Riding Through Time

1932

1912

SURFING gathered minimal interest on the mainland USA in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Sure, there were the occasional references to the sport with Captain Cook, then Mark Twain, and finally Jack London espousing the beauty of the Hawaiian natives riding the “billowing crests” of the waves in Waikiki. The young Hawaiian Princes in Santa Cruz, California in 1885 and Emma Spreckels surfing in Asbury Park, New Jersey in 1888 standout as possibly the first mentions of surfing on either coast of the mainland. However, the real catalysts to the first endeavors to ride waves on the East and West Coasts can be credited to a few early proponents.

First would be Alexander Ford Hume, the sometimes-noted racist from South Carolina who, when arriving in Hawaii in 1907, would see the opportunity to promote the Islands by expounding on the amazing surf riders in Waikiki.  Hume at times promoted the abilities of the white board riders stating their skills were equal to those of the Native Hawaiians.

Hume met the legendary George Freeth, who was half Hawaiian and thus met some of his requirements of ‘whites only’ that was his mantra when starting the Outrigger Canoe Club.  Hume then promoted Freeth during the legend’s first visit to California in 1907. Freeth was welcomed with open arms and his skill riding the waves became the first real example that the West Coast beach goers would see in person.

In 1908 and 1909 a young Hawaiian student attending college in Pennsylvania by the name of Alvin Keech wound up on the beaches of New York and New Jersey with Hume and two surfboards that they brought from Hawaii. In a letter Hume wrote to the Honolulu Gazette in the summer of 1909, he describes surfing the waves of today’s Rockaway Beach, NY with Keech and notes that “boardriders” are already taking up the sport in Atlantic City, NJ. Keech went on to be a renowned musician, who invented the banjulele.

In 1910 a group of musicians, dancers, swimmers and divers were sent by the State of Hawaii to the Atlantic City Exposition to promote Hawaii as a destination for tourists. Since Keech was already in the area he was hired to give surfing demonstrations during the entire summer. Surfboard riding took off with the locals and by the time Duke Kahanamoku, the true father of modern surfing, arrived in 1912 he was joined in the water by locals, who had been riding the waves for two years.

It was in this time frame that surfing started to find participants up and down both coasts. It comes as no surprise that the first real acolytes of the Hawaiian influence were the lifeguards.  Atlantic City had established a professional life saving group in 1891 and Long Island was close behind. Soon, resort areas created their own life saving corps, some volunteer and some paid, and it was in this petri dish of ocean awareness that surfing took hold.

It would take a number of years of beach and ocean awareness before the coastal town of Virginia Beach, Virginia established their lifeguard corps.

Surfing arrived in Virginia Beach in 1912 when James M. Jordan Jr. received a package from his world traveling uncle of a Hawaiian surfboard, which was 12 feet long and weighed in at 100 pounds. Jordan became a curiosity on the beaches as he would drag his Hawaiian plank to the surf and attempt to ride the local waves. Hawaiian culture was being presented throughout the U.S. and especially in Virginia and North Carolina, and surfboard riding was on display by Hawaiian Willie Kalama on the beach where the Wright Brothers first flew their glider on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk. But it would take a group of young beach and ocean lovers to become the first lifeguards and to set the course for surfing to develop in Virginia Beach.

By the late 1920s surfing still had yet to grab on to the general public on Virginia’s beaches, however in 1930, with the establishment of the VB Lifesaving Corp, young men started figuring out a way to create a beach lifestyle for themselves. Names like Babe Braithwaite (ECHOF 2000 Inductee) along with friends John Smith, Bob Holland Sr. (ECSHOF 1996 Inductee) and a trio of brothers, the deWitts, were the real pioneers of lifeguarding and surfing in VB. Women were also a part of the surf riding community with Kay Garrett the top female rider of the era.

