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That was a very interesting article, Kurt—thank you for that and your memories. Far more interesting than arguing about Trump, as you pointed out when talking about growing up in a certain part of the country (can't remember where). I'm curious about something: when you surfed in CA, did you ever encounter other surfers who tried to control public beaches by bullying and physically harassing "outsiders"? There was a recent article about that sort of thing, and the piece stated that it had been going on for years. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Patty (your wife?). I hope she's feeling better. What she went through sounded pretty scary.
Short answer, yes. I'll get back to you on that. There currently is one place in particular and you likely read about that one in Palos Verdes (Lunada Bay IIRC). The two places I lived before moving east to Philly then Cleveburg were Berkeley where I was born and a little place called Corona del Mar, now part of Newport Beach.
Thanks, she's doing better and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Post inspired by wallacehartley's remarks about South Africa's future in the Cause of Poverty thread.
Since a long board Gremmie (now Grommets) in the mid 60's, South Africa has meant 3 things to me. Cape St. Francis aka the perfect wave, Great Whites and Apartheid. Now I can add J Bay to the list ...
But back when surfing was still relatively relegated to a collective small group in SoCal and Hawaii and Australia, for those of us who surfing was more than just something you did on weekends, weather, geography and to a lesser extent geopolitics were very well studied. I dare suggest that unless you surfed and were reading Surfer magazine in the 60's you never heard much if anything about Apartheid in South Africa if you were still in high school, let alone most adults. I could be wrong but doubt it.
With the movie The Endless Summer, we finally had visual proof that the 'perfect wave' did exist. It really created the beginning of a global search for rideable waves beyond California, Hawaii and Australia. In 1966 Surfer Magazine published an article of a visit to South Africa in search of catching Cape St Francis breaking as shown in the movie. That never happened but the article discussed the local surfing scene and told us about 'black only' beaches with the picture of a young black boy standing outside of a fence at a 'whites only' beach. It touched off a firestorm of responses that took over a lot of the conversations in SoCal for nearly a year. That is how someone so young (13 yo) became very aware of Apartheid here in the states. An excerpt from an article about the Surfer Magazine story.
Surfers sojourning to South Africa also turned a blind eye, at least initially, to apartheid. To be fair, Surfer magazine waded into the controversy in 1966 with an article on South African surfing and segregated beaches. The column sparked the greatest reader response in the periodical’s history and Southern Californians weighed in on both sides of the issue. One Orange County surfer confessed that the article impacted the reader like none other before it. “Waves are for everyone to enjoy … not just a chosen few.” A fellow Californian surfer agreed. “When I saw a picture of the native standing on the beach as three surfers made their way toward the waters from which he was banned,” she wrote, “it really got to me.”
Numerous fellow Golden State surfers dissented from their more race conscious counterparts. “I think SURFER, has really taken a giant step – downward,” one L.A. resident responded. “Why can’t politics be kept out of surfing. I never thought you would sink to discussing racial discrimination as a topic in your magazine. Why can’t SURFER stick to stories about surfing and surfing places that surfers actually surf.” Another Californian who claimed to have surfed South Africa on three separate occasions advised Surfer and others to “focus on our own racial problems before we start knocking Africa’s.” Considering the history of U.S. segregation in housing and sites of leisure, notably pools and beaches, the writer might have had a point. Only he went on to parrot arguments of white segregationists, arguing that black South Africans had no interest in surfing in places reserved for whites only.
Of course, arguments that black South Africans expressed little interest in surfing required a certain amount of willful ignorance. In Bali, white surfers provided tepid excuses as to the apparent absence of a indigenous surfing scene. Though some surfers argued the Balinese “feared the ocean,” the fact was a “vibrant surf culture” emerged at the same time whites “discovered” Indonesian surf spots. White surfers just chose to ignore it or never encountered it. In South Africa, blacks faced greater opposition in this regard. As anti-apartheid activists like Douglass Booth noted, “Sports did not transcend politics.” If blacks experienced discrimination in housing, education and elsewhere, why would access to surf breaks differ?
