Riding Through Time

Riding Through Time – with Mike May

Women of Rhode Island

1960s

with Mike May

Surfer on left unknown. Karen Adams Howard, middle, and Sue lloyd Hogan, right with hardware.

Photo: Courtesy Adams Howard

The 1960s was a blossoming era for surfing, especially on the East Coast. Rhode Island, with its craggy coastline that had numerous beach breaks and cobblestone points, was especially a hotbed for the young surfers who braved the chilly waters of New England. We know many of the pioneers of the sport including Peter “Peter Pan” Panagiotis from Narraganset, Howie “Goldie” Goldsmith, who many consider the godfather of Rhode Island surfing, and, of course, the legendary Sid Abbruzzi, who ushered in the radical changes to surfing that the early seventies brought to the sport. The one thing this trio had in common was they were all in the business of surfing and they were all men, but during this period there were a few extraordinary women who joined their male counterparts on the waves and in the bustling contest scene of 1960s Rhode Island. Female surfers who consistently competed locally and on the East Coast included Florence French, Liz Herd, Barbara Flynn Redgate, Betty Palmer, Karen Adams Howard and Sue Lloyd Hogan, who were among the many women who were a part of the vibrant Rhode Island surfing scene.

The West Coast manufacturers would recognize the growth of the sport and would often head back to take part in the local contest scene. Hobie Alter, Dewey Weber and Larry Gordon of Gordon and Smith were just a few of West Coast’s heavy hitters to show up at major New England contests. Sixteen year-old Betty Palmer would win the 1966 Women’s Open Division at the New England Surfing Championship and have her picture in the local papers riding tandem with Hobie Alter. She would also win the tandem championship with her partner Charlie Thomas. Like many of the surfers of the era, the women would move on from the sport as they headed off to college or the workplace, however two of these pioneering women would continue to be active players in the local surf scene and beyond the beaches of Rhode Island. Karen Adams Howard and Sue Lloyd Hogan would head down different paths in the surf world, but each woman would cement their position as important influencers of the sport. As a side note, most of the photos for this article were provided by Adams whose documentation of the period give a wonderful perspective of the surf scene that was happening not just in Rhode Island but up and down the East Coast.

Adams Howard was a pioneer of women’s surfing in the Northeast. Photo: Courtesy Adams Howard

Karen Adams Howard saw her first surfboard while visiting Riviera Beach, Florida, in 1964. That summer, she and her sister, Kathy, paid $50 for a blue foam Malibu at a sporting goods store in Providence, Rhode Island. Their father glassed the board, so it held up much better than the rest of the popular foam boards. She rode her first wave at 2^nd Beach, Newport, Rhode Island. There were few surfers to mentor those new to the sport and certainly very few women. That first winter, Adams could not afford a wetsuit but the next winter she bought a suit, complete with a beaver tail. Gloves, boots and a hood eventually made the winter surfing more comfortable. The cold temperatures kept the number of surfers in the water to a minimum.

In 1966, Adams began entering surf contests. The network of women competitors was growing, and she traveled to contests from Maine to Long Island. That November, she moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, and spent the winter surfing in the warm waves of Juno Beach, Hobe Sound, Riviera Beach, Ft. Pierce and Cocoa Beach. She returned to Rhode Island that summer and resumed her competitive surfing. Adams’ favorite memories are surfing contests with East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame inductee Sue Lloyd, Florence “Frenchie” French, Linda Peters and Liz Herd. Adams’ contest results landed her a spot on the Northeast’s Hobie Team with Dick Catri so impressed with her competitive skills he tried to steal her to join the powerful Florida Hobie Team.

1967 karen adams, dave jenkins, brod stoner

Like so many who surfed in Newport, Adams spent the winter of 1968–69 in Cocoa Beach. At that time Mike Tabeling, Bruce Valluzzi, Claude Codgens, Gary Propper, and the McRoberts brothers were the ones to watch. 1967 through ‘69 were exciting times. Adams says, “Our generation experienced the extraordinary transition from longboards to short boards. That time forever changed what we rode and how we rode it.”

