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Topanga Beach in the 70's - Gear lived with his father in the two story house with the catamaran sitting in front (middle top). When I lived there it was "The Bender House" - belonging todentist Dr Bernie Bender, Mrs Bender and their sons, Michael and ?.
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| (Note: Except for myself, aka 'Yours Truly'; I will refer to others described in these stories on a factual, first name/last initial only basis...unless their names need to be changed to protect the innocent and/or guilty! In all cases, the dogs of Topanga Beach will be accurately described by their full & true names. - Gear-y) | ||
Episode One |
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| 'Sunshine came softly a' through my, window today'... The heartfelt strains of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" echoed out through the positive, though negatively- charged ion-particle enhanced, ocean air. Such were the sounds coming from the juke box at Frenchy's 'Wee Nook', at the corner of Topanga Canyon Blvd. and PCH #1. Traffic could be very light back then. Sometimes, I heard the music clearly, all the way across the Coast Highway, at my new home on Topanga Beach. You could also hear this song playing on any turntable, victrola, and transistor radio, throughout my new-found Topanga Beach community. It was just now becoming the ripe, south swell-laden, summer of 1966. It was a 'gain-glorious' gremmie's dream, to live right on the 'private' Topanga Beach, in 1966. My Dad was able to rent Bernie, Mike & Larry B.'s home in 'the cove' for us; after getting full custody of Yours Truly/at the age of 14. I much preferred my wonderfully gregarious father and life at the beach, to a Hollywood entertainment-industry lifestyle with my famous Mom, and her new Husband/Agent, in residential Brentwood. Dad and I were living the 'sweet life', as in Sinatra's, then popular song, "The Summer Wind"... along with our German Shepherds;' "Paperboy"; de Marquis Von Steffen the 2nd' & ' "Hunka Munka"; Blewdy-Flower-Faster Steffen'.
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| Happily, I was immediately welcomed in to the inner circle of Topanga Beach youth. If you could somehow find a way to live at the beach, were a good surfer or skateboarder, or your family owned a world-famous Hotel chain; you were readily accepted by the Topanga Beach elite... Craigy H., Joey S.(R.I.P.), Cathy F., Bobby B. & Woody W. (& his wonderful dog ' "Zorba"; The Great-headed Greek Mastiff ') were my first friends. They had come to form a loose-nit group, calling themselves the 'Topanga Beach Junior Bombers', (not to be confused with the senior 'Topanga Beach Bombers', who were more of a cohesive 'Gang'). The surf was excellent and consistent throughout that summer of '66. Topanga, and So-Cal in general, had a much more active south swell window during the 60's, thru the early 70's. Henceforth, those days when the surf was less than 2-3 feet were somewhat rare.
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 Bill Cleary on the right and "me on my 8'2' Weber. I used to crook in my left arm like that, before I learned a more flowing style, from guys like Scott H., Danny B., Woody, etc." - photo courtesy of John Clemens |
That summer, I rode a custom 8'2" arrow-patterned Dewey Weber, (it was considered 'short'). Joey S. rode whatever warped and waterlogged chunk of foam or balsa and fiberglass he could find on the beach...but he did so masterfully! (To this day, I've yet to see anyone else hang ten toes over, on a surfboard without a nose!) Woody rode his 'gifted board', an early Hobie 'Phil Edwards' shape. The surfboard was given to him, free of charge: courtesy of 'Vita Pak/Super Surfer/Hobie Skateboards'. This, because Woody was the first (and only/to this day) 'All Event' International Skateboard Championships Winner (Age 12 & Under/Circa 1964)...that the world had ever seen!
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| Both the junior and senior 'Topanga Beach Bombers' took the Sunshine Superman song to heart...especially the phrases: "We stood on a beach at sunset, do you remember when?...I know a beach where baby, a' it never ends!". Some of us were convinced that Donovan was specifically naming Topanga as the actual beach 'where baby, a' it never ends'. (It is documented that Donovan was in L.A. making recordings, before and during this time period.) Whether-or-not it's true that Donovan was naming Topanga in his song; our combined thoughts and deeds combusted to actualize Topanga Beach as, certainly, 'a beach where it never ends'...a concept which we carried on, with many carryings-on, over the next decade and a half,... or at least until the bulldozers of 1979. Topanga Beach Stories ©Gearheart Anthony Steffen III 2009 - All Rights Reserved
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POINT OF ORDERIt's time for a point of order in fact! "TOPANGA BEACH" is the actual, traditional, and true name for this place; as opposed to Topanga Point (which it is now called on certain websites like 'wannasurf').
Of course it is a sweet point break, and we called that part of the beach, and the waters offshore of it, simply, 'the Point'. We also had names for every other part of "TOPANGA BEACH". 'Boomers' is located off the back (west end) of the point. It can have some nice left-hand peelers, right in front of 'Jackson's Knoll', a small bluff overlooking the sand dunes there. Topanga Creek was simply known as 'the Creek', although it was referred to as 'the Polio Pond', in later years. On rare occasions (6.+ high tide and a massive NW swell) you could ride a small, but well-shaped, grinding left, from the mouth of the creek, right up into the creek for about 50 yards! I lived in 'the Cove', which was, normally, the natural termination place for the wave from the point. 'The Body-Surfing Beach' was between the cove and the Point Restaurant, now known as the Chart House (great El Capitan-esque tubing rights can be had there, on occasion). The Rodeo Grounds across PCHwy were not really considered part of the beach, but we had a name for it, 'the Snake Pit' (yeah, there used to be quite a few rattlesnakes over there, and some dubious residents, like Charles Manson...more on him later). TOPANGA BEACH was once referred to as "T-Point", in a picture from Surf Guide Magazine, in the late 60's. The use of this name was designed to keep the true name of TOPANGA BEACH a secret. It shows George T. on about an 8 foot face, SE swell wave. SE swells, or "Chubasco" swells, were fairly common in the 60's to early 70's. A lot of them could form lefts at the point, stretching up to the creek. Since '72, SE swells have been extremely rare, if not non-existent. The name"Topanga" comes from the Native American Tongva Tribe, meaning 'the place where the mountains meet the sea'. Topanga was the natural border between the Tongvas and the Chumash, who coined the name 'Malibu',,,meaning 'where the surf sounds loudly'. The word for 'beach' in Chumash is 'mugu'. Since the Tongvas and the Chumash were close nieghbors, it's possible that the beach could have been referred to as 'Topanga Mugu', which is still TOPANGA BEACH! (NEXT: The band 'Canned Heat', moves onto the beach, & the remainder of 1966-early'67) Topanga Beach Stories © Gearheart Anthony Steffen III 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
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