A letter from Matt Warshaw, Executive Director of Encyclopedia of Surfing. Hello surfers and all lovers of surf culture. The 2021 Encyclopedia of Surfing fundraiser is ON (December 6 - 16), and if that is enough to trigger the credit-card extension reflex, click here to donate, and here to subscribe or buy a gift sub. A quick look back at 2021. EOS growth was slow and steady. We added 300 subscr...
Matt Warshaw’s “Dressed to Chill” article ran in the August 1999 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited. * * * There isn’t much traction up there on the surf fashion catwalk. For every surfer able to prance across with dash and flair, hundreds more tumble off like they’re wearing vaseline flip-flops. Mike Doyle sure did. Just before winning the 1965 SURFER Poll, Doyle left on a p...
Drew Kampion's profile on Tom Parrish ran in the December 1976 issue of Surfing. This version has been slightly edited. * * * Picture, if you will, the annual onslaught: the world's finest surfers converging in a swift no-nonsense manner for the winter festivities on Oahu's North Shore, almost like corporate honchos on a whirlwind business tour with definite aims and limited time. With the incre...
This uncredited AP article ran in the November 22, 1971, edition of the Miami Herald. Blears was the first alternate for that year's Smirnoff Pro, in Hawaii, but didn't get a start in the event. * * * Laura Blears is 20 years old, loves to sew, putter around her garden and make things out of seashells for her home. She’s also the first woman ever to try to enter the tough male world of surfing. ...
California-born surfer Brian Tissot is a marine biologist, author and professor. This article was originally posted in 2016 on Tissot's "Dr. Abalone" website. * * * Early 1973. Awakened by stones hitting my window, I grab my clock. Wow, it's 5 AM. And a school day too! I grab my board and wetsuit, pile into the car with Jeff Chamberlain and Sam George, and we drive over to the City. There is a s...
Jim Murray's article on Margo Oberg ran in the Los Angeles Times in early November 1978 * * * In 1964, in a contest for 61 surfers 12 years old and under, Margo Godfrey of La Jolla, Calif., won easily. No big deal Except she was the only girl in it. And she was barely 11 at the time. Margo didn't win a world championship till she was a ripe old 15. She's won six since, and it might have been mo...
This article ran in the November 26 issue of the Honolulu Advertiser, two days after the 1974 Smirnoff Pro prelims were held. The Smirnoff that year, for the first time, had included female pros along with the male pros; each of the prelim heats had a woman surfer, and the one with the highest point total for the heat was awarded $1,000. * * * The six girls who failed to advance to the semifinal...
"The Endless Summer Turns Golden, by Richard Johnston, ran in the Dec 6, 1976, issue of Sports Illustrated * * * In the Hawaiian language, the word hui (pronounced “hooey”) means a club, a company, a society, a corporation, a partnership, or even—to stretch it a little—a conspiracy. Last week, Hawaii’s surfers were leaning toward the last definition. Once again, as four times before in the eight...
Tom Morey wrote his burials wishes in 2016. Moon and Sol, mentioned below, are Morey's sons. * * * I wish to be buried in strict accordance with Baha'i Teachings. Most certainly NOT CREMATED, a shock to the soul. Specifically, not my soul, regarded as though it were an appendage (like say a gizzard). Rather THE soul as in the all-pervasive omnipotent ME which developed in part as the character ...
"Jazz Man: Tom Morey: the Man Who Gave Waves to the World," by Steve Barilotti, ran in the April 1996 issue of SURFER Magazine. This version has been slightly shortened and edited. * * * OCTOBER 1993 So we’re huddled under this overpass out in the middle of the Godforsaken desert west of Yuma somewhere, waiting out a hellacious thunderstorm that has Tom Morey absolutely freaked. The rain hits th...