During the 60s, she used an inexpensive camera to capture the personality and the characters of Newport’s surfing community. Her photo albums also hold photos from contests in New England and Florida. She has only recently shared these images and hopes they have preserved the spirit of the time.

Adams and her husband moved to San Diego in 1971, and she has passed on the surfing tradition and spirit to her sons, Devon and Bret Howard. They have been surfing since grade school and both work in the surfing industry today. Karen’s son Devon is considered one of the top longboarders in the world. He was the Director of the WSL Longboard Tour and is currently with Channel Islands Surfboards in Product Development.

Karen Adams Howard, right in wetsuit, and fellow competitors.

Photo: Courtesy Adams Howard

Sue Lloyd Hogan was a 2010 inductee into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame. Hogan was a dominating force in the mid-to-late 60s in the New England Contest scene. She got her first surfboard in 1964, and it soon became apparent that she had the skill set to be a top-notch competitor. Hogan and Howard would consistently share the top of the podium at most contests. She was the only woman from New England invited to compete in the trials event in Puerto Rico to qualify for the 1968 World Surfing Championship. During the 60s Hogan was a member of the legendary Dick Catri Surfboards Hawaii team, the first female athlete from Rhode Island to be asked to join a nationally recognized surf brand. When the short board revolution hit in the late 60s Hogan took a break from competitive surfing, but the competitive urge returned to her in the mid 70s, and she began competing again in 1976. Hogan would go on to win the Women’s title in 1977 and ‘79 at the East Coast Surfing Championship in Buxton, North Carolina. She would finish 3rd at the U.S. Championship in Texas in 1977. Hogan and her husband, Tom, opened Warm Winds Surf Shop in Narraganset, Rhode Island, creating a mainstay of the Rhode Island surf scene for decades.

Sue Lloyd Hogan and Karen Adams Howard’s surf histories are just two of the many stories that can be found about the pioneering women surfers of New England whose presence in the lineup helped to pave the way for the young women who followed in their big footsteps.

Sue Lloyd Hogan. Photo: Joe McGovern

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Heather Mundie2026-03-27T02:11:15+00:00

East Coast Surfing in 1912 – A Story About Sam Reid

East Coast Surfing in 1912 – A Story About Sam Reid

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A Story About Sam Reid from Atlantic City, NJ

1912

with Mike May

The year was 1912. Sam Reid, a boy of seven, stood on the beach and was amazed by the experience of seeing Olympic champion, Duke Kahanamoku put on a surfing display in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Reid was so excited he took his mother’s ironing board into the surf the next day to ride waves like his new-found hero, the Duke. He rode the ironing board for four years.

Reid was born in Philadelphia in 1905, though he would change his year of birth in the early ’20s for reasons that likely had to do with starting high school at an age when most young men were near graduation. William Reid, Sam’s father, was a direct descendent of naval hero Samuel Chester Reid, who designed the 1818 version of the American flag.

By 1910, William had deserted the family and moved to San Francisco. One can imagine how the beaches of Atlantic City would become a playground for a young fatherless boy, and how seeing the great Duke Kahanamoku would leave such a lasting impression that it would send Sam down a path that would change his entire life.

Sam and the rest of his family—mother and older sister, both named Lucy, and an older brother named William—lived in Atlantic City until 1919, at which point Sam was building his own surfboards and had likely developed into a seasoned young waterman.

By 1923, the family had moved to Santa Monica; Lucy and Sam both attend Santa Monica High—Sam as an 18-year-old sophomore. This is likely where the discrepancy in his birthdate comes from.

Around this time, Sam came into contact with Duke Kahanamoku again, this time on the beach in Santa Monica. Duke was working in Hollywood and, as Sam later wrote, any chance the Duke got he would go to the beach to swim and bodysurf next to Crystal Pier. Duke would amaze onlookers by swimming out further than anyone and riding waves back to the beach. Closer to shore, he would sometimes bodysurf with young children on his back.

At 19, still living with his mother and sister, Reid got a lifeguard job at the prestigious Santa Monica Swim Club. Duke was often a club guest, and Reid would shoot him questions about Hawaii. What was the surf like? Should he go? If so, could he get a job? Duke encouraged him: “You’re young,” Reid later wrote, quoting the Duke. “Go see my brothers David and Sam; tell them I said Aloha.”