Once again surfing changed life for so many people for the better or at least made people aware of things that needed to be changed. This is long before the "hey dudes" came along and made us all look like a bunch of dummy slacker / stoners. The cited article is long and goes into many areas of the history of surfing in a very honest way. A trip down memory lane for those of us who were there and informative for the curious and therefore worth the read. And to show that my remarks in the other thread were not casual or pandering. I've been paying attention to South Africa and Apartheid for over 50 years and have been concerned about how it will end. It does not appear that it will have a peaceful ending to the story. Rhodesia Zimbabwe comes to mind as wallace mentioned.
And another article about the founder of Surfer Magazine. A magazine that had a tremendous impact on my and many other peoples lives long ago. And besides, Rick Griffin was the staff cartoonist back then, too ... Some of you Dead Heads may be familiar with Rick. He was our's before he was your's ...
Now I can close out some windows that have been open for a few days waiting for me to write this post.
Mahalo and Pau !
That was a very interesting article, Kurt—thank you for that and your memories. Far more interesting than arguing about Trump, as you pointed out when talking about growing up in a certain part of the country (can't remember where).
I'm curious about something: when you surfed in CA, did you ever encounter other surfers who tried to control public beaches by bullying and physically harassing "outsiders"? There was a recent article about that sort of thing, and the piece stated that it had been going on for years.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Patty (your wife?). I hope she's feeling better. What she went through sounded pretty scary.
Post inspired by wallacehartley's remarks about South Africa's future in the Cause of Poverty thread.
Since a long board Gremmie (now Grommets) in the mid 60's, South Africa has meant 3 things to me. Cape St. Francis aka the perfect wave, Great Whites and Apartheid. Now I can add J Bay to the list ...
But back when surfing was still relatively relegated to a collective small group in SoCal and Hawaii and Australia, for those of us who surfing was more than just something you did on weekends, weather, geography and to a lesser extent geopolitics were very well studied. I dare suggest that unless you surfed and were reading Surfer magazine in the 60's you never heard much if anything about Apartheid in South Africa if you were still in high school, let alone most adults. I could be wrong but doubt it.
With the movie The Endless Summer, we finally had visual proof that the 'perfect wave' did exist. It really created the beginning of a global search for rideable waves beyond California, Hawaii and Australia. In 1966 Surfer Magazine published an article of a visit to South Africa in search of catching Cape St Francis breaking as shown in the movie. That never happened but the article discussed the local surfing scene and told us about 'black only' beaches with the picture of a young black boy standing outside of a fence at a 'whites only' beach. It touched off a firestorm of responses that took over a lot of the conversations in SoCal for nearly a year. That is how someone so young (13 yo) became very aware of Apartheid here in the states. An excerpt from an article about the Surfer Magazine story.
Surfers sojourning to South Africa also turned a blind eye, at least initially, to apartheid. To be fair, Surfer magazine waded into the controversy in 1966 with an article on South African surfing and segregated beaches. The column sparked the greatest reader response in the periodical’s history and Southern Californians weighed in on both sides of the issue. One Orange County surfer confessed that the article impacted the reader like none other before it. “Waves are for everyone to enjoy … not just a chosen few.” A fellow Californian surfer agreed. “When I saw a picture of the native standing on the beach as three surfers made their way toward the waters from which he was banned,” she wrote, “it really got to me.”
Numerous fellow Golden State surfers dissented from their more race conscious counterparts. “I think SURFER, has really taken a giant step – downward,” one L.A. resident responded. “Why can’t politics be kept out of surfing. I never thought you would sink to discussing racial discrimination as a topic in your magazine. Why can’t SURFER stick to stories about surfing and surfing places that surfers actually surf.” Another Californian who claimed to have surfed South Africa on three separate occasions advised Surfer and others to “focus on our own racial problems before we start knocking Africa’s.” Considering the history of U.S. segregation in housing and sites of leisure, notably pools and beaches, the writer might have had a point. Only he went on to parrot arguments of white segregationists, arguing that black South Africans had no interest in surfing in places reserved for whites only.
