THE "GENTLEMAN SURFER" PAYS A VISIT

By Richard Steadham

Our local surfing community was honored on March 22nd and 23rd to have an evening program, followed by a moring surf session, with one of the sport's true ambassadors of grace and style, the legendary Paul Strauch, Jr.

The evening presentation took place at Manchester Executive Conference Center on the Campus of the University of San Diego, and was part of Professor Jerome Lynn Hall's Surf Culture Lecture Series. In Professor Hall's introductory remarks, he stated there were no secret spots anymore, as all lineups were becoming more and more crowded each year, while the sport of surfing continued to expand in popularity. How we conduct ourselves in the water under these circumstances then—for better or ill—would determine the satisfaction we receive from the sport each time we paddle out. Rather than aggressive confrontation, he suggested a positive attitude in the spirit of aloha the best path to follow, exemplified by the evening's speaker. He then turned the podium over to Mr. Strauch, who was warmly received by those in attendance.

Mr. Strauch began by recalling his childhood in Hawaii. Half-Hawaiian and half-European by heritage, he was raised in Hawaiian ways. Aloha, meaning "in the presence of life," was the philosophy which guided his life. The spirit of nature was always to be honored and could take place in ways such as asking permission of the spirit of the ocean before entering it. A warm and gentle wind on the cheek meant "yes", a sharp wind "no". He learned there was a hierarchy to respect in the water and one had to earn their right to be there.

He recalled how in the 1940s and 50s, Waikiki was the Mecca for surfing and it was there that he himself learned to surf, first on his father's redwood plank, and before long, on his own eight foot hollow board. Bob Shepard made his third board, which was a ten foot, four inch balsa wood design. Mr. Strauch's father, Paul Sr., had many influential friends in the surfing world at the time which included the before-mentioned Mr. Shepard, George Downing, Tom Blake, and of course Paoa Kahanamoku, the Duke, among others. All these would play an important roll in his development and have an impact in one way or another on his life. Mr. Strauch is currently working on a documentary film of the Duke and we were priviledged to preview a segment of it that evening.

Chosen by the Duke for his Hawaiian surf team were: Paul Strauch, Jr., Joey Cabell, Fred Hemmings and Butch van Artsdalen. These men all went on the become famous in their own right in the world of surfing and each embodied the spirit of aloha their mentor promoted. The Duke was so nonjudgemental of others we learned, that while attending a surf contest at Huntington Beach one year, he wouldn't even condem a contestant, who upon learning had only placed third in the finals, took his trophy over to the edge of the stage and threw it into the trash with disgust. When Mr. Strauch looked at the Duke for his reaction to this inglorious outburst, he praised the contestant for his determination to win rather than condemn him for his recent behavior. At first, Mr. Strauch was taken aback at the Duke's statement, but after contemplating it for awhile, said it was the best lesson he ever learned from him: find the positive in all things.

After relaying several more interesting anecdotes regarding his years traveling with the Duke, the program ended with a few questions from the audience. The one which brought an enthusiastic response was from Glenn Paculba when he asked if he would do the "Strauch Crouch." He chuckled for a moment at the thought and said he would do it the following morning at Tourmaline for all who were interested in joining him there for a surf session with the PB Surf Club.

The Friday Morning Surf Session

The following morning, about 25 people consisting of a group of club members, students from Professor Hall's class and several others in the local surf community, gathered at Tourmaline Surfing Park to do what we surfers do best: SURF! It was a beautiful sunny morning with only remnants of puffy white clouds left over from the previous night's thunder storm. Throwing caution to the wind (not to surf until 72 hours after a rainstorm!), we all donned our wetsuits and paddled out into the playful-sized surf offered up that morning. The water temp was warm (considering it was mid-March) and the aloha spirit everywhere as we all enjoyed a day of playing hookey from school and work for the opportunity to surf with a legendary icon here at our own local break.

The club put up a tent, unfurled the banner and offered free donuts and fruit to all who showed up. Special thanks goes to Dawn Moore who organized the event, and proved once again what a tireless worker she is in pulling these things together. She was aided this time around by Sandi Pierz, who spread the event flyers in shops far and wide and brought some of the goodies to eat that morning.

Joining us for the session was local legend, Skip Frye. It was a rare treat to see Paul and Skip in the lineup together talking surf stories, then catching waves, each going a different way. I paddled up and asked them at one point, "as the club's newsletter editor, could I get the two of you on record expressing your views on anything regarding surfing?" They just looked at me and smiled, then took off on a wave, probably relieved to get away from a pesky reporter. For my part, I had to at least ask!

By eleven in the morning, the fun was over as the surf became more and more inconsistent. We thanked our guest for coming down to share his personal experience—and our local waves—with us.

Thanks again Mr. Strauch for being the "Gentleman Surfer" you are. We can all learn a thing or two from your positive example.