Reid was 21 in December 1926 when he stepped off the SS Calawaii after it docked in Honolulu Harbor. Reid notes that this was a Hawaii without streetlights and only one big hotel, the Moana, doing business on the beach at Waikiki. It didn’t take Reid long to meet the Kahanamoku brothers and find a job at the soon-to-open Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Within a day of his arrival, Reid wasn’t just surfing with Duke’s brother David but riding Duke’s personal board.

Reid quickly assimilated into the everyday life of Waikiki. His job at the Royal Hawaiian was to give information about the Islands to guests, and when he was not surfing or swimming, he was immersed in the Bishop Museum library and archives. Reid was so taken with the history of Hawaii and the Hawaiian people, that he taught himself the rudiments of their beautiful and poetic language. On the beach in between surf sessions, David and Sam Kahanamoku taught Reid the history of Hawaiian surfing as they maintained their roles as the leaders of Hui Nalu, the beachfront surfing and paddling club founded by Duke in 1908. Reid himself would eventually be accepted into Hui Nalu—quite an accomplishment as most members were Hawaiian.

In September 1927, back in California, Sam Reid and Tom Blake, another transplant Santa Monica surfer and lifeguard, together made a little surf history. Reid and Blake drove up the coast to surf Malibu—something that had never been done. Reid later described the day: “Visualize if you can, a beautiful September day in California. The coast highway was then a two-lane road, dirt most of the way. Tom Blake had stopped by the Santa Monica Swimming Club to pick me up. In those days, cowboys with guns and rifles still rode the Malibu Ranch, and the gate at Las Flores Canyon had a “No Trespassing” sign on it. We took our 10-foot redwoods out of the Essex rumble seat and paddled the mile to a beautiful Crescent-shaped beach that didn’t have a footprint on it. No buildings and, of course, no pier! There was no audience but the seagulls.” Blake described the day in simpler terms: “The place was deserted except for seagulls and pelicans and the Rindge house. To be the first to ride it, I caught a 3-foot wave, and we played around in it for an hour or so, real exclusive surfing.” The history of Malibu will note that one of the first two surfers to ride the wave at the fabled point was from Wisconsin, the other from New Jersey.

For the next ten years, Reid traveled back and forth from Honolulu to Los Angeles. For two years, beginning in 1927, Reid lived in Palo Alto for part of the year, worked in San Francisco, and took classes at Stanford University. (Reid wouldn’t graduate from Stanford until after World War II, in his early 40s.)

In 1927, during a return visit to Hawaii, Reid traveled with the great Hawaiian surfer and Stanford swimmer Jack May. The two would be connected for many years both as members of Hui Nalu and as rivals in multiple swimming, paddling and surfing competitions. In the 1930 census, Reid is listed as a lodger with the May family at their home on 1445 Punahou Street in Honolulu.

Reid’s achievements in swimming and paddleboard racing are thoroughly documented in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He was Hawaiian surfboard champion in 1928 and 1932—although “surfboard” in this case is misleading, as the titles were for paddleboard races held in the Ala Wai Canal. Reid would win multiple swimming titles between 1928 to 1935.

By 1936, Reid had backed off competition but was still involved as a judge. He also became the aquatics coach for the Honolulu Athletic Association and continued to work for the Royal Hawaiian and as a lifeguard when back in California.

In 1940, Reid registered for the draft. Two years later he was a warrant boatswain in the Navy. As reported in the Los Ángeles Times, Reid received a Purple Heart in 1944 after his ship was torpedoed and sunk. The following year, while awaiting transfer to the DDS Reid—named after his great-grandfather Samuel Chester Reid—that ship was sunk in the Philippines with 103 men lost.

After the war, and after graduating from Stanford at age 42 with a degree in Political Science, Reid took a job doing promotional work for the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho.

