The Golden Years

When were surfing’s Golden Years? I suppose it all depends on when you started surfing.

For a lucky few it was the thirties, forties or fifties. For me, they started in the late-fifties before the movie ‘Gidget’ helped turn surfing into a mass marketing commodity. They lasted until 1970, when I returned to Malibu after two years of living on Maui, Hawaii. By that time, the ‘shortboard revolution’ had virtually wiped-out Southern California's traditional surfing culture - a culture that focused on fun, personal challenge, mutual enjoyment and a respect for the coastal environment. Within what seemed like a few short years, it was replaced with an aggressive, mercenary new culture that focused on performance, competition, self-gratification and greed. Then I guess the same could be said about the rest of Southern California’s 'culture'.

me in 1960 - Photo by Darryl Kniss

I remember driving up to Hollywood-by-the-Sea after I returned from Maui in 1970. It was a spot I’d surfed a lot when it was still off the beaten track and little known. Now it had a lifeguard tower and a parking lot complete with slouching, sullen ‘locals’ who were probably still in kindergarten when I first started surfing there. Fortunately, I was spotted by an old mate who was a well known surfer. He made a point of introducing a couple of key locals and waxing-up with me. Later, I learned that my car probably would have been vandalized otherwise.

Sure, there was a bit of the 'local mentality' in the early-sixties, especially at Topanga Beach where everything above the mean-high tide line was private property and 'trespassers' treated to some rough justice. And I recall running into a tad of local agro at places like Windansea and Sunset Cliffs in the early days. But this new level of hostility was far beyond anything I’d ever experienced before.

Up till then, surfing had been all about having a good time with a few mates and coming out of the water feeling like you'd just mainlined on pure life. Hogging every wave and swaggering around like an apprentice Nazi was definitely not my idea my idea of what surfing was about. I was relieved when old friend (and former editor at Surfguide), Bill Cleary, suggested loading our boards for a long, leisurely drive down to Costa Rica.

Except for running into a few packs of obnoxious surfers from Texas - and some nasty experiences with banditos and a large shark - it was a great trip. When we returned to Malibu, I packed up my VW, headed back to Central America and ended up living in Costa Rica for the next year or so.

At Malibu 1973 - Photo John Kiewit

Costa Rica was pristine in the early-seventies and I understand that certain special spots haven't changed all that much since then. But after I returned to Malibu and saw how crowded and polluted Santa Monica Bay had become, I started thinking about moving on again.

Bill Cleary was having similar thoughts so we sat down with a stack of maps to plan a safari 'Downunder'. The idea was to visit some old Topanga Beach friends (Doug & Reva Meredith and their sons) in New Zealand then fly across the 'ditch' to OZ for some serious surfing. Final destination, Western Australia.

Once I got to New Zealand, however, I felt the same way I felt when I first landed on Maui in 1968. Like I’d finally come home. So I cashed-in the Australian leg of my PanAm ticket and, except for a short period back in Malibu and the occasional 'walkabout', I’ve lived here in Aotearoa ever since.

As Kiwi surfer, Michael Fitzharris, said when I interviewed him for an article on the renaissance of New Zealand 'longboarding' in Pacific Longboarder, "It wasn’t so much that the fun went out of surfing after the shortboard revolution, it was that it was much harder to get that fun." It was also harder to paddle into a wave, harder to balance changing priorities and harder to compete with hostile, increasingly younger shortboard riders who seemed to think they invented surfing and owned every wave.

I don’t think I’m the only 'mature' surfer to have welcomed the longboard renaissance, and now that 60% of all new board sales in the USA are for longboards, it would appear that longboards, shortboards and hybrids (and their riders) are sharing more and more waves.

This renaissance has also engendered an renewed interest in surfing’s history and what it was like way back when. This site is my attempt to pay homage to the memory of those magic, golden days. I hope you enjoy it.