Sonny Vardeman Story

By Tom Takao

Drawing of Sonny Vardeman's Hermosa Beach Surf Shop circa 1971 courtesy of Pam Eberly

Walking along the beach after getting out of the water as the sun was setting. The tide still rising as the surge rushes across the shoreline rocks. It reminded me of the lunch crowd that flowed into a café that I was in. I happened to be with Sonny Vardeman and we were having lunch that day.

For those who do not know Sonny, he was a lieutenant in the Los Angeles County Lifeguards, now retired. A surfboard shaper and glasser who was at the forefront with a select group of board builders when surfing took off. And has been surfing for nearly 60 years.

We sat ourselves at a table that was located near the counter of the cafe. The sound of dishes being placed behind the counter could be heard. Besides board building and being a lifeguard, Sonny at one time was paddling into the wave of surfwear. For which he came close to taking off, but circumstances beyond his control altered his outlook and direction.

He has the love from his family, is well respected by his friends and those who know him. And the gratefulness of the young swimmers for whom Sonny saved. Call it luck, or call it destiny for Sonny to be there at the right place at the right time for them. He would have liked the possibility of being a super well off fashion guy, but being a lifeguard was his calling.

The waitress pours us some coffee and would be back to take our orders. I asked about Hermosa Beach and Sonny started by saying 1937. That was the year his parent moved to Hermosa Beach. His childhood days were spent playing around with friends. Running to the beach through the vacant lots of sand hills, lots and lots of sand hills. And out in the surf, bodysurfing the whitewater or on the beach making sand castles and digging holes.


photo courtesy of the Kerwin Family

The Hermosa Beach Pier was the center of activity in Hermosa Beach and Sonny would go there to check out a book or two from the library, which was at the south side of the entrance to the Pier. Many a day Sonny and his friends would be on the Pier and watch the surfers with their big paddleboards ride the waves next to the Pier. His elementary days were spent during World War II.


L-R Leroy Grannis and Jim Kerwin photo courtesy of the Kerwin Family

Sonny started surfing in 1948 on a plywood hollow surfboard called a kook box, it was built by Al Holland. In 1950 at the age of 13 Sonny was in a surf club called the Hermosa Seals Surf Club. Their surfboard of choice then was a Balsa board shaped by Dale Velzy.


1950 Hermosa Seals, Left to right: Charley Davis, Mike Bright, John Rhind, Bill Bryson, Chip Post, Steve Voorhees, Jeff White, Sonny Vardeman, Jimmer Lindsay

The club became well known within the community and the Daily Breeze Newspaper decided to do a story on them. The reporter / photographers got the names of those who were there on the north side of the pier and took their picture.

Looking back for a moment on the picture and one can see the dawn of a new beginning. Young test pilots and their boards, preparing to carve their names in the History of Surfing. (Stopping briefly for the waitress to take our order)

There were many well-known surfers and board builder that went to Mira Costa High School, Sonny and Mike Bright were one of them. During Easter break Sonny and Mike Bright along with “Ole Ming” went on a surf trip. Ole Ming was older and the one who did the driving on the trip. They went to Trestles and caught it at a perfect 8 ft., sunny and glassy all day.

You had to sneak by the Marines in those days and it was sometime more fun than surfing. They were out in the water all day, except for having a lunch break when the marines were gone. They sat on a big old trunk of a Sycamore tree, which had become driftwood. Mike and Sonny forgot to bring a lunch, but Ole Ming pulled from his backpack a couple cans of pork and beans and made the day. After lunch they went back out for an afternoon session. They returned to the car and drove back to Hermosa Beach. Ending a perfect surf trip for 2 high school friends and Ole Ming.

The waitress came with our sandwiches, as Sonny continued on with his story.

We talked about the early beginnings of surfwear, T-shirts, floral shirts and trunks in particular. Sonny remembered John Bernard who was a couple of years younger than himself and who went to Mira Costa High School also. His father was the manager of the JC Penney’s store on Pier Ave and 15 th St. in Hermosa Beach. John was the stock boy who folded the t-shirts and helped out wherever needed.

Sonny and many of his other friends would go there and buy their t-shirts, dress shirts and pants. Occasionally seeing John there and at school. As fashion would have it the crew neck and the heavier weight were more appealing compared to the looser collar and lighter weight t-shirts that were available. The Penney crew neck T-shirt were very popular and the number one choice among the surfers in the South Bay.

There was this guy named Richard Meyers, Sonny recalled who started silk screening t-shirts for local surf shops. Placing their logos on the back and a smaller one in the front. He would make t-shirts for Hap, and Velzy, then later for Weber, Sonny and others surfboard builders.