Reid moved to Santa Cruz around 1950 and eventually became the city’s lifeguard chief. Records show that he was married in the early 1960s, but people who knew Reid in Santa Cruz believe that he lived alone. Still dividing his time between California and Hawaii, Reid found work with the Hawaiian Tourism Board. He also wrote articles and letters to the press. In 1955, Reid did a feature article for the Star-Bulletin titled “Surfing . . . Then and Now,” and here is where Reid’s reputation as a curmudgeon begins to take hold. “Surfing at Waikiki has become a dangerous, haphazard sport,” Reid wrote, “with seemingly no rules of conduct. The old strict code of surfing that I had been taught by the Kahanamokus was forgotten. What happened to the old boards, the old style of safe surfing?”

Reid continued in this manner while writing a trio of articles for Surfer magazine during the 1960s, in which he finds glory in the past and mostly criticizes the present; the title of his 1965 Surfer remembrance feature was “The Days of Great Boards and Real Watermen.”

In 1971, when Reid was 66, he wrote to the Star-Bulletin to address what he felt was a slight against Duke Kahanamoku by the organizers of the United States Surfing Championship, held annually at Huntington Beach. Duke had been the guest of honor at the US Championships in the previous decade. “Knowing Duke for 40 years, I know how much he must have suffered in having to watch the ‘Sport of Kings’ degenerate into exhibitionist tricks by modern midgets.” Huntington, Reid continued, picking up steam, “is a playground for awkward, off-balance, spreadeagled flat-footed squatters who inflate their egos by disappearing under an ugly mussel-encrusted concrete pier in a sea of discolored oil, toilet paper and other trash.”

Despite his often-pessimistic view of modern wave-riding, Sam Reid remained a fixture in the surf community of Santa Cruz. In previous decades—but well after foam boards had taken over the sport—Reid could be found paddling his heavy redwood plank into the lineup at Steamer Lane wearing wool bathing trunks and surfing in the style he was taught by his Hawaiian friends in the 1920s. In later years, when Reid could no longer surf, he still drove to the bluffs at the Lane every day in his 1938 Packard and was happy to share stories of the past with Duke and Tom Blake. He was also ready, at all times, to call out surfers who were not following the rules. On the cliff at Steamer Lane is a wooden plaque stating those rules erected by the city of Santa Cruz, quoting Reid. “First surfer up has the right of way. Paddle around the wave not through it. Hang on to your board. Help out other surfers.”

Reid died in his sleep, in 1978, at age 73. “It appeared [that he] died naturally in bed,” the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported, “with a dinner prepared Friday still on the table.” Reid would later have a place of honor in the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, and his private papers and photographs were donated to the UC Santa Cruz Library.

Although Sam Reid was a true pioneering figure in surfing, his story has mostly been lost to surf history. There are a few reasons for this. First, he mostly pursued his devotion to the sport by himself. Sailing to Hawaii alone in the mid-1920s is very different from arriving in pairs or groups, as surfers did in later decades. Second, unlike Tom Blake, who himself was very much a loner, Reid never turned surfing into a commercial enterprise. Riding waves was at the center of his life, but his career was filled with traditional nine-to-five pursuits. Third, Reid was constantly looking back to the past. Surfing and everything important about it, to Reid, is directly connected to Duke and Hawaii. Finally, Reid was cantankerous. Even among people who knew and liked him, Reid was described as ornery and a complainer. His writings are filled with criticism about the state of surfing and how young surfers are going about it the wrong way. In an early ’70s letter to good friend Tommy Zahn, Reid complains about the ‘dirty hippies” in Santa Cruz, and how the apartments in Santa Monica ruined the area.

Reid had no interest whatsoever in being part of the surf culture that developed in Southern California after the war. He was from New Jersey, and part of him seemed to always be in “outsider” mode. His roots weren’t set in a place in which he had personal experience, but in surfing itself, and in his belief that all things great in the sport flowed from Hawaii. Nothing mattered more to Sam Reid than the fact that he was embraced by Hawaiians.

Photos: Sam Reid Archives at University of California Santa Cruz

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Heather Mundie2025-12-16T22:19:52+00:00

Early Florida Pioneers – The Whitman Brothers

Early Florida Pioneers – The Whitman Brothers

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Early Florida Pioneers — The Whitman Brothers

1932

with Mike May

The Whitman brothers circa 1930s. L – R, Dudley, ECSHOF 1998, Bill and Stanley.

