Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

Hello,

Jack Haley is a well known and respected surfer/businessman. He was one of the early pioneers in surfing in and about Orange County during the 1940's and 1950's.

We met Jack Haley out in the water at the Huntington Beach Pier and it was a great conversation as to how he could blast through the pier pilings when we were all sitting outside waiting for a great wave to come in for us. We usually kicked out just before going through the spaced wide pilings. There was plenty of room as we found out later in our own surfing through the pier pilings.

Jack Haley made it look as if it were something he did all of the time, which he did. He knew his audience was sitting around talking to everyone. So, when he opened up his new surfshop in Seal Beach, we were built in clients or future clients. If it wasn’t for the fact that I just got a new custom surfboard from Huntington Beach local shop, Gordie’s Surfboards, I would have purchased a new Jack Haley surfboard.

But, Jack Haley and I designed a custom longboard with a "V" bottom area, just before the reversed fin. Slightly harder rails than normal for sharper cutbacks/turns. The new design was going to have a redwood center strip, two, 1.5 inch balsa strips on either side of the redwood stringer. In addition, the outside rails were going to be colored red with the foam showing in the middle stringer area. A nice design on paper, just in case I decided to sell or trade in my 10' 6" Gordie Surfboard.

He knew his market and planned ahead, the cost would have been very high, but with a trade in, plus the fact that "we" designed the possible future Jack Haley board, was very satisfying. It would have been the last longboard from that era. I sold the 10'6" Gordie Surfboard to a surf shop in Laguna Beach for a historic display in 1998.

Plus, we all had to look up when talking to him. He was 6 feet 6 inches tall and on a surfboard, he was intimidating. Even when he was sitting on a surfboard waiting for the next set of waves, it was nothing but, admiration and awe.

His younger brother was also a great surfer, but with a little more pizazz and fancy solid moves. They competed with each other, as brothers so close in age usually do… (those that have brothers know this for a fact…!)

Jnaki

At the time of his grand opening of the fancy beach side restaurant on the canal, it was a popular place to go for lunch or dinner. Sunset Beach on PCH, but, also fronted the canal side, was the location.

Captain Jack’s Restaurant was a classic place right on the PCH roadway. All surfers knew about the place as we could not miss it due to the main highway from Long Beach and other coastal places ran right in front of the restaurant when going South or back home in a Northern direction on PCH.

But, for young teenagers, it was a little on the high cost side and one had to dress up a little more than
T -shirts and shorts to be appropriate. So, it was not until my wife and moved into a small apartment nearby that we got to go into the darkened restaurant for some quality food. It was a big hit with the locals, his friends and the whole surfing community. He had to be in competition with the well-known Chart House Restaurant in Newport Beach, at the time.
Any time my wife and I went to Captain Jack’s for dinner, parking on the PCH roadway was a beacon for our friends to see the 327 powered Ford Sedan Delivery and know we were inside having a fabulous dinner night.

The two competing restaurant places attracted dressed up surfers and dates. But the food was similar as the style/methods of cooking were similar and very tasty. We knew plenty of the waiters and staff at each restaurant, although they were about 12 miles apart in different communities.
Photo by Leroy Grannis
Seal Beach’s Jack Haley actually perfected his surfing in the waves of Huntington Beach. He holds the title of the first-ever winner of the West Coast Surfing Championships held at Huntington Beach in 1959. His brother Mike Haley won the event the following year.

Known to friends as “Mr. Excitement,” Haley was extremely successful in many facets of life — he opened Jack Haley Surfboards in Seal Beach in 1961, and four years later opened the still-popular restaurant Captain Jack's in Sunset Beach. Sadly, he passed away in 2000 after battling with cancer. His son, Jack Jr., (6'10") played two seasons of professional basketball with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Note:

As history continues for all of us, Captain Jack’s Restaurant is still in business and run by the Haley family. You can’t miss it as you drive on PCH, in a North or South direction.

 

Ed Ducazau (sp)

 

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Ted Wingate, originally from Chemlsford, Massassachusetts.