My Own Surfing Thread!

[Baz]

Couple pics of one of my best friends from early surfing days, JL, whom I've posted pics of here before. These are from the '77 - '78 era....

[Baz]

Terry Pressley aka 'Poker' on the left and Richard 'Palmer Jet' Palmer on the right.....

[Baz]

Not sure who this is but typical day at the inlet surfing small but fun waves.....in nice warm water...

[Baz]

From April 1979

I think this is Bernie "Mad Dog" Crouch and I think that's a board shaped by Harold Iggy....and the pic 'may have' been taken on the Ponce side of the inlet....

[Baz]

A few more pics from my slide collection. The subject is local board maker and surfer Randy Richenberg....one of my best friends through all my years in surfing (along with JL) and a very positive influence on my life (for better or worse!)

First pic is Hatteras and other two are here at our inlet...

[Geary]

I remember Iggy from '60s Waikiki days .. did he move to Florida, Baz?

Timmy McCullough was a surf photographer back in the '60s & '70s, and he recently shared these photos of Ala Moana. (Tim's dad started Reyn's, a company that Tim eventually took over.)

Conrad Canha, a very stocky surfer, could push through white water like no other surfer from that era:


Conrad & Peter Moon, a well-known local musician


We used to get huge south swells, perhaps 4 every summer. These days we're lucky to get one swell like this every 10 years. You can barely see the lip of another wave outside of this one. The photo clearly shows the origin of the term "pole sets" when talking about Ala Moana:


Rick Parker on another big Ala Mo day:

[Baz]

Thanks for those pics, Geary!

The famous Ala Moana Bowl!

Getting back to Harold Iggy.....he was good friends with Bobby Owens who spent time here when he was growing up. Bobby and local board maker Bernie "Mad Dog" Crouch were good friends and at some point Bernie made arrangements to have Harold shape boards for him to sell at his shop in Daytona Beach Shores. Word got out that we could have custom shapes from Harold and many of us would stay in touch with Bernie as to when Harold would be in town shaping. We'd book an appointment and let him know what we wanted and we'd have our Iggy. Bernie's factory would finish the boards and they would be badged with the Iggy name.

Last one I had made I took my 6'6" Richenberg thruster to him and said..."If can you improve on this - go for it." He could and he did and I loved it.

We had a joke that his boards were so fast that when taking off on a wave your board would scoot out from under you before you could get stood up...lol.

That Iggy of mine got some fin damage when I surfed at C-Street while on a trip to Cal and needs some attention so I'm on my other boards for now.

[Baz]

I really wish I had taken more pics of people I knew through surfing through the years. You really don't look at things when you are young the same way as later down the road. Here's one from my slide collection of a guy we knew from surfing named John (or Jon maybe) Barnes. Lucky I can remember his name as there are others I do not. For some reason I did get his pic that day.....

Wherever you are I hope you are doing well, my old friend.



Taken July 1975

[sammyg2]

In high school I rode a Robert August very similar to this one:




It was good for the big rollers at San Onofre.

[Geary]

While I've held onto a number of Brewers, I wish I'd kept my Kanaiapuni and Lopez boards. I'd pay good money for older ones in good shape today.

Can't remember if I've posted this '59 Ala Mo before:

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Geary

While I've held onto a number of Brewers, I wish I'd kept my Kanaiapuni and Lopez boards. I'd pay good money for older ones in good shape today.

Can't remember if I've posted this '59 Ala Mo before:

Is that you, Geary? Stylin'!

Heck, I wish I had at least taken pics of all my boards.

I converted this slide and thought for a minute it was someone else because I didn't remember that board...lol! Turns out it was a Nichols single fin - I finally remembered.

[Baz]

My friend J.L. just posted this today on his FB page. He runs a surf school for kids....been doing it for years. Runs it through our city's parks and rec dept. I'm really proud of him!

[Geary]

No Baz, not me .. an unidentified surfer from a 1960 surf book.

Another of Jeff Ching @ Kaiser's Bowl, right down from Ala Mo:

[Holger]

Originally Posted by Baz

...
Here's one from my slide collection of a guy we knew from surfing named John (or Jon maybe) Barnes. Lucky I can remember his name as there are others I do not. For some reason I did get his pic that day.....

Wherever you are I hope you are doing well, my old friend.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Love the pic of those kids! Awesome! I'd love to have a job like that (maybe when I'm retired or semi-retired soon...) That's almost as good as getting paid to fly airplanes like I used to!

Those kids look like a blast to be around, too. So much energy and fun in that picture.

[Geary]

Our family helps put on a Kailua shore break surf meet each summer. It's grown so large that we have a lengthy alternate list. This will be the first year our 6 year-old granddaughter enters, and second year for our 9 year-old. We get donations of food from local restaurants, and tons of donated gear from the surf shops. Loads of fun ..



My surf partner for life:

[Geary]

.
Conrad Canha, said to be the "father of hot dog surfing", passed away recently on the east side of Oahu. If you were to ask any '50s - '60s Hawaii surfer "Who's the best at pushing through whitewater?", the answer would invariably be "Conrad".

Conrad was possibly the most unpretentious guy in the lineup at Ala Moana, happily sharing waves and pretty much always wearing a smile.



RIP Conrad

[Baz]

Thanks for the note about Conrad's passing, Geary. I remember him very well - from media - not in person. A group of friends of mine moved to NSB from the Clearwater area after graduating from high school and named each other "Conrad" in his honor - this back in the early 70's so there's an interesting bit of trivia from around here. Two "Conrads" are still here and i see them every week and one of them named his son "Conrad" as in on his birth certificate name - not fictitious. Great stuff. RIP CC...

[Geary]

I hadn't realized until this morning that this iconic photo of Eddie Aikau @ Waimea Bay was taken by Tim McCullough:
pid=11588

There's some other great shots in this link, a couple of them guys I used to surf with when we were kids.
Hawaii's Golden Age: 20 Photos of the Perfect Era | The Inertia

[pwd72s]

Maybe of interest? An old Route 66 episode centering around surfing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWmJac14NbQ