Much can be said about the cross pollination of surfing culture and innovation. From the earliest history of the Polynesian culture and its influences on surfing around the world to the later years of traveling surfers like Australian Peter Troy and Southern Californian Dick Metz, who accelerated the progress of surfing internationally, the sport has many lineages that have influenced its advancement. You would have to agree that brothers Bill (born in 1916) and Dudley (born in 1920) Whitman, who lived both in Michigan on the Lake and spent winters in Miami Beach, would take the influence of multiple surf pioneers and cultures to bring surfing to the beaches of Florida.

Spending their early years in the 1920’s both on the shores of Lake Michigan and on the beaches of Miami the family eventually moved permanently to Miami Beach where the boys would take to water sports as an outlet for their youthful energy. Learning to ride waves on both the Lake and the Atlantic, the brothers would get creative with bodysurfing and then, riding mats and bellyboards they made themselves. A chance visit by Virginia Beach surfing pioneers John Smith, Dusty Hinnant and “Babe” Braithwaite, who had traveled to Florida in 1932 to escape the cold winter in Virginia to surf the warm ocean waters of Miami on their 10-foot Hawaiian planks, would send the boys off on a lifetime of surfing.

Bill and Dudley Whitman surfing Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii with Diamond Head in the background circa 1950s.

It would be William “Bill” Whitman who would jump on the new-fangled wave riding equipment and after catching a few peelers would head to his fathers shed to build himself a 10-foot Hawaiian style plank out of sugar pine. Not to be outdone, Dudley would make his plank out of redwood, the more traditional wood used for board making at the time. Continuing with the theme of cross pollination, a chance encounter with the legendary Tom Blake, who was lifeguarding in Miami Beach in 1932, would be even more of a spark to the imagination of the Whitman brothers. Seeing Blake riding the waves on his hollow surfboard would begin a relationship with the surfing pioneer that would bring the boys well beyond the confines of the beaches of Miami.

Soon the brothers would start making hollow boards based on the designs published in Blake’s 1937 article in Popular Mechanics called “Riding the Waves.” The Whitmans would refine the design with changes like using dowels instead of screws to make the hollow boards along with a drainage system to keep the boards from getting waterlogged. Blake would eventually become such a good friend of the Whitmans that whenever his travels brought him to Miami Beach he would stay with their family.

Bill Whitman surfing Miami Beach, 1930s.

In the summer of 1937, the duo would strap their boards to the top of their car and head West to Los Angeles where they would surf the Pacific waves with their newfound friend, Blake. Not satisfied with a visit to California the brothers hopped on the steam ship SS Lurline headed for Hawaii where they would surf the waves of Waikiki making friends with the locals, who marveled at the beauty of their self-built hollow boards, which they brought with them from the mainland.

With an introduction letter from Tom Blake, the brothers approached Duke Kahanamoku on the beach by the Outrigger Canoe Club hoping to get acceptance into the club. Initially being told the club had no room for them that changed quickly when they unpacked their Blake-style hollow boards. Soon a crowd of Hawaiian Beach Boys, who were admiring their boards, picked them up and brought the Whitmans and their boards into the Outrigger Club. From that day on they became honored members of the legendary home of Duke and his brothers.

The Whitman’s initial foray to Hawaii would begin a love affair with the Hawaiian Islands, especially Oahu, that would continue for the rest of their lives and be handed down to their children, who remember fondly being pushed into waves on the beach by the Outrigger Canoe Club. Upon their return from Hawaii after that first trip the boys would bring back more than just surf stories. Soon they would be known as the first free diving spear fisherman in Florida, something they learned from a local who had crossed their paths while they were lounging on the beach at Waikiki. The Miami Herald Society page, in a story on the brothers return from Hawaii in 1937, would write “They competed in various other water sports that reflected glory to their hometown.” Both were excellent fishermen and sailors with Dudley winning the 1940 Bimini-to-Miami race covering the 50 miles in just 14 hours.