Though Peter deWitt’s name is certainly known outside of the VB beach community, his contributions are mostly lost to the greater East Coast surf world.  Born in 1913, deWitt was among a group of six individuals, who were the first to build boards for use on the Virginia beaches. The group also included Buddy Cox, Bill Cox, John Smith, Dusty Hinnant (ECSHOF 2000 Inductee) and Pierre Cronnenbergh.  Copying a Tom Blake design that had been seen on the beach in Florida where Blake had come to lifeguard, the group realized they had to improve on Blake’s boards, which were heavy and had a tendency to leak. Cox drew up blueprints that looked like proper naval designs and the six young men hauled their heavy lumber to the beach where they assembled their surfboards in the basement of Cox’s parent’s beachside home. Surfing had arrived and the surf lifestyle would come along with it.

VB’s surf pioneers were more than just lifeguards and surfers, they embraced other board sports and the long time tradition of busting each other’s chops. In a short article published in 1936 in the Norfolk Ledger, there is an example of both. “Peter deWitt, well known Virginia Beach Surfboard Rider, announced to his friends that he would leave Sunday for New York, where he would teach skiing.”  “But,” said one “you’ve never skied in your life.” “Well,” Peter said, “I’ve ridden a surfboard and ice skated so of the two I should have a fair idea of how to ski when I get there; I expect after a while, I’ll be good enough to teach.” “I hope,” growled Bill Cox, “that after this winter you will be able to ride a surfboard better than you do now.”

deWitt and this core of original pioneers, along with Holland and Braithwaite, set the standards for lifesaving in Virginia. Numerous articles can be found in the Virginia Pilot chronicling the many dangerous situations these waterman put themselves in to save people’s lives. In 1935 this crew held a 26 mile paddleboard race between Cape Charles and Cape Henry. After an article in the Pilot suggesting the paddlers got lost in the fog and needed help to return to shore, Braithwaite lambasted the local paper saying that none of the participants got lost and the Coast Guard boat was only there to bring them back after the race was completed. To underscore the skills these surfers had developed, two of the crew paddled an extra three miles and took the local ferry home!  Many of the surfers spent the winter in Florida where they connected with the Whitman brothers, Bill and Dudley (ECSHOF 1998 Inductees), working together to improve the quality of their surfboards.

The reason deWitt is such an interesting member of the group is because he took photos of the early days with their self-made boards. His parents built the first brick home on the beach on Oceanside Ave.  Though it is called the deWitt Cottage, it is now home to the Atlantic Waterfowl Heritage Museum. Peter deWitt and those original watermen maintained a relationship with surfing and the ocean for their entire lives. deWitt was a mentor to many of the young surfers in Virginia Beach, helping the local Boys Club to build their own surfboards in 1962. When Bob Holland and Pete Smith brought the East Coast Surfing Championship to Virginia Beach in the early 60s, Peter deWitt was on the first judging panel. deWitt was a Lieutenant in World War II with the 695th Armored Artillery Group that landed at Utah Beach and went on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge. After the war he opened the Tidal House Restaurant in Virginia Beach, the town where he lived to the ripe old age of 92, often posing with the original board he built in the 1930s on the beach in front of his family home, the deWitt Cottage.

42 Years Ago

After the 1982 Op Pro, the first pro contest to be sanctioned in California since the IPS World Tour’s inception in 1976, Australian and former Bronzed Aussie Ian Cairns talked all the pro surfers who were on the IPS Tour to jump ship to Cairns’ fledgling Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Pro Tour, which was to launch in 1983 with promises of better prize money and more events. Thanks to Cairns and his Sports and Media Services agency, the U.S. clothing giant, Op, had come onboard as the sponsor of the ‘82 event.

Cairns had brought in Gary Linden, an experienced pro judge and surfboard sponsor of Op team rider David Barr.  Op’s marketing group wanted the ’82 event to be held at Trestles, south of San Clemente, CA, but Linden convinced them to hold it at Huntington Pier noting that getting 50 thousand sets of eyes on the event was more important than the quality surf at Trestles. That first Op Pro in Huntington Beach was won by Australian Cheyne Horan and Hawai’ian Becky Benson.

Cairns launched the ASP World Tour with funding from Op, and he took the pro surfing tour to places it had never been before. If you were willing to sponsor an event the ‘traveling circus,’ as many called it, would come to your town. Non-traditional surf towns in Japan and England  held events and it was under this structure that Atlantic City, New Jersey threw its hat into the ring to host an event.

