Claude Codgen @ the 1967 East Coast Championship at
Virginia Beach riding for Con Surfboards.
"It was 1968 when I went to Al's Surf Shop in Va. Beach & traded my 8' 6" Hobie for my first custom order shaped by Bill Frierson & glassed by Ronnie Mellott. It was an East Side Surfboard which was obviously inspired by the Vardeman V-bottoms that were coming over at the time. In fact Al Snebling (shop owner) loaned me a board while I waited for my custom board to be built, a trade back from Jimbo Brothers that was his Vardeman team board. Needless to say I was stoked & that little gesture of Als' probably was one of the most impressionable things done in my behalf except for a friend of the family Jimbo Ward who talked my parents to getting me my first board".
Shaper Alan White
Bing Copeland
Bing Surfboards
Steve
Schlickenmeyer
Bing Surf Team,
Bay Cities Surf
Club 1963
Chris
Schlickenmeyer
Bing Surf Team,
Bay Cities Surf
Club 1963
Bud Gardner,
Florida
Bud Garner
Surfboards 1966
Coming Spring / Summer 2010 " The Foam Years of 1959 to 1968"
Bing Copeland and Rick Stoners 1st Surf Shop Hermosa Beach on the strand near 14th St. 1960
From the George Lanning's Story:
One day in the Fall of 1961 John Severson came by the house, just George and Dave were home at the time. John says to George and Dave, do you guys want to go to a new surf spot. Explaining he would be shooting some film for a movie that he was putting together.
A young 19 year old George Lanning was excited with the idea and said Oh yeah great. So they went to Ehukai Beach, George had surfed Pupakea, but not the break they were walking towards, George didn’t even know that it was there. This was the first time he and Dave had seen Pipeline. George remembered it was just beautiful, overhead, good-size, big barrels, and looked like WindanSea, so they had to go out.
They went back to the car and grab their boards. Their surfboards brought over from the mainland were early 60’s variations of what was happening in San Diego. Heavy somewhat pig shaped hips on the outline and not much of a nose rocker. Not your typical Pipeline type of board. But they didn’t know any better and so they paddled out, stoked to go surfing.
Phil Edwards is credited for being the first to have ridden this new spot not yet named. Word spread around the North Shore the day before of Phil riding the new spot. The next day George, Dave and John were there ready to ride and film.
Phil had been out earlier that day being filmed by Bruce Brown before George and Dave got there. Phil and Bruce would be watching from the beach as George Lanning, Dave Willingham, Lawerance Swan and Mike Hynson would join Phil Edwards in Pipeline lore as being the one of the first to surf the spot.
Out in the lineup George said to Dave, I’ll go on this one as a set of waves approached the two surfers. George caught the wave and was thinking stall, a common maneuver when you want the wave to catch up to you. But at the Pipe that is the one thing you do not want to do if you are not an advance surfer. Since the wave is top to bottom within a few seconds. Anyway, George stalled his board as he took off and in a matter of a couple of seconds he saw his tailblock going over his head.
He took a nasty wipeout, free falling to the bottom as the top of the wave went boom on top of him. After being pushed around underwater for about 15 seconds George pops back up. Dave watching from back of the wave, waited for George to appear. Then yelled how was it. Somewhat rattled and getting his senses back, George pretending to have a knife placed in his right hand, dragged his thumb across his neck and yelled back “don’t stall”.
Taking George’s advice Dave caught a good wave and made it. George was having a difficult time. He had caught 6 waves and unable to make one wave to the end of the ride. After about 45 minutes, Lawrence came out, and joined his friends. He soon fell into the same groove George was into. He had a couple of good wipeouts.
