"World Champion Entered at Makaha," by Martyn Chase, ran in the December 16, 1964, edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. This version has been slightly edited. * * * When Phyllis O’Donnell first tried to surf five years ago. the beach boys in Australia laughed at her. But today Miss O’Donnell is the holder of the women’s world championship in surfing and is one of the leading contenders in t...
"The Mini Boards," a single-page article by Dick Brewer, ran in the June 1968 issue of Petersen's Surfing magazine. This version has been slightly edited. * * * The mini boards are the most important breakthrough in surfing in recent years. It took the Aussies to do it. The simple fact is that you just don’t need ten feet of surfboard to ride a wave effectively up and down the curl line; one ne...
Surfer and budding film producer-director Peter Clifton, of Sydney, was 25 when he made The Surfing Years, with funding from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The hour-long TV special debuted in late 1966. It follows three surfers and a pair of young women on a cramped one-car road trip from Whale Beach, Sydney, to Noosa Heads, with stops at Crescent Head, Byron Bay, and Surfers Paradise. W...
Phil Jarratt’s profile of Dane Kealoha ran in the January 1979 issue of SURFER Magazine. This version has been slightly edited. * * * “I want to try and do everything. As much turning and as many radical maneuvers as I can do—you know, just overpower the wave.” Dane Kealoha speaking. He of the Charles Atlas physique and Larry Bertlemann school of rip and tear. The dark kid with the muscles on h...
Jamie Reno's profile on Mike Hynson ran in the July 2001 issue of San Diego magazine. This version has been slightly edited. * * * When Del Mar Fair organizers agreed on the theme for this year’s run—“Endless Summer, Endless Fun”—they thought it would be cool to invite the stars of the 1960s surf epic The Endless Summer to Del Mar to greet fair-goers on opening day. After all, the film, a sunny ...
Steve Barilotti's profile on Mike Hynson ran in the August 2007 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited. * * * Jimi Hendrix had been dead a year, but the revolution—or at least a movie version of it—kept right on jammin’ without him. Less than a month after Hendrix played a free concert on the slopes of Mt. Haleakalā, effectively wrapping principal photography for Rainbow Bridge,...
Matt George’s critique of the ASP world tour ran in the December 1988 issue of SURFER Magazine. This version has been slightly edited. * * * During its 12-year existence, the world professional surfing tour has changed the face of the surfing experience, and all of us along with it. Despite the rose-colored view offered by organizations, sponsors, media, and some competitors, all is not well wit...
Geoff Luton’s “Bondi (Concrete) Soul” feature ran in the May 1970 issue of Surfing World. This version has been slightly edited. * * * When Albert suggested I do a story on Bondi for SW I must admit that at first I had a number of evil thoughts about his motives. I first thought that he must be really short of material to want an article on such a colorless place as Bondi. Then I thought he was...
Matt George’s piece on “Harbor Bill” Mulcoy ran in the July 1986 issue of SURFER Magazine. This version has been slightly edited. * * * THE PROBLEM Harbormaster Steve Scheiblauer leaned against his office window, steaming coffee mug in hand, and sighed deeply. He had a problem. A big problem. Its name was a shadow known only as “Harbor Bill.” No last name, no other information at all, but he’d m...
Peter Drouyn of Australia was the first Westerner to surf in China, but just a few months later SURFER Magazine organized a visit with writer Matt George and photographer Warren Bolster, plus pros surfers Rell Sunn, Jon Damm, and Willy Morris. George’s story ran in June 1987 issue. This version has been slightly edited. * * * 10/29/86 SOMEWHERE OVER THE HUBEI PROVINCE, CHINA It was the turbulen...