His main source of crew neck t-shirts was from the Penney’s store where John worked. How insignificant it seemed back then, but the beginning of surf shop t-shirts can be traced back to those days of the mid 1950’s.

Meanwhile, Sonny took his first trip to the Islands in October of 1955. Dave Rocklin who was a lifeguard in Santa Monica got Sonny and the bunch of other guys a package deal from an airline out of Burbank Airport.

When they took their boards to the airport the ground crews didn’t know what to do with their surfboards. So Sonny and a couple of other guys got in the cargo bay of the prop passenger plane and loaded their boards. Staggering the boards by placing the fin of one board with the nose of the other. Creating an even load.


L-R sitting, Rick Stoner, Mike Bright, John McFarlane, Walt Hoffman, and Bing Copeland. standing L-R Steve Voorhees, Sonny Vardeman and Charlie Reimers

Sonny would go with Steve Voorhees, Bing Copeland, Mike Bright, Rick Stoner and George Ke’poo. George would stay with his family while Sonny and the others would rent a place out by Makaha Point. They would surf Makaha that fall and winter, and make trips out to the North Shore. While living at Makaha the guys chipped in and bought a 1937 Plymouth sedan.

This part is from Mike “Bones” Bright, which is also in Bing Copeland's story "The Best of Times". They were very good friends out of high school and this experience should be in all their stories, for they balanced out a moment in their past that cannot be duplicated.

One day a long time ago, they drove around Kaena Point to get to the North Shore. Following the tank tracks in the dirt road that went along the side of the mountain. Driving along until they reached Kaena Point. Stopping for a surf check, they stood and watched the big surf breaking.

Someone mentioned going out. The others looked at each other and the whitewater smashing on the rocks below them. Mike said, if you lose your board once, all that’s left is a whole lot of balsa tooth picks. It wasn’t long before everyone was back in the 37’ Plymouth and making their way around the Point. Not knowing the road conditions further up ahead, they continued on the way. Before fully realizing their predicament, one side of the road became a cliff as the road became narrower.

At one point making a turn around a corner, one of the wheels hung over the side of the cliff while making the turn. Steve Voorhees kept his eye on the road while Bones looked down at the rocks which were 50 to 60 feet below them. Nervously they all shifted their weight to the mountainside as the Plymouth slowly rounded the corner.

The dirt road turned paved as they made it to Waialua. Around the traffic circle and into the town of Haleiwa. Whenever they drove over a puddle of water, on purpose or not, the hole in the rear floorboard acted like a blowhole and the muddy water would splash the guys inside.

Passing all the spots that one day would become popluar, they were heading for Sunset Beach. They had arrived at Sunset Beach in one piece, to captured the achievement of getting there, a picture was taken and then they all went surfing. On the returned trip, they took the long way home through Wahiwa. Stopping frequently at every gas station along the way to re-supply the car with reused oil.


L-R John McFarlane, Rick Stoner. Mike Bright with Sonny Vardeman on the roof photo Bing Copeland

In 1956 Steve Voorhees and Sonny joined the Navy at Pearl Harbor. Sonny was on a light cruiser that was home ported in Long Beach. Bing Copeland and Rick Stoner went into the Coast Guard. Mike Birght would move into town and train in paddle boarding with Tommy Zahn and Joe Quigg.

In 1958 Sonny would return to Hermosa Beach. In his parents two-car garage Sonny started glassing some boards. Bing and Rick who had just returned from New Zealand got together with Sonny and Mike and started shaping some boards while Mike and Sonny did the glassing.

“It was a bad scene” Sonny remembered. We had sawhorses lined up and down the alley, and my dad was getting mad as hell. He finally kicked us out, saying, 'You guys are running a commercial enterprise down here. If you're going to be in business, find yourselves a shop."

Looking around I wave to the waitress. She refills our cups and glasses of water. Sonny continued, this is how Bing's and Rick's shop on the Strand evolved. They became partners. The board building was a side business for Sonny, Rick and Bing at first. Their main job was being lifeguards for the County.

Another friend of Sonny is Greg Noll, in 1956 while they were away in the service. Greg had opened a shop on Coast Highway in Manhattan Beach. After a year or so he moved his shop to Hermosa Beach, on Pier Avenue and Coast Highway. Greg would go on to become known as one of the world’s best big wave riders of the 1960’s.


