This article was published in the Spring 2003 issue of Surfer's Journal. This version has been slightly edited. * * * There’s a photo hanging on my wall that always attracts people’s attention. It’s not a particularly wonderful shot. It’s black and white, and barely in focus, and it’s aged so much over the years that the edges have turned a yellowish-brown. In the photo, I am walking down the be...
Kevin Brennan was a tough freckle-faced kid from Bondi Beach who won both the junior and senior divisions of the 1965 New South Wales State Championships. He was just 15. Two years later, filmmaker Paul Witzig captured Brennan and pal Bobby Brown surfing Noosa, and the resulting sequence was a highlight of Witzig's 1967 film Hot Generation. By the turn of the decade, however, Brennan had detached ...
This surf-themed legend was recounted by Honolulu Star-Bulletin writer Clarice B. Taylor in her "Tales About Hawaii" column on November 26, 1958. This version has been slightly edited. * * * As you travel along Kamehameha Highway on the western end of Oahu Island, you pass Waialee and come to a barren ridge above Paumalu Bay [Sunset Beacy]. There you will see a tourist bureau marker for the Geor...
Phil Jarratt's feature on women's surfing ran in the June 1977 issue of Tracks. As surf historian Geoff Cater noted on his website surfresearch.com, "While the use of 'Broads' in the article title was even then disparaging, in the same issue the editor [Jarratt] inaugurated a new page for kneeboarders, under the header 'Cripples Corner'." This version has been slightly edited and shortened. * * *...
Patrick Morgan was one of several pen names used by durable American-born pulp-fiction novelist George Snyder. Hang Dead Hawaiian Style was the first novel in Morgan's nine-book "Operation Hang Ten series," published from 1969 to 1973, featuring surfer-swinger-undercover CIA agent Bill Cartwright. * * * Jim Dana, head of West Coast Headquarters of Operation Hang Ten, leaned back in his battered ...
George Snyder, writing under the name Patrick Morgan, produced his 10-book hardboiled surf-pulp Operation Hang Ten series between 1969 and 1973. Surfer-playboy-spy Bill Cartwright is the Hang Ten headliner. None of the books were reviewed in newspapers or magazines but pop-culture enthusiast Joe Kenney, on his website Glorious Trash, had this to say about the Snyder, Cartwright, and the series in ...
"Pulps and Pot: Surfing Problems," by Patrick McNulty (above), ran on SURFER's editorial page in the September 1967 issue. McNulty was SURFER's editor from 1965 until 1968 when he was replaced by Drew Kampion. * * * The changing problems facing the sport of surfing are reflected in mail crossing the editor's desk. A few years ago, the letters mostly were concerned with erasing the "gremmie" imag...
"Quiet Triumph: the Remarkable Journey of Pam Burridge," by DC Green, ran in the Summer 1998 issue of Deep magazine. This version has been slightly shortened and edited. * * * Consider this: at the time of writing, Pam Burridge and Trudy Todd were the sixth- and third-highest rated surfers, respectively, on the ASP world tour. Yet Trudy only began surfing in 1990, when Pam had already been on th...
Scott Hulet's profile on Donald Takayama ran in the Summer 1993 issue of Longboard magazine. The version below has been shortened and slightly edited. * * * Donald Takayama, aka “Fuzzy,” “Bird’s-nest,” and, naturally, “DT,” led what was probably the most idyllic childhood a surfer could possibly envision. Surrounded by the High Council of Hawaiian Watermen, the beachboys, Donald was schooled in ...
California surfers Mike Purpus and Angie Reno were both in their mid-20s prime in 1974, when Playgirl magazine came calling. Both had star turns in Five Summer Stories. Purpus had just won the Malibu AAAA contest and was second runner-up in the Smirnoff. Reno was regarded among the most fearless North Shore surfers, and would later stunt-surf in Big Wednesday. Playgirl launched in 1973, according ...