"A Boy's Paradise in the Pacific," by Alexander Hume Ford, ran in the August issue of St. Nicolas, a popular New York-based children's magazine published from 1873 to 1943. This version has been slightly edited. * * * Hawaii is the land of sports for boys and girls. Approach Honolulu by steamer, and at first sight of the breakers on the reef, the eye is arrested by little specks upon the wav...
"To Shoot Surf Here on Board: A.D. Keech, of Honolulu, gives Exhibition of Tropical Sport Tonight," an uncredited article, ran on the front page of the July 28, 1910, edition of the Press of Atlantic City. * * * At the request of the manager of the Hawaiian Exhibit here, Alvin D. Keech, of Honolulu, Hawaii, a student here in this country, will give an exhibition of surf-board riding, the fam...
"Surf-Riding, Eastern Sport" ran in the September 25, 1909, edition of the Honolulu Advertiser. It was taken from a letter Outrigger Canoe Club founder Alexander Hume Ford wrote to the paper, dated September 11, sent from New York. Hawaiian-born musician Alvin Keech would later become famous for popularizing (and possibly inventing) the banjo-uke, or banjolele. * * * Alvin Keech from Hawaii i...
"Profile: Michael Ho," by Reno Abellira, ran in the January 1978 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited. * * * In the highly pressure-sensitive world of professional surf contests, especially the events that take place on the North Shore, to be a winner often means that a surfer must harness more than sheer determination, skill, and guts. In the water, he’s got to be more “on,”...
"Long Soggy Saga," Tom Morey's story about making a surfboard from cardboard, ran in the Fall 1993 issue of Surfer's Journal. This version has been slightly edited. * * * It was 1965, the middle of November, and a typical dreary morning. I was working out of Ventura, California (going broke actually), trying to build surfboards from a tiny metal shed at the north end of Santa Clara Street. No...
"Nixon Saw Me Naked," by Steve Heilig, ran in the July 1996 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited. * * * Way back in 1973, President Richard Nixon was starting to have a bit of trouble back East. Watergate, Vietnam, and so on were making life tough for Tricky Dick. But in right-wing Republican Orange County, Southern California, he was still King—except among us stoned high s...
"Florsheims in the Sand," by Drew Kampion, was first published in the June 2021 issue of Surfer's Journal. This version has been slightly edited. * * * When John Severson hired me as associate editor of SURFER magazine in the spring of 1968, he didn’t much know what he was getting into, nor did I. I was a “communications” man with an English degree working at the new Wall Street Journal pro...
Tim Baker's profile on Robbie Page ran in the Aug-Sep 2009 issue of Surfer's Journal. This version has been slightly edited. * * * Four months after being jailed in Japan for possession of LSD, pro surfer Rob Page found himself dining in the home of then-French President François Mitterrand, having recently romanced the great leader’s granddaughter. This is just one example of the wild ride ...
The following excerpt, by Pauline Menczer and Luke Benedictus, is from Menczer's "Surf Like a Woman" autobiography, published in 2024. Menczer, in this 1984 scene, is 14 years old, has been surfing for a year, and has just paddled out at the notorious South Bondi—on a foam Coolite board, because she hasn't yet enough coins from recycling soda cans to buy a real board. "I don't get too fazed by the...
"Pauline's Pain," by Tim Baker, ran in the April 1994 issue of Australia's Surfing Life magazine, just after Menczer won the 1993 WCT title. This version has been slightly edited. * * * Guests at the Turtle Bay Hilton who observed the small, pale, freckly, crippled girl's warm-up routine at the hotel swimming pool could have had little idea what they were witnessing. The frail, 23-year-old b...