1938 East Coast Surfing Championships, Daytona Beach, Florida.

(L-R) Bill Whitman, ECSHOF 1998, Stan Whitman, Dudley Whitman, ECSHOF 1998, Donald Every (event winner), Paul “Bitsey” Hart, Paul Graves. Last four competitors right not identified.

After serving in World War II, Bill and Dudley would embark on a new career as filmmakers. They would also receive a patent for an underwater camera that they would use in their films “Riding the Waves” and “Five Fathoms of Fun” that were released by Paramount Pictures in 1947. The documentary “The Sea Around Tahiti,” which they provided the water photography, would win an Academy Award in 1953. Not interested in staying in the past Bill in 1955 would meet up with West Coast board builder Hobie Alter and after much cajoling he would become the first Hobie distributor on the East Coast.

The Whitman brother’s wanderlust was not limited to trips to the West Coast and Hawaii, of which there were many, they would also venture to the uncharted waters of the Bahamas where they would find the pristine waves on the outer island of Eleuthera. The pioneered surf breaks in the area that opened a new surf mecca that friends like Daytona Beach surf pioneer Gaulden Reed and Miami cohort Dick Catri would join the Whitman family sojourns to the aquamarine playground of the Bahama reefs.

The Whitman Brothers in Waikiki in the early 1930s.

The legacy of surfing and being adventurous was handed down to the next generation of Whitman children. William’s son Chris won the Hawaiian State Championship at the age of 8 and his sister Pamela competed on the World Professional Surfing Tour specifically in Hawaii in the 1980s, Dudley’s daughter Renee won the first East Coast Championship in 1963 and was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in 2004. In an article in 2011 Ocean Magazine, Pamela Whitman Mattson (William’s daughter) talked about the magical upbringing the Whitman brothers had provided their children.

“I started surfing in Waikiki at the age of 5 in 1961. My father pushed me into a wave in front of the old Outrigger Canoe Club against my will and I panicked. That ended my surfing until our next visit to Hawaii in 1963, and at age 7 I totally took to the sport. Literally, everyone in my family surfed. My father, mother, older brother Chris (by 16 months), younger brother Eric (by 7 years), Uncle Dudley, his four children Dudley Jr., Renee, Billy and Todd, as well as Uncle Stanley. It was a family affair, and we took many surf safaris together. Some of the most notable were trips were to Hawaii and Eleuthera, Bahamas. My father took our family all over the world to surf. As children we spent alternate summers surfing in Hawaii or Europe (Biarritz, France and Newquay, England).” In 1975 the family would land in Java and surf the waves of Kuta Beach and Bali.

The influence on Florida surfing by the Whitman brothers is immeasurable. The term waterman is bandied about freely when describing individuals these days but the Whitman duo should be the poster children for how a true waterman’s skillsets are measured. The Whitman brothers were inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in 1998.

The entire Whitman clan in Hawaii.

Bill Whitman feeling the rail in a friend’s shaping bay.

Photos: Courtesy Whitman family.

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Heather Mundie2025-08-29T02:21:21+00:00

The Origins of Surfing In Virginia Beach

The Origins of Surfing In Virginia Beach

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The Origins of Surfing — Virginia Beach, Virginia

1912

with Mike May

Peter Dewitt Photo: Atlantic Waterfowl Heritage Museum

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.

Click photo to enlarge and scroll through gallery

Photos by: AC Press, Braithwaite Family Archives, Dewitt Family / Atlantic Waterfowl Heritage Museum, LA County Lifeguards Trust Fund, Popular Music Weekly, Roanoke World News, and The Virginia Pilot

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Heather Mundie2025-04-30T22:01:17+00:00

Ocean Pacific / Atlantic City Surf-Fest 1983

Ocean Pacific / Atlantic City Surf-Fest 1983

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Ocean Pacific / Atlantic City Surf-Fest 1983

42 Years Ago

with Mike May

The “California Kid”, Joey Buran showcasing his Pipeline tube riding skills work in the AC beach break barrels, too. Photo: Baytoff

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.

Photos: Baytoff

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1974 East Coast Championship

1974 East Coast Championship

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1974 East Coast Championship

Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

With Mike May

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.

Photos by: Eric Olsen

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