ·       The United States spy ship USS Pueblo and its 83 man crew was seized by North Korea in Sea of Japan. Though indeed spying, the ship was in international waters. The crew was held for most of year before being released in 1969.



43 years after the infamous Scopes Trial in 1925, the Supreme Court in an Arkansas case banning teaching evolution in public schools, decided the ban was unconstitutional

NOVEMBER 1968 VOL.9 NO.5
69

  • ·      Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president (Jan. 20).
  • ·      Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon (July 20).

   "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"


  • ·      Stonewall riots: Riots took place in New York City which would mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the United States. In a political move to clean up New York City, Mayor John Lindsay had the Police raid the Stonewall Gay Bar in Greenwich Village. The fight lasted 3 days with thousands of gay men beaten by police
  • ·      Woodstock Festival: A music and culture festival took place in White Lake, New York.
  • ·      The United States bombed North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia and Laos.
  • ·      Sesame Street premiered on National Educational Television.
  • ·      November 20, 1969 - Alcatraz Island, the former prison in San Francisco Bay, is occupied by fourteen American Indians in a long standoff over the issues of Indian causes.
  • ·      November 21, 1969 - The Internet, called Arpanet during its initial development, is invented by the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the U.S. Department of Defense.  The first operational packet switching network in the world was deployed connecting the IMP at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute.  By December 5, it included the entire four node system, with the UCSB and the University of Utah.
  • ·       Canada expresses its progressive roots by banning tobacco advertising on radio and TV, and legalizes both contraception and abortion


  • On December 15th Representative Alexander Pirnie from New York draws number 257 in the first U.S. government military draft lottery since WW II. The number corresponds to the 257th day of the year, young men born on Sept 14th packed their bags





1969, LeRoy Grannis surfing Hermosa Beach with his Calypso amphibious camera, invented by another aquatic legend– Jacques Cousteau. Photo by John Grannis.  –Photograph © LeRoy Grannis.  All rights reserved.

Kent Layton, Hermosa Beach, 1969




After all is said and done, I've finally made up my mind. Bill and Ted were right “The best place to be, is here. And the best time to be, is now.”