Getting ready to head south to Mexico

But before then Greg was making surf films. In one of those films Sonny and Rick Stoner were in it. They had bought a 1940 Ford with a small trailer for the trip across the border. Before going down to Mexico, they had talked about it and agreed to meet up. The plans were made and they would meet with Greg and Beverly at Mazatlan. From there they would travel down to San Blas. With $300.00 to pay for expenses, they spent the next 3 months traveling around in search of surf in Mexico.

They took the mainland route to Mazatlan. One of the surf spots that they surfed was Cannon's Point. Rennie Yater and a couple of his friends were there. Gary Severs and Bing Copeland were also out. Bing who had returned with Rick Stoner earlier in the year from New Zealand would meet up with his friends (in photo above third from the right, Rick Stoner on the right). Beverly would do the filming when Greg surfed. In one part of the movie they were in a hillside stream toasting the moment. With refreshment in hand, Sonny and the others were cooling off from the hot noonday sun.

Back then it was truly a grind looking for surf says Sonny. Sometime they would go for days without finding surf. All of Greg’s movies were called ‘Search for Surf’. They would explore the different beaches along the way to San Blas. Giving them names, Peachichini Point was one such place.

In the film Sonny is in front of Rick whose arms are pointing upwards. In another sequence Greg is in front of Sonny. Two good friends climbing and dropping on the same wave, making remarks to each other that only they and Rick could hear. Both cutting back towards shore while laughing as the wave closes out. As the sun sets to the west, the scene slowly fades from that day.

They were only in their early 20’s and a new day awaited them all. None of them would have thought a whole new decade would bring surfing to a new level. They would be part of the “Surf Rush” that swept across the both coast of the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Peru, and the other countries of South America, South Africa and Europe.

Back from their trip Sonny and Mike Bright started a glassing shop called Surf Fiberglass. They did glassing for most of the surfboard makers, including Greg, Dewey Weber, Bing and Rick and Hap Jacobs. They were one of the first to commercially glass surfboards and by doing so, had to learn and create short cuts to meet the demand.


Sonny Vardeman Redondo Breakwater 1959 photo John Severson

During the winter of 1959 the Redondo Breakwater was breaking with the face of the waves in the 12 to 15 feet neighborhood. John Severson was shooting some film for his movie Surf Safari. Sonny was out that day with Tom Sweeny, Billy Kercanson and a couple of other guys.

They would walk along the break wall path to the bend in the Breakwater. Once there they would wait for a lull in the waves. Then, make their way down the boulders quickly. towards a designated rock that they would jump from and into the water.

Paddling fast with no time to spare, before the next sets started popping up on the horizon. Once out they would sit at the takeoff spot, waiting for the right wave to takeoff on. On this day you had to catch the right one, because if you made the drop and rode the wave or wipeout, the process of paddling back out was the same. Walking back up to the Breakwall and doing the paddleout merry go round.

Sonny and the other were caught on film by John and became part of the movie. After the surf session Sonny went back up the hill to the Surf Fiberglass shop. The shop was located near Prospect Ave and 180th St. Severson would show his film in school auditoriums and at Blackie August’s garage in Seal Beach for a quarter.

In the early 1960’s, Sonny and Mike would close the glassing company. Mike would go on and work for Bing and Rick, while Sonny got married and moved to Orange County. He would start his own surfboard and surf shop called Vardeman Surfboards. The first shop was located in Whittier, where Bing had a second shop. Sonny bought the shop from Bing. But Sonny wouldn’t stay long at that location. He would move down to Huntington Beach within a year.

In 1962 Sonny opened his new shop in Huntington Beach which was located near 3rd St. on Pacific Coast Highway across from the Pier. Sonny sold surfboards by Bing, Dewey Weber and his own. Sonny remembers “those boards had layers of 10 oz. cloth top and bottom and that the wooden fin and its bead (the outer edge of the fin made of fiberglass and fiberglass rope) must have weighed 6 to 8 pounds by themselves”.

There was this one guy Sonny says who had a woodshop and was making all kinds of wooden fins for everyone. He said you have to consider just one of his accounts was making 300 boards a week. Taking a sip from his coffee “That was a lot of fins! ”.

In general Sonny mentioned there was a lot of money lost then gained in the surfboard industry back then during the early 1960’s. Mostly due to the labor-intensive nature of board building, competition, mismanagement, and the surf team craze. It was competition frenzy, surfboard makers advertising their surfboards and surf teams.

The surf magazines were increasing their revenues as each shop tried to out do the other. This time period was the birth of the surf industry. The East Coast busted wide open with Hobie, Weber and others doing promotions, which cause the phones to ring off the hook for many of the South Bay boardbuilders.

