George Lanning

George Lanning Waimea March 9, 1965

George Lanning, shaper during the 60's and 70's

In 1960 George Lanning was sanding surfboards for AJ Surfboards in La Jolla. The AJ initials stands for Andy Jones who was one of the shapers and glasser at the shop. The other shaper at the shop was Carl Ekstrom. This was when foam surfboards were just starting out and the techniques to shape and glass them were still in their infancy.

During this time George was attending La Jolla High School and was in his senior year. He had many friends and Butch Van Artsdalen was one of them. Actually Butch was George’s best friend and they would go everywhere, did everything together. After graduating from high school they both went over to Hawaii in 1961. They rented in town and surfed the popular spots there. Butch’s first stay lasted a couple of months before returning to San Diego.

The road to the North Shore surf spots ran through the small town of Haleiwa. No big supermarkets or shopping malls, just small stores in the 1940’s wooden type architecture. A gas station with 35 cent a gallon for gas, a restaurant with breakfast under a buck and the old Haleiwa theater showing Samuri movies on certain days of the week. So it was just the basics, with surfing at the top of the list.

Meanwhile George was staying at a house on Keiki Road about a mile from Sunset Beach. His roommates were Dave Willingham, Lawrence Swan, Grant Reynolds, Marty Darby and two other roommates. One day in the Fall of 1961 John Severson came by the house, just George and Dave were home at the time and 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 Pupukea, 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 break. 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. The surfboards that they had brought over from the mainland were early 60’s variations of what was happening in San Diego. Heavy somewhat pig shaped outline and not much of a nose rocker. Not your typical Pipeline type of board. But they didn’t know any better, 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. Though previous surfer from the decade before had seen it break but no one thought of going out surfing this swallow wave. Word spread around the North Shore that afternoon and night of Phil riding the new surf spot. The next day George, Dave and John were there ready to ride and film. Phil had been out earlier that day before George and Dave got there and would be watching from the beach with Bruce Brown.

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. Having wipeout George was standing on a coral head with the water up to chest (All this time he had thought the bottom was sand). Dave took off on one of the bigger wave of the day. Standing there in front of Dave, George was thinking what am I going to do?

In a split second George hunched down and placed his arms around his knees. Just then the wave exploded in front of him and shot him out like a human cannon ball through the water and towards the beach. The next thing he knew, he was practically on the beach. He came in walking on the beach dazed, dizzy and stuff like that; all excited about the great wipeout.

Phil Edwards had watched what had happened. As George walked up to him, he asked what do you think of the place? Phil response was absolutely phenomenal and continued, you guys are absolutely crazy, somebody could have gotten killed out there. George didn’t think twice about the remark as he paddled back out as John kept on filming.

George Lanning, Dave Willingham, Lawrence Swan and Mike Hynson would join Phil Edwards in Pipeline lore as being one of the first to surf the spot. To celebrate their accomplishment and survival, George, Dave and Lawrence returned to the house on Keiki Road and had a Primo beer or two while someone took their picture.

A month or so later the surf on the North Shore was getting bigger. George’s roommate Grant Reynolds was out at Sunset Beach. The following is from Grant’s story:

There were days when the entire North Shore would close out. After the surf went down they would go surf the popular spot along the North Shore. One day Grant was surfing Sunset Beach 6 to 8 ft., then a set came in and Grant and the guys who were out paddle further out. The waves were getting bigger and Grant was barely getting over the tops of the set. Set after set, further and further out he paddled. By now it was just Grant, the others either got picked off and swam in or caught the whitewater in.

One 20 foot set catches Grant as he pushed his board away and he is diving down 30 feet beneath the whitewater. After coming up for air he swim further out as the sets become 40 feet. Looking down the face of the wave Grant feels insignificant. He’s about a mile out and has lost sight of the beach. He sees his board popping up now and then further in but it soon disappears. Having been out for more than an hour since losing his board he contemplates swimming to Waimea. Looking down the coast he see the waves. They were bigger and more powerful so Grant decided not to go there.

The waves were still getting bigger and the swells longer. He dives under and swims as much as possible before coming up for air. Another set comes rolling in as he dives and swims. He sees his board about a half-mile away drifting in the rip. He swims for his board and after an hour or so and he gets his board. Still in deep trouble but having a board to rest on made the difference. He paddles towards the Point. He decides to catch a wave knowing if he stayed out past dark no would find him. So he catches a wave but does not stand up. In the prone position holding on to dear life, he makes the drop as the whitewater engulf him and the board.

Things are rushing around in his mind and the one thing he keeps holding on to is not to give up. Traveling across the shallows and near the beach, the current running along the beach was like a river. Exhausted and not knowing if he has the strength to get in. A surfer who sees what is happening runs down the beach and give him a hand and pull him in. Grant replies Paul Strauch was the guy who pulled me in. Grant got back to the house and happy to be alive. The Primo was on hold for another day, just words of encouragement for an exhausted Grant.

George went back to San Diego a month or so later after that and saw Butch. George told him about the new surf spot and said to him, this is your place, it has your name written all over it. The following year while sitting in the parking lot at WindanSea, Mike Diffenderfer and Mike Hynson drove up to George and told him. You won’t believe it about Butch, it’s incredible, he is surfing great at the Banzai Pipeline. Legend has it that Mike Diffenderfer named the place.

Butch Van Artsdalen surfing into Pipeline legend photo courtesy of Leroy Grannis

Butch had been filmed being inside the tube and coming out. While leaving the tube, Butch was sitting on his board while rubbing his hands. The ride would be seen in auditoriums, and movie theaters up and down the coast of California, the East Coast, Australia, New Zealand, Peru and other surfing communities.

As they continued their conversation in the parking lot at WindanSea, the legend of the Pipeline and those who would ride her started to grow. In the year to follow Mike Differender would return to Hawaii before George and shape for Inter Island Surfboards. Mike Hynson would travel around the world with Robert August and Bruce Brown filming “The Endless Summer”.

George Lanning would return to Hawaii and be a sander for Dick Brewer's Surfboards Hawaii and Mickey Lake's Inter Island Surfboards in 1964. Wayne Land would teach George how to shape at the Jacobs shop in 1965 and George would go on and shape for Greg Noll Surfboards and Bing Copeland Surfboards in the late 1960's. In the 1970's George was Hap Jacob's deckhand. They would go out and catch Swordfish off the coast of Southern California.