Op joined as a sponsor, wanting to have a greater East Coast presence.  1976 IPS World Champ Peter “PT” Townend, Cairns’ partner in Sports and Media Services, was hired to run it. On the surface Atlantic City seemed like a unique partner for the World Tour as the city was looking for events to promote the casino-centric town.  The fact that there could be contestable waves on the beaches that were first surfed by Duke Kahanamoku in 1912 might be a good fit, the city’s leaders thought. Little would the surfing world know that bringing the ASP World Tour to Atlantic City would create unforeseen issues and the quality of the waves in New Jersey would not be the problem.

In July, Townend, who took on the role of Contest Director along with Kathy Huber, Promotions Director for Op (known also as Ocean Pacific) took a promotional tour of Atlantic City meeting with organizers.  Townend also got in a few surfs stating, “I’ve been here for a week and have surfed every day.” Townend was familiar with the Atlantic City area as one of his friends was David Scibal, who he had met in Hawai’i in the 70s and the two had remained close. Scibal, (now an Inductee in New Jersey Surfing Hall of Fame, NJSHOF, and an East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame, ECSHOF, Board Member) was a highly respected surfer in 1982 and a savvy local businessman who Townend came to for help when things went a bit south with the event.

Atlantic City’s Promotion Director, Burt Lancaster (more on him later), had promised Townend and Huber forty hotel rooms for traveling pros and event staff, which Lancaster did not deliver on as people began to arrive.   Scibal called in favors from several casino executives to get the rooms.

Prize money for the event, as noted in the Atlantic City Press was $5,000 for first-place in the Men’s Division and $2,000 for first place in the Women’s Division. Sponsors of the event, according to The Press, besides Op and the city, included Harrah’s Casino and Hawaiian Tropic, along with New Jersey surf shops Grog’s Surf Palace in Seaside Heights and Heritage in Sea Isle.

The local newspaper quoted Townend saying, “The Mayor of Atlantic City, Mike Matthews, had been very supportive of the event and he felt it was because he had two sons who were talented surfers in their own right.” Tom and Bob Matthews were local A.C. surfers whose home break at States Ave would be where the contest was to be held. Tom, who today is Legal Counsel for the ECSHOF and a NJSHOF Inductee, recalled his father asking how the event would be run. The elder Matthews was in on a group meeting with folks in the Mayor’s office and contest organizers. Tom, however, missed the event as he was competing at the NSSA Nationals in California, after which he was invited to join the NSSA National Team, coincidentally coached  by Cairns and Townend.

Judges for pro contests during this era were normally highly regarded surfers who were major players in the surf world. Two individuals who made the trek to Atlantic City were Rusty Preisendorfer, shaper with Canyon Surfboards at the time and eventually his own brand, Rusty, and Gary Linden, whose hand shaped boards filled the racks at George Gerlach’s Surfers Supplies retail store nearby in Ocean City. I recently asked Linden why he thought his boards were so popular on the East Coast and he gave much of the credit to Gerlach (ECSHOF Inductee) and his knowledge of what designs would work well on New Jersey’s waves. Linden told me, “I listened to George on board design and those shapes were exclusive to George and his customers at Surfers Supplies.” (As a long-time rider of Linden’s boards, I can confirm they worked well in the N.J. waves.) Frankly, imagining Rusty and Gary initially sharing a room in crappy motel until they, head judges mind you, were moved to one of the Casino properties makes me laugh!

Opening day of the contest saw small waves with two days of the Trials commencing with the top sixteen finishers in the Trials joining the “Top 16” ASP seeded surfers in the main event. Local pros Scotty Duerr (NJSHOF Inductee) from Manasquan and Brian Heritage (NJSHOF Inductee) from Sea Isle both entered the event to test their skills against the best surfers in the world. Duerr nearly advanced but an interference call pushed him to second place in his opening man-on-man heat.  Duerr had drawn a tough heat against Op and Linden team rider David Barr. Heritage lost to Aussie goofyfoot Glen Rawlings.