Click here for a "Surf With Strauch" Photo Album

LETTER FROM THE CAPTAIN

Hello dudes and dudettes. It's time once again to inform you all of our next upcoming contest. I'm happy to announce the Santa Cruz Longboard Union will be holding their annual longboard club invitational. For those of you who are not familiar with this event, it will be held on Memorial Weekend on Santa Cruz's west side at the infamous Steamer Lane. Now if you've never surfed The Lane, well then you are in for quite a treat. Steamer Lane is a consistent right point break that breaks from one foot to thirty foot plus. It can handle any size swell, and picks up nearly all swell directions. What's more, you will be surfing it with only five other people out. Epic.

Fellow team member, David Sams, formerly of Pacific Beach, now lives on the west side, three blocks from the Lane. David now works in Cupertino for Apple I-tunes, and has been gracious enough to offer to let the team and their families camp out at his house, which is situated across the street from the beach. He's told us he has ample off-street parking, and a huge back yard for tents. You can park for the weekend and simply walk to the comp from there. What more do you want, a board caddy?

This event is the first major comp of the summer season, and It's important that PBSC make a good showing. This event also has a paddleboard race on Sunday morning. The points for the paddle race, which is a 5-man and 1- woman relay sprint, is worth nearly one third of the teams overall points. Bobby Challenger has been nice enough to design and shape PBSC's new paddle craft for this event. Keep in mind that he has spent much time and gone to considerable expense to fabricate this work of art so be sure to thank him accordingly.

So here's the deal: if you are interested in joining us, please contact me ASAP. Keep in mind that you must be paid up on your membership dues, AND past contests to participate. For his generosity, I'd like to thank David by paying this year's dues for him personally. I'll also approach the Board members to ensure that his contest entry fees are taken care of as well.

To give you an idea of how we did last year, we came in 12th out of 19 teams with only five surfers, one tandem team, and no paddle team. Let's improve on that. So get your shit together and lets go kick some ass.

Travis Long
Team Captain

PADDLE BOARD: GETTING INTO SHAPE, ARE YOU?

By Bobby Challenger Thomas

Paddlers: where are you? Maybe you missed the first call for tryouts on Sunday, March 25th. This call will be every Sunday until the contest. Did you know that almost 1/3 of the club's overall points at a surf meet come from the paddle race? This has been an area over the years which has shown very little strength in the club. WHY? Maybe you didn't have a special board to motivate you to paddle. Well, I'm shaping one for the club now, (actually two) to be used at the Memorial Day Classic contest held at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, May 26-27. This is one of the oldest events in modern longboarding. A really big surf and party. Luau awards show is great.

Here is the rough outer plan shape of the paddle surfboard. It must meet the 47 inch rule that the club coalition of contest requests. No cheating. The design must be of a surfboard not a paddleboard. Learn more in the next newsletter.

Please join the Paddle Team sessions on Sundays and earn points towards a specially-designed Paddle Team T-shirt (see the "Upcoming Events section below for time and location of classes). Your CLUB needs you to rise to the Occasion! Get into shape like the board I am shaping for you. You know I can teach you all the paddling techniques to win. I can design and build the fastest board on the water. Then the team needs you to paddle this machine and tell me if is fast, really fast. You can win the paddle race. Practice, practice, train and win.

A picture is a thousands words. Here is just a few. Have you or do you have that special photo of you riding the Lane. I am lucky; I have many special memories over my fifty years of surfing. This event is one of them. The photo below, forty years later riding a 1997 Santa Cruz Model 2+1 speed machine. What a wild ride. I have it in a four sequence shot thru the boiling zone taken by Jim Pidgeon. I hope John Slavin will be at this special event and capture your winning memories. Thanks for the photo memories John.

Riding Streamer Lane, Santa Cruz, and the boiling pots and the inside reef takes
practice and training. You need to get in shape to ride this very special wave and be a part of this gathering. People come as far away as Japan to ride this wave with just a few in the water. It is the cold water classic of longboarding and the paddle team race is an integral part of the event. If you are planning on going, contact Team Captain Travis Long about lodging in the area.

Memories: I first rode Santa Cruz back in 1966. In 1967 I designed my first Challenger Santa Cruz Model then advertised the new design in SURFER Magazine with a photo of top area surfer Mark Angel riding Streamer Lane on a large day.

Join the committee for the SAN DIEGO SURF MUSEUM MODEL for the Club’s Summer Long board Classic. Be a part of those concerned with the founding history whose mission is preserving and educating the San Diego Surfing community about our lifestyle, sport and industry. Call me at 619-559-2244.

WIN A SAN DIEGO SURF MUSEUM T-SHIRT
Trivia Question: Who was the first documented (published newspaper story) surfer to christen the City of San Diego beaches and ocean with riding a surfboard? Please provide source of information.

SURFER ATTACKED OFF LA JOLLA

By Glenn Paculba

On Saturday, February 3, 2007, three days after a cold winter rainstorm, the skies were blue and the air warm. The ocean water temperature was a cold 56 degrees. The water seemed clear – a sign that the ocean was recovering from the pollution that normally follows a storm. I went surfing in the morning with my friend, Roopal, an attorney, and her friend, Dave, a good surfer who is the manager of a rock band. I had surfed PB Point the previous day but decided to surf with them at a spot 200 yards north of the point named Haniman’s.