Vardeman Surfboards had a few accounts on the East Coast and one of them was Al’s Surf Shop of Virginia Beach. Al Snebling was the owner and was ordering Vardeman Surfboards besides East Side Surfboards and other manufacturers.

Sonny was doing some of the shaping, Bruce Jones and Randy Lewis were shaping for him while Greg Martz was doing the glassing. They were sending boards over to the East Coast, not as many as the other guys but 20 to 30 was still a few. Some of them were the newer V-bottoms designs that were popular on the West Coast. One of the East Coast team riders for Vardeman Surfboards was Jimbo Brothers who was getting his boards at Al Surf shop.

Another hot young surfer who would become a well known shaper on the East Coast was Allen White. Allen traded in his 8’6” Hobie Surfboard that he had had since 1963 for a East Side surfboard shaped by Bill Frieson and glassed by Ronnie Mellott. While waiting for his board to be done, Al let Allen use a Vardeman Surfboard that use to belong to Jimbo Brothers.

Allen was stoked over using the board and never forgot Al’s good gesture. Allen would surf the Vardeman Surfboard at Virginia Beach Pier and impress a few locals on it. After getting his East Side board Allen would take second place in the Junior division at the Hatteras Surf & Baha Festival in 1968.

The East Coast shops started making their own and the orders for new boards dropped out for the West Coast builders. Meanwhile Sonny was going through a divorce and decided to work full time as a LA County Lifeguard. The conversation drifted like a rip tide swirling around the surf break, to the early beginning of the county lifeguards.

Sonny explained by going back some years, when the people of the inland areas of Los Angeles were flocking to the beach in large numbers. With that increase there were more people drowning. In 1936 the Mayor of Hermosa Beach went up to Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor and said we can’t handle your crowds and we want you to take the responsibility for them. The County Board said that they would do so.

With that agreement, the Los Angeles County Lifeguard was formed. The lifeguards in the beach cities of Los Angeles County now had more personnel, equipment and vehicles. Through the years boats were added and each boat was named Bay Watch and the beach city where they were located.

Speaking of the Bay Watch the television series, Sonny said it was through a business minded lifeguard that the show came about. There was a lifeguards with Hollywood connections; Greg Bonehand had a sister who was married to a guy named Schuwatz who was related to Grant Tinker the movie producer. Tinker’s studio had produced Gilligan’s Island and was looking for some new ideas for a series. Greg’s sister mention that she would like to create a Lifeguard show and to make a long story short, they bought the idea and made a deal with LA county and paid for the use of the beach.

Sonny was the technical supervisor during the first two years series. Overseeing the procedures and protocol that the actors were conveying. The studios did have an artistic license that added to the scene, but not to the County’s usual standard procedures. It was a very successful series that lasted for 9 years.

In 1969 Sonny opened a surf shop on Hermosa Avenue in between 1st and 2nd St.. His salesman was Jeff Fischer who was one of the top surfers in the South Bay. In the back of Sonny mind he wanted to make Hawaiian style MD corduroy shorts with pockets and he told Jeff of his idea. Jeff said his sister sews and Sonny asked Jeff to have his sister stop by. Pam stopped by and Sonny could tell she was the person for the job, so he hired her. They set up shop and it got busy, so busy that Sonny had to hire another girl.

By this time Sonny was going up to the Mart in downtown LA and buying bolts of corduroy, buttons, zippers, and threads. Things were going quite well until Pam and her husband Tom decided to move to Hawaii. Sonny couldn’t find someone to replace Pam, so the garment section of the shop closed.

That fall Sonny had saved some money and went up to Dive an Surf and purchased a lot of wetsuits for the Christmas season. Wetsuits were selling like hotcakes and he was looking forward to selling them. While skiing during the Holiday Season Sonny got a phone call and was told that someone or persons broke into the shop by way of the ventilation shaft on the roof. They stole all the wetsuits in the shop. This was too much for Sonny, experiencing a gut wrenching lost just before Chirstmas, he closed the shop.

It would be 10 years after before he would start making boards in his garage again. It was the mid 1980’s and a longboard revival was under way. Greg Martz of Watersman Guild calls Sonny and says Hey man get down here and shape some boards, the old boards are happening again.

Sonny retired from the LA County Lifeguards in 1993. Still shaping a few boards now and then. But taking it easy and doing some traveling to different locations in search of surf. He has a wealth of surfing experiences to cherish and a board to ride new ones.


Sonny Vardeman in Bali

The tips were left on the table as we walked out the door. Looking out the side view mirror, with no traffic approaching. I make my way onto Coast Highway after a surf session and the thought of Sonny Vardeman.