A Native Son of the Golden West, California writer James Houston’s first novel, was published in 1971; he went on to write several other well-received fiction and nonfiction books, and his essays appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times. Native Son is set in the mid-1950s, and opens with California surfer Hooper Dunlap flying into Honolulu, where he tracks down his friend Jonas Vandermeer...
"Plant Run by L.B. Couple Scores Scores with Special Suits for Surf Riders: Idea Suggested by Surfer." This Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram article by Ken Chilcote ran on February 23, 1964. * * * Thanks to the Jackie Kennedy look in fashions, a Long Beach firm has become the leading manufacturer of surf wear! When surfers "hang 10" and ride their boards in the billowing surf of the Southl...
New York-born writer Allan Weisbecker was a screenwriter for NBC’s Miami Vice, and later wrote articles for Men’s Journal, Smithsonian, and Popular Photography. "In Search of Captain Zero" (2001), Weisbecker’s second book, details his life as a 1970s hardcore surfer and oceangoing pot smuggler. “Jock’s Night Trip” was originally published in a 1992 issue of Surfing magazine. This version has been ...
Frederick Kohner (1905–86) studied at the Sorbonne, received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Vienna, worked as a screenwriter in Berlin, then fled Europe just ahead of the Nazis. He arrived in Southern California and began working in Hollywood, and his screenplay for 1938’s Mad About Music was nominated for an Academy Award. Gidget, Kohner's 1957 debut novel, written in just six weeks...
American novelist Herman Melville (1819–1891) went to sea at age 18 as a merchant marine, worked on a whaler, served with the U.S. Navy, lived with a native tribe in the Marquesas, and was jailed in Tahiti as a mutineer. He began writing after his return to New York. "Mardi: and a Voyage Thither" was published in 1849, two years before "Moby Dick," Melville's seafaring masterpiece. "Mardi" sold po...
A shorter version article ran in the August 2000 issue of American Heritage Magazine, under the title "The Beach Boy." Whitcomb was a British Invasion rock-and-roller who later became a producer, actor, and history writer. * * * I was hurrying down an endless corridor in San Francisco’s International Airport, in a swirl of shapeless people and with a storm raging around, when I was suddenly stop...
Scottish-born missionary and adventurer James Chalmers was posted to the South Pacific in 1866. The following year, while on the island Niue James, Chalmers tried his hand at surfing. He continued throughout his life to explore, colonize, and proselytize, and gained fame in Europe as "The Livingston of New Guinea. In 1901, however, Chalmers and a missionary colleague were killed and eaten by nativ...
This uncredited article ran in the Los Angeles Times on July 14, 1912, with a five-tiered title: "Through the Combers - Riding Surf Board Thrills - George Freeth is Teaching Girls at Redondo - Hawaiian Swimmer Performs Hair-raising Stunts - Pretty Miss Says it is the Best Sport in the World." This version has been slightly edited and shortened. * * * The exciting Hawaiian sport, surf-board ridin...
Arthur Verge is a history professor and a former lifeguard from Southern California. This article ran in the Summer-Fall 2001 issue of California History magazine. * * * Not far from the crowded shoreline of Waikiki Beach is the final resting place of a native Hawaiian who forever changed California and its image to the world. Beneath the Freeth family tombstone is his simple burial marker. Onl...
This unattributed article ran in the June 27, 1907, issue of the Honolulu Advertiser. Freeth, at some point prior to his famous move from Hawaii to Southern California in 1907, did in fact visit the Eastern Seaboard. This is the only account, however, in which he surfed while there. Freeth himself is not on record talking about the stowaway part of his journey or surfing in Atlantic City. The upco...