Of course, arguments that black South Africans expressed little interest in surfing required a certain amount of willful ignorance. In Bali, white surfers provided tepid excuses as to the apparent absence of a indigenous surfing scene. Though some surfers argued the Balinese “feared the ocean,” the fact was a “vibrant surf culture” emerged at the same time whites “discovered” Indonesian surf spots. White surfers just chose to ignore it or never encountered it. In South Africa, blacks faced greater opposition in this regard. As anti-apartheid activists like Douglass Booth noted, “Sports did not transcend politics.” If blacks experienced discrimination in housing, education and elsewhere, why would access to surf breaks differ?
Once again surfing changed life for so many people for the better or at least made people aware of things that needed to be changed. This is long before the "hey dudes" came along and made us all look like a bunch of dummy slacker / stoners. The cited article is long and goes into many areas of the history of surfing in a very honest way. A trip down memory lane for those of us who were there and informative for the curious and therefore worth the read. And to show that my remarks in the other thread were not casual or pandering. I've been paying attention to South Africa and Apartheid for over 50 years and have been concerned about how it will end. It does not appear that it will have a peaceful ending to the story. Rhodesia Zimbabwe comes to mind as wallace mentioned.
And another article about the founder of Surfer Magazine. A magazine that had a tremendous impact on my and many other peoples lives long ago. And besides, Rick Griffin was the staff cartoonist back then, too ... Some of you Dead Heads may be familiar with Rick. He was our's before he was your's ...
Anyone else pissed off at the WSL"s new broadcast format for contests on CBS Sports ? I don't want a greatest turns mish mosh, I want to see the whole heats, the whole rides. Being far from the water, I really do enjoy seeing the whole thing, the lulls, the closeout sets, the ones that went un ridden.
Can't have anything nice ...
Still dealing with Slater's wave machine, half way through it. It really is great and a profound achievement but it seems boring almost. Too predictable. It may become something like compulsories in figure skating.
it seems like you'd be able to get the entire footage on demand
Anyone else pissed off at the WSL"s new broadcast format for contests on CBS Sports ? I don't want a greatest turns mish mosh, I want to see the whole heats, the whole rides. Being far from the water, I really do enjoy seeing the whole thing, the lulls, the closeout sets, the ones that went un ridden.
Can't have anything nice ...
Still dealing with Slater's wave machine, half way through it. It really is great and a profound achievement but it seems boring almost. Too predictable. It may become something like compulsories in figure skating.
That was cool, thanks. There's some implication in the comments that it's come and gone before...
Heh, turns out I had the wrong location for the original picture. Skeleton Bay is a similar wave in Africa, but it is unique in that it's all sand and therefore, very temporary geologically speaking.
The picture that I posted is actually from a place in Peru. I looked hard at the picture and what I thought was seaweed washed up on the beach were some trees that just plain didn't make sense. This point break in Peru will last for eons because its all rock and will take forever to erode.
If my life had gone as planned, I would have become a marine geologist specializing in waves and erosion. It would have been the preface for traveling the world to study different kinds of beaches and their waves. Surfing the waves would have been required in order for real in depth investigation. Didn't work out that way, but at least I did have a plan and a dream.
That was cool, thanks. There's some implication in the comments that it's come and gone before...
The conditions for such a long run of identical waves have to be just right. It could happen as a fluke once in a while most places, I guess, but for it to be predictable like that? That's got to be unique. Seems like one good winter storm would mess up the sea floor enough to wreck the effect. Drop a bit of seaweed...
If my life had gone as planned, I would have become a marine geologist specializing in waves and erosion. It would have been the preface for traveling the world to study different kinds of beaches and their waves. Surfing the waves would have been required in order for real in depth investigation. Didn't work out that way, but at least I did have a plan and a dream.
he even had to fade back into the wave to let it build up and still made it.
Didn't work out that way, but at least I did have a plan and a dream.