An hour later Mike Hynson came out and surfed with the group for about a couple of hours. He was getting some good waves, but it was getting bigger and bigger. Resuming the conversation with Tony, where in Baja did you guys go I asked? Tony replied Tijuana. We both started laughing. He goes on to tell about a classic story at the Long Bar in Tijuana. After the PPSA members crossed over the border into Mexico and found a safe parking spot, they made their way to the Long Bar. Hey you guys, come on in, have a good time said the doorman in a Spanish accent swinging his one arm in a circular motion and pointing at the door with the other. The mariachi band that had been playing traditional tunes for the strippers. But when the entertainment changed from the stage to the bar floor, they began playing faster and faster until they were seen racing out the door. The noise soared to the ceiling before calm prevailed. With a few guys still pouring beer on one another, most of the guys walked out through the puddles of beer suds and went looking for some dry clothes. A fitting climax for a surf trip to Baja, the guys caught good waves down to the border and good waves back up to Santa Cruz. From the story of Wayo Whilar:
Butch Van Arsdalen the first Mr. Pipeline 1963 photo by Leroy Grannis, legendary Surf Photographer. Butch riding a Hobie Surfboard shaped by Del Cannon.
Sonny Vardeman of Vardeman Surfboards. Team riders l-r Tom Lonardo, Herbie Fletcher, and Jackie Baxter 1964. Shop located on Pacific Coast Hwy. near 3rd
St. across from the Pier
Phil Edwards Hobie Surfboards 1964-65
From Tony Mikus's Story:
Pleasure Point Surfing Association produced a highly successful Surf Fair on April 15, 1965 at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. It was from 10 AM to midnight, during the Easter Break. The event had booths by every major Surf Shop in northern California, Surf Clubs displays, movies, dancing to live bands, skateboard exhibitions, and prize drawings every hour. General admittance was $1.50. With the proceeds from the Surf Fair, the PPSA members enjoyed a one week all expense paid surfing trip to Baja California.
A lot of surf clubs were there, The bar was filled with surfers having a good time, laughing, drinking, joking around, and talking stories. With a haze of smoke at varies parts of the bar, the ambience was right out of a B movie bar scene. The PPSA guys settled in and found some tables. It wasn’t long before the mood shifted, in other words, things started to get out of hand.
Tony standing near by heard Bigler saying something to Sultzer. Sultzer returned the compliment and poured beer on his head, what followed was the biggest beer fight Tony had ever seen. Being only 16 years old, he had something to talk about when he got back. Everybody were pouring beer on everyone, it was one soaking mess.
Cerro Azul Pier Wayo gluing up a blank 1967
The year was 1962 when Wayo was at Cerro Azul and was just about to return to Lima. He happened to notice a broken surfboard that had hit the pier and was abandon on the beach. Quickly picking it up, he took it home with him. Having done resin and fiberglass work on his cousin’s board, Wayo knew something about surfboard repairs. He peeled the existing fiberglass off and made himself his first surfboard. Wayo would make other boards and continued doing repairs.
Right to left: George Downing, Fred Hemmings,Felipe Pomar, Paul Strauch, Mike Doyle, Mickey Munoz, Ken Adler, Nat Young, and Carlos Rey an offical of the 1965 contest.
The 1960's were considered the Golden Years of Peruvian Surfing with its international surfing contests. In 1965, Peru was the host country for the 2nd World Surfing Championships which were held at Punta Rocas George Downing of the Hawaiian Surf Team had brought over a longboard with a modified pulled in nose. It was a little different than the boards he had been riding previously in Peru. Besides George, there were Richard “Bufflo” Keaulana, Fred Hemmings, Reno Abellira, and Paul Strauch. Wayo noticed the change of the outline and after the contest was over he began peeling another old longboard to reshape into a board that looked like the Hawaiian’s designs. A few of years later the mini-gun made its presents at the varies breaks around Lima.
Mike Purpus, Jacobs Surf Team and WindanSea Surf Club, Makaha 1967
Kenny Tilton 1964 Bill Shrosbree 1965
Wayne Lynch 1967 Bob McTavish 1968
Doug Haut 1967 George Lanning 1964
