“In the Surf,” Sarah Park, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Oct 10, 1953 It's a tossup as to whether surfers acquire un-dog-like dogs, or dogs become un-dog-like because they belong to surfers. Take Sandy, who belongs to Scooter Boy. Sandy is a surfing addict. His eyes turn glazy with happiness as he whistles through Queen's Surf on Scooter Boy’s board. When Scooter’s on the beach catching his breath, San...
“The Ranch,” by Drew Kampion, ran in the November 1968 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited. * * * A lone surfer sits in a deep blue slick, watching the sun inch down toward golden hills. A light offshore drifts over the smooth water. Outside a shadow rises in the calm and approaches silently. The wave peaks, blackens with mercuric gloss. The surfer strokes, marring the perfect...
“Mr. Clean: the Extraordinary Surfing Life of Randy Rarick,” by Bruce Jenkins, ran in the Fall 1998 issue of the Surfer's Journal. This version has been slightly edited. * * * There’s a classic beach-scene montage from Tracks, the 1970 World Surfing Championships film by Bob Evans. Michael Peterson, Terry Fitzgerald, Mike Purpus, and Keith Paull lend definition to a rebellious, wild-haired gener...
This single-paragraph editorial, by publisher Don Thomas, ran in the February 1972 issue of Surfing magazine. It was preceded, in the same column, by a short piece condemning the behavior of American surfers abroad. This version has been slightly edited. * * * Closer to home, conflicts are even worse. Every local area has a group of vigilantes whose self-determined destiny is to keep their surf ...
Mike Purpus' short satire on localism ran in the February 1972 issue of Surfing magazine. * * * It was a crystal-clear morning in late January with a ten-foot swell pumping consistently from the far north. It was closed out in front of my house, so I had to travel. But where could I go? If I went north, the Rincon Tribe would get me. If I go south, the Cliff People will get me. The two best spot...
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...