After putting on my wetsuit I was the first one down the cliff to the pebble beach where I was approached by a woman in a red sweater who seemed very distressed. She said to me, “Excuse me, sir, would you mind paddling out……. (she pointed to a spot in the water about 125 yards out between Haniman’s and the next break north called Sewer Lines) and saving that……” I squinted and saw some splashing and movement. I thought she said “seagull” and I replied, “Sure.” Then I looked at her and said, “Arlene, it’s me, Glenn.” She was so distraught that she didn’t recognize me. She excitedly said, “Oh my God, Glenn, I’m so glad it’s you - would you do it?” I assured her that it wouldn’t be a problem.

So I paddled out thinking I was going to be the “seagull rescuer” today. As I got closer I could see that the animal was larger than I expected and that its girth and neck were huge. It couldn’t be a seagull. It looked like a baby seal because it had fur and was a brownish color.

Story continues by clicking here.

THE POWER OF "BEING THERE"

By Jerome Lynn Hall

“To see Duke coming in at Waikiki on his
long olo board was to see surfing at its best.
Somehow, to me, the Duke is the last of the
Great Hawaiians, the man by which to
measure the race, the surfrider by which to
measure the surfriders of all time.”

Tom Blake, Hawaiian Surfriders, 1935

Tom was eighteen years old and just out of Washburn High School in Wisconsin when he went to a Detroit movie theater to watch newsreel pictures from the recent Olympics.

The year was 1920. A young Hawaiian swimmer by the name of Duke Paoa Kahanamoku had taken the world by storm eight years earlier at the Stockholm Olympics when he won the 100-meter free-style swimming event. This year he had done it again at Antwerp and Americans didn’t want to miss the chance to see the victory highlighted on the screen in their local theater. Tom was no exception.

When the show ended, a young Tom Blake walked mesmerized out of the theater and into history. There, in the cinema lobby stood the star of the evening, Duke Kahanamoku. Duke, it seems, was traveling home from his Olympic victory along with his Hawaiian team mates, all of whom decided to leave their hotel room that evening and catch the newsreel.

It’s difficult to assess the impact that this single evening had on the sport of surfing. When asked if he would shake Tom’s hand there in the theater lobby, Duke replied, “Sure!” As Blake tells it, Duke “held out to me his big soft paw of a hand, and gave me a firm, hearty handshake. It made a lasting impression. I felt that somehow he had included an invitation to me to come over to his own Hawaiian Islands.”

You know the rest of the story. Blake moved from Wisconsin to California and took up swimming and life guarding, eventually becoming a renowned competitive swimmer himself. Later he journeyed to Hawaii and settled down, where he was accepted into Duke’s inner circle, his ohana (family). His many accomplishments would include the invention of the torpedo buoy and the rescue ring, both lifesaving devices; the hollow surf and paddle boards, as well as the sailboard; the underwater camera housing; and a small keel-like projection for the bottom of the surf board that today we refer to simply as a fin.

Our lives, it seems, are not so much defined by years, but by moments. What if Tom had decided not to attend the film that evening? What if Duke – for whatever reason – had neglected to shake the outstretched hand in the lobby of that Detroit movie theater? Imagine the impact that those few moments had on the future of swimming, lifesaving, and surfing!

Sometimes, the simple act of “being there” may change your life, or the lives of those around you. Think of moments, not years. Show up. Become involved. Offer a hand. Say, “Sure!” Be a positive presence. Spread aloha.

VANGUARD BENEFIT FOR WILDCOAST

Did you catch the benefit for Wildcoast at the Aubergine club downtown last month? If so, you not only helped raise money for an important local environmental organization, but saw Josh Hall along with some of his surfboard designs in a cool, gallery-style setting. Also there was Shay Vision and his visionary paintings, and the creators of the contemporary clothing line known as "Essentials" along with some of their line. The proceeds went to Wildcoast's Clean Water Now Project, something we can all get behind.

If you missed it, you messed up!

Paddle Out for Allie
The Paddle Out Memorial was extraordinary. The heavens were singing, you could hear 'em that day!
—Aida Welch

Have a comment you'd like to make about anything you see in this publication? Send a letter to the editor.

Please welcome new members Marieke Thayer and Joey Eves into the club. Be sure to show them the PBSC aloha spirit when you see him at future club meetings and events.

Apr 4: PB Surf Club meeting, 6:30 p.m., PB Recreation Center, 1405 Diamond Street, Pacific Beach. Planning for the club's Summer Longboard Classic will get underway, so if you want to get on a committee and get involved, be there.

Apr 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29: Paddle Team Workout Sessions with Bobby Challenger Thomas. Meet at 8:00 a.m., at the end of Loring Street in front of the Pumphouse. You can park in the Tourmaline parking lot.