Mike Purpus' localism-themed article on Seaside, Oregon, ran in the February 1972 issue of Surfing magazine. This version has been lightly edited. * * * Gary (Goober) Goodrum, Tim Lynch, Paul Mooney, Gary Keating, and myself had been planning a trip to France in September. However, bad reports kept coming in on the inconsistent waves and the consistently bad weather. These stories were joined wi...
John Grissim's article on Bill Delaney's Free Ride originally ran as a chapter in Grissim's 1982 book Pure Stoke. This version has been shortened and slightly edited. * * * It's a warm spring California night and the auditorium at San Rafael High is packed with five hundred very noisy, impatient movie-goers aged anywhere from ten to forty-five (but averaging nineteen) and there's still a hundred...
Lael Morgan's profile on the Calhoun women—mother Marge, and daughters Candy and Robin—ran in the May 5, 1969, issue of the Los Angeles Times. This version has been slightly edited * * * An interview with Marge Calhoun McClelland and her two daughters can be a pretty wet affair. They are surfing champs and they take to the water like a school of happy porpoises. It’s great for pictures because t...
Patrick McNulty's feature story on Marge Calhoun was published in papers across America in March and April 1959, usually under the headline "Champion Woman Surfboard Rider Says it's a Great Weight Reducer." * * * Marge Calhoun is a honey blonde with four loves: her husband, two daughters and a 10-foot surfboard. Here is Marge's usual day after daddy's off to work and the kids to school: Marge l...
John Grissim's profile on Australian national champion Kim McKenzie ran in the November 1974 issue of Tracks. This version has been slightly edited. * * * We were sitting at the table inside Kim McKenzie's snug little caravan when a thunderstorm broke the warm night stillness. The sound of the nearby surf gave way to pelting raindrops. Kim adjusted the flame on her propane lantern, then stared i...
John Hughes, Executive Director of the Florida Surf Museum, which is housed in the Cocoa Beach Ron Jon Surf Shop, replied by email to the Ron DiMenna-themed Sunday Joint dated February 20, 2022. The text below has been slightly edited. * * * Ron Dimenna is definitely one of surfing's more interesting characters. I have met him several times (which is not easy to do)—he is a personable but quirky...
Doug Maudlin's feature on the California Coast Girls Surf Club ran in the May 19, 1963, issue of the Los Angeles Times. * * * Although most boys are reluctant to admit it, some girls are good surfers. Proving this isn't the main goal of the California Coast Girls Surf Club, but the girls are proving it just the same, says Pat McVey, club president. The club was formed nearly two years ago and c...
Kay Gilman's profile of Kim McKenzie ran in the November 18, 1975, edition of the New York Daily News. This version has been slightly edited. * * * Kim McKenzie is the Australian women’s surfing champion. That’s what she does for fun. How she makes a living is something else. During working hours, the husky 5-foot-9 blonde is the official shark catcher for the State of Queensland, hauling in an ...
This profile on Johnny Fain, by New Yorker staff writer and novelist William Murray, ran in the 1966 Feb-March issue of Venture, a short-lived high-end travel magazine. This version has been slightly edited. Fain is described as being 21, but was either 22 or 23 when the article was published. * * * John Burford Fain IV wakes up in the morning to the sound of surf breaking under his windows. He ...
Drew Kampion's profile on Dick Brewer ran in the Spring 1999 issue of Surfer's Journal. This version has been shortened and slightly edited. * * * Richard Brewer lives near Hanalei, about a mile up-country from the highway on a flat, relatively barren, five-acre prairie darkly backed by the twin towers of Kaua'i’s highest mountains, Kawaikini and Waialeale. The wettest area on earth is up there ...