The women pros, as usual, were getting the short end of the stick with below average surf for their heats and less prize money than the men. However, the contest announced the arrival of the new guard of pro women who would raise the performance levels to new heights. The leaders of the original women’s pro tour – stars like Hawai’ian Rell Sunn and 1982 World Champion Debbie Beecham – were still in the mix, but the two finalists and future World Champions Kim Mearig and Frieda Zamba showed a bright future for the Women’s Professional Tour. As a side note, many at the contest were wondering the whereabouts of  local pro Linda Davoli (ECSHOF Inductee) as States Ave was her local break so everyone expected she would have done well. Linda had a great excuse for not competing as she was getting ready to deliver her daughter, who would be born just a few days after the contest concluded.

While the contest was running smoothly under the direction of Competition Director Townend, he was welcomed by a representative of the local Atlantic City underworld.  A diminutive man in a suit pulled up on the boardwalk behind the event scaffolding in a black Cadillac, asking who was running the show and if someone could find him. Townend, not really understanding who he was speaking with, walked over with his normal jovial personality and asked what he could do for the well-dressed gentleman. Imagine Townend’s surprise when his new friend asked, “Where is my money?”  The mobster had suggested that if he did not get some payment, he would have the permits pulled for the event.

Townend thinking fast on his feet and fortunately having Op’s attorney, Brooks Gifford, in the stands, summoned Gifford to the boardwalk meeting. Gifford, an imposing six foot-plus gentleman proceeded to converse with the shake downer, explaining that Op had the proper permit for the boardwalk and the beach, approved by the Mayor’s office.  Townend showed the permit and Gifford held it in front of the mobster and said, “We have permission to be here so get off the boardwalk or I’ll sue your ass all the way down it.” The mobster left the scene. (To this day PT tells this story with his usual Aussie wit and if you ever get in his presence, please ask him about his Atlantic City mobster experience.)

After two days of lackluster waves the surf gods shined down on the contestants and provided a cold front that cruised through the area on Friday of the main event. Though it had been stormy in the morning, the wind switched offshore and States Ave turned on with 4 to 6 foot peaks. The surf break had two distinct waves – a hollow left hander that peeled off the groin in the middle of the beach and a rippable right that bounced off the nearby Steel Pier and roped down the beach allowing for multiple turns and cutbacks.

Early standouts in the opening rounds were the usual pro tour suspects – Tom Carroll, Shaun Tomson, Michael Ho and Martin Potter – who were all surfing at a high level. Surprising Huntington Beach local Bud Llamas also show his goofy foot skills on the barreling lefts, while local crowd favorite Wes Laine (ECSHOF Inductee) from Virginia Beach showed his backhand that had been fine-tuned on the Outer Banks, NC lefts transferred well onto the Atlantic City waves. The quarterfinals found the addition of Aussies Greg Day and Rabbit Bartholomew but ultimately Llamas and Laine battled their way into the final. The waves remained contestable and Laine prevailed, noting his experience in the smaller Right Coast waves might have been to his advantage. On the women’s side, two tour newcomers – Kim Mearig and Frieda Zamba (ECSHOF) – battled with Floridian Zamba pulling it out in the end.

Basking in the glow of a successfully completed event, Townend was quoted as saying how well the contest was run and he hoped that they would be able to make this an annual event on the ASP World Tour.  Behind the scenes a lot more unfolded just days before and after the scheduled event that would cause some issues for all involved, and the promised hotel rooms were just the beginning.

Following the event an investigation was ordered by Mayor Matthews into what went on with the new A.C. Promotions Director, Bert Lancaster, and his handling of the Ocean-Fest. Apparently, Lancaster had made a commitment of $20,000 from the city’s coffers that he never received approval for. Matthews engaged a special prosecutor to see if Lancaster had been criminally negligent.  In addition, he suspended Lancaster during the inquiry. After an expedited process they found that Lancaster had made commitments that he did not have the power to provide.  Though he was not criminally accountable, he could be civilly responsible, yet in the end nothing ever came of Lancaster’s negligence.

