1970's Surfing Photos from Hawaii - Page 1
The board on the right, bottom-up with no fin, wound up as my big wave replacement for the red one, which never was brought back to life after it lost its glass job on the deck. No recollection of who made it. 8'-10" if memory serves, and the loss of the fin was kinda scarey. Nice size day at Sunset, three wave cleanup set, was sitting farthest outside but still wound up having to scratch like mad to get over the damn things. Paddling up the face on the third one (which I had already ascertained to be the last wave of the set as I barely got over the one before it), said "Fuckit" to myself, and swung around and took about a stroke and a half, and I was in. Ridiculously too late. On the way down, I see the lip going by in front of me, like a curtain being dropped. Not good. But at least it didn't land on top of me, so it could have been worse, right? Boom. Tumble. Surface. And there, lo and behold, laying right on top of the water not more than ten yards away, is not only my board but also another guy's board and the guy who lost it in the clean up (remember, no leashes back in them days). My board is deck up, and his is too, and his board has a goddamned fin sticking straight up out of its deck, right in the middle, like it had been stabbed with it in a knife fight. Scarey looking. Good thing it didn't wind up sticking out of one of us, instead of one of our surfboards. The guy looked a little unhappy about the damage to his board, and I was just kind of boggling at the whole situation. Got to my board, tried to get up on it, and it skittered sideways on me. Uh oh. Turn it over, and sure enough, no fin. Sonofabitch, but that was MY fin sticking up out of that guy's surfboard! So I went over and yanked it out, apologized for the deep gash in his surfboard, and started paddling in with it on my board. After the set, a pretty good lull developed, and I was way the hell inside before a small one came that I caught and skittered around on, prone, all the way to the beach. Put the fin back on, but it was always a little weird after that, and it hummed, too. Oh well.
There's a lot going with this picture, which was taken in late 1975.
The red board on the bottom, a 9'-0" shaped by, I think, "Brian Kanegi" (never met the guy, always wondered who he was, 'cause he shaped one hell of a big-wave gun) with white foam showing instead of a glass job on the deck, was my favorite board of all time out there, and is the one I'm riding in all of the shots with me on a wave.
The next one up from the bottom is a yellow longish six foot, or shortish seven foot (it got shorter as time went on, as more and more of it was bashed off of the nose and tail in a variety of misadventures). Don't know who shaped it, and I never liked it very much, and only rode it when I had to, when my other boards were broken.
The red board on the bottom, a 9'-0" shaped by, I think, "Brian Kanegi" (never met the guy, always wondered who he was, 'cause he shaped one hell of a big-wave gun) with white foam showing instead of a glass job on the deck, was my favorite board of all time out there, and is the one I'm riding in all of the shots with me on a wave.
The next one up from the bottom is a yellow longish six foot, or shortish seven foot (it got shorter as time went on, as more and more of it was bashed off of the nose and tail in a variety of misadventures). Don't know who shaped it, and I never liked it very much, and only rode it when I had to, when my other boards were broken.
The top board, a 7'-6" Petrillo became mine just a couple of days before this picture was taken when I suffered an overhand throw all the way out onto flat water, trying to go left on a fair sized day at Log Cabins. Came up from one hell of a thrashing (repeated bottom bounces with flips and spins in between) to see a guy
on the beach shooting me a peace sign. Uh, sure, peace baby, whatever. I shot him a peace sign back. Except that when I got to the edge of the water, I could see that he wasn't shooting me a peace sign at all. He had two fingers uplifted to indicate that my BORROWED board was now in two pieces. Lovely. Just fucking lovely. So I had to buy it. Phoo.
There's a lot going on with this picture, too. Taken in late '72 or early '73.
I lived in the grass shack, there in the background of the shot. This was my first home in Hawaii, when I arrived in October 1972. Punaluu, on the windward side of Oahu. Myrtle Kaapu's place.
The board on the left, an eightish foot Infinity, was the first board I purchased, and was also the board I first surfed Pipeline on.
The board in the middle, an unknown 7'-4" was an acquaintance's, and was the board I first surfed Waimea on.
The board on the right, an unknown 6'-10" was also owned by the same acquaintance, and was the first board I rode in Hawaii, period, at Sunset Beach (on a small 5 to 7 foot day with just a handful of people out).
I lived in the grass shack, there in the background of the shot. This was my first home in Hawaii, when I arrived in October 1972. Punaluu, on the windward side of Oahu. Myrtle Kaapu's place.
The board on the left, an eightish foot Infinity, was the first board I purchased, and was also the board I first surfed Pipeline on.
The board in the middle, an unknown 7'-4" was an acquaintance's, and was the board I first surfed Waimea on.
The board on the right, an unknown 6'-10" was also owned by the same acquaintance, and was the first board I rode in Hawaii, period, at Sunset Beach (on a small 5 to 7 foot day with just a handful of people out).
Back of the photo.
Waiting for a lull before paddling out at Pipeline. Shot taken with my little Zeiss Contessa camera in early 1973, by Lisa Shepard. She was from Santa Barbara, surfed well at Rocky Point, and I've always wondered what ever became of her, and the S.B. crew she used to hang around with. Biggest day I ever rode Pipe. Hitting on Second Reef. There's a guy riding the wave in the picture, but he's pretty blurry. Click the image for the enlargement if you like. And oh yeah, that's a borrowed board there under my arm. Fortunately, I did not break it.
Back of the photo.