Long story short, the hope that there would be an annual ASP World Tour event in Atlantic City was dashed by the incompetence of a few government officials in the city, something those of us locals were all too familiar.  Sadly, years later, with pro surfing now under the banner of the World Surf League, WSL, a pro longboard event was planned for the same beach as the original Op event and once again the city mismanaged the planning and that contest was cancelled.

Seems the only time Atlantic City’s foray into surfing was ever run properly was when the mobsters oversaw it in the 1920s, which was when Hawai’ians surfed the beaches every summer and played Hawai’ian music in the clubs and on the piers every night.

1974 East Coast Championship

At this year’s “Scibal/Mesanko Sessions,” an annual get together in Cabo of folks who volunteer their time to support the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame, there were  legendary East Coast surfers, a former IPS World Champion, a good mix of industry and publishing legends and a whole bunch of Hall of Famers. Topics of discussion ran the gamut and, as you would expect, the verbal abuse that is the norm when a large group of men, who you might suggest have not fully matured, get together was on full display. Since many of these gents were a part of the halcyon days of the burgeoning East Coast competitive scene, the stories carried a bit more weight than the usual surfer word salad.

As a few of us sat around the pool, it was noted that it was the 50th anniversary of what many believe were the best back-to-back contests of the era when the East Coast and U.S. Championships were held over consecutive weeks at the Lighthouse Jetty in Buxton, North Carolina. Two weeks of solid surf provided by two different hurricanes made sure that the surfing levels would be at their highest. The U.S. Championship received most of the attention with a large contingent of Californians making the trek back East. Luminaries including Skip Frye, Tony Staples and the red hot Mark Levy from the South Bay were stunned to see the quality of waves produced on the Outer Banks. The lefts off the Lighthouse groin were hollow and fast and the level of surfing from both West and East Coasters was all-time! As most of us know, New York’s Rick Rasmussen won the Men’s Championship over Florida’s Jim Cartland. Goofy foots reigned supreme in the powerful lefts and Rasmussen’s win catapulted him into the international surf media spotlight.

Talking recently with California’s legendary surfer Tony Staples about coming to Hatteras for the U.S. Championship, he compared the lefts at the groin to Blacks in San Diego. He, along with Skip Frye, made the trip cross country stopping in every surf shop that carried Gordon & Smith Surfboards, their equipment sponsor, and camped at the Lighthouse Campgrounds during the entire contest. Staples made it to the semi-finals, one of the four goofy foots whose skills in left hand barrels were a clear advantage. He spoke fondly of meeting East Coast surfers joking that they were much friendlier than his California counterparts.

The discussion soon turned to the East Coast Championship, which had concluded just a few days before an onslaught of competitors showed up for the national titles comp. As one of the guys pointed out, the Eastern’s did not get nearly the amount of coverage it deserved with one national surf magazine barely giving it a paragraph of acknowledgement. The waves pumped for most of the event and the final was between two of the top competitors from the East Coast. Looking at the crew sitting around the pool it was quickly pointed out that the two finalists from that day, Greg Loehr and Jim Cartland, were active participants in the jocular back and forth that was playing out amongst our group.

In the best article written about the contest by New Jersey’s Bob Lacovara for Surfing Magazine, his opening paragraph really summed up the feel of the event and times. “Let’s take the best of the East Coast hotties, (it was the 70s after all) deposit them on an island, not any desert island mind you, just one of limited habitation and reasonable facilities, then provide decent waves and activate a well-oiled contest machine.” The ESA Eastern’s had truly become a showcase event that had provided a landscape that transcended the old North vs South bluster into a competition that saw finalists from up and down the East Coast. Florida had dominated the championship for many years, but it soon became obvious that surfing talent was everywhere, and the hotly contested Junior Men’s Final was won by Robert Hurt from South Carolina with not one Floridian making the podium. Florida’s Cartland and Loehr were the last two left standing in the Men’s Division after the man-on-man competition saw standouts like Jeff Arensman from New Jersey along with New Yorker’s Rick Rasmussen and Ed Fawess in the mix till the end along with Floridian Jeff Clark.

The two finalists, Cartland and Loehr, went on to successful careers, one as an innovator and mad scientist, creating groundbreaking epoxy resin products that  challenged the norms of surfboard manufacturing while still setting a standard as a top competitive surfer, earning respect in the heavy waves on Oah’u. Greg Loehr’s company, “Resin Research,” supplies manufacturers all over the world.  The genius, Jim Cartland, earned his degree in Florida that year and then went to Hawai’i where he made a name for himself on the North Shore, especially at Pipeline, while pursuing a Master’s Degree in Theoretical Math (what is that?), eventually earning his Medical Degree in Radiology while still surfing whenever his studies allowed.

The ‘74 Easterns started with a bang that September with overhead surf at the Lighthouse groins allowing the contest organizers to run the massive numbers of heats from the Boy’s Division up to Senior Men’s. The premier Men’s Division had a huge number of competitors with 12-4A surfers seeded directly into the semifinals while the rest of the 36 qualifiers battled it out for the final six spots. The preliminaries were single elimination; if you lost, you packed up your car and headed home. The surf for the Men’s early heats was a solid 4-to-6 feet with some 8-foot sets, the left off the groin giving multiple opportunities for barrel riding with Rick Rasmussen showing the style and gumption that won him the U.S. title the following week. However, from early on, Cartland and Loehr looked to be leading the pack.

The fact that the two close friends from Cocoa Beach might be heading to the final was not a surprise. Cartland first surfed the Outer Banks in the 60s and had many trips under his belt, posting up at the Lighthouse campgrounds as was the right of passage during the 70s. Throughout the contest Cartland said he really didn’t have any support crew on the beach and didn’t even have water during the days he was surfing multiple heats. As a doctor these days, Cartland remembers that he might have been dehydrated during much of the day, but the waves were so good he was focused on surfing well and getting through his heats. Loehr was very familiar with the Lighthouse lefts as he spent months at a time living in Cape Hatteras shaping surfboards for Natural Art and working as a trash collector. The two goofy foots were the perfect competitors to meet in the final on the powerful lefts.

As the waves under the watchful eye of the Hatteras Lighthouse got somewhat out of control a decision was made to move the contest to the Southside of the Island, specifically to the grinding sandbars just over the dunes from Billy Mitchell Airport. The surf was difficult to ride but the contest organizers powered through and multiple finals were completed, however the Junior’s and Men’s semis were put on hold. Luckily the Lighthouse turned on again and the contest caravan headed back to Buxton just in time to see perfect 4-to-6 foot barreling rights and lefts with pristine conditions. Loehr battled it out against New Jersey’s Jeff Arensman, defeating him on his last two waves to make it into the final, while Cartland went into the final undefeated, forcing Loehr to have to beat him twice.

In the first heat, Loehr finished on top as Cartland was admittedly tired from surfing four heats during the day with little sustenance. The final heat was a showcase for some of the best surfing of the contest with Loehr going top-to-bottom with multiple verticals hits on the steep Buxton lefts while Cartland continued to pull into seemingly unmakeable barrels only to come flying out of the tube to the surprise of the spectators on the beach. The Surfing Magazine article described the performances  as “superb.” In the end, the tally of the scores was extremely close and, finally, after finishing second so many times, Greg Loehr won his first East Coast Surfing title.

The following week in the U.S. Championship both Loehr and Cartland continued to raise the standards of East Coast Surfing as did the Lighthouse waves, much to the surprise of the visiting West Coast stars. Loehr earned a semi-final finish while Cartland came in second in a close final to Rick Rasmussen for the first U.S. Men’s title won by an East Coast surfer.

Back to the conversation in the pool, I posed a question to Cartland at the end of our conversation but did not expect his reply. “Hey Doc, you finished with a second place at both the Eastern and U.S. Championships in 1974, when did you stop competing,” I asked. Cartland, with his typical dry humor, said, “In 1974.” To all of us talkin’ story, that seemed like the best time to head off to get a beer as nobody could top that.