History Surf Or Die!

Cool.

 

Awesome!!!

 

That is interesting. I am probably about his age. I wasn't from a wealthy family but I made Hot Rods with junk yard parts further up the West Coast in Portland. We go to Southern California once in a while to visit our daughter and her family who live in Costa Mesa, right next door to Huntington Beach. We went to the Grand National Roadster Show earlier this year, and stayed in a rental in Huntington Beach, which is also known as "Surf City". My wife was driving through Huntington Beach and I noticed the vehicle next to us, a typical large van that had the words "Surf City Senior Citizen Transport" painted on the side. Holy Crap! Another illusion shattered!

 

Thanks Ryan, great story. Just put a surf board on the rack of the wifes freshly done van yesterday and she said "get that off there"..... She must be a Hot Rodder!

 

What a great story ! I bet many of the kids on the beach back the 1960's would have loved to have had well off parents to be able to do all those things as well . Sad thing is , we all have to grow up someday but we can still always have our hotrods ! I to grew up near a beach in New England . Did some surfing but enjoyed the fishing much more and the hotrods that were at the beach just burned into my mind that I would have one someday . It took a long time but I got 3 now . I do miss the ocean and the salt air but surfing was a lot of fun back then with those long boards ! Can't do that anymore but the hotrods are hear to stay !

Retro Jim

 

it is funny that surfers and hot rodders never really got along in the early days when the two really go hand in hand being the original so cal counter cultures. for me they go together like peanut butter and jelly. I make a living making surfboards and working in the surf industry which pays for my hot rodding addiction. I cant get enough of either!

 

as always.. cool story.

 

Cool story. Nice to see someone doing it their way.

 

Looks like a very cool Hot Rod, Bob!!

Coil overs, headers outsides the hood... home-spun woodie body...

Let's see more pics!

Sam

 

Great story. Is he on here?

 

Great story and history to hear as I surf HB! Would like to have seen it in those days!

 

Along the lines of the thread title, I just read a little thing from a guy I grew up surfing around, Corky Carroll (google him if you don't know of this Surf ICON) about the actor James Arness. Here are some excerpts from what he has to say;
"As most of you know by now we lost an American Icon last week with the passing of James Arness. What many of you might now know, however, is that "Big Jim" was a hard core surfer and one of the main crew at San Onofre Surf Beach for decades before he hurt his knee and had to give up riding boards about 20 years ago.

His go-for-broke goofy-foot stance was well known from Makaha to Cojo and many unknown point breaks in Mexico that you could only reach by boat or plane. Jim got his pilot's license just so he could fly into some of these places and get perfect waves all to himself or with only a couple of friends.

One of those friends was me. We got to be pals in the 60's at San Onofre and I would also see him at Makaha in Hawaii every winter.

Jim loved to surf. I remember him blowing off scheduled filming of his hit Television series "Gunsmoke" more than one time for a good swell. One time Jim, Rolf (Jim's Son) and I were surfing in Barbados when CBS called and said they need him for some retakes for one of the shows. Jim just laughed at them and said the only way he was coming back was if they sent a private jet to pick us up and only after the swell went down in a few days.

For all he cared they could air a rerun – he wasn't missing some good surf just for a T.V. show. A few days later we got picked up by a swank CBS private jet. Kinda cool for me, but Jim was sorta miffed because we had a few more days scheduled to be there.

What people didn't realize was just how big a man James was. He was 6'9" and weighed in at about 345 pounds. One time Rolf and I got into a pair of his surf trunks, one in each leg. It was pretty funny.

In his later years after he couldn't surf anymore he moved to Montana so that he didn't have to see the surf and be bummed out that he could not go out there and grab a few. That dude loved to surf as much as anybody else I have ever met, including me. And that is saying a lot.

He had it in his heart and soul."

And that's the point of this - just like Bob Carney that Ryan posted about, when you have that "Surfer" in you, not much else matters

 

Before my time but I think Dale Velzy and Gordon "Grubby" Clark (Clark Foam) were surfer/greasers (hot rodders)....there were a few back then.....Good read...

 

Great story Ryan, I surfed in the 60`s rode a 10 ft Bilbo. I had read about Rolf Arness but didn`t know Jim Arness was a Surfer, my other hero`s were Korky Caroll, Skip Frye, Micky Dora & David Newiva. Pic`s of my Surf wagon`s over some great Golden years.......Bri

 

Way cool story, both of them!

 

Not of wealth or privelage but I certainly know the love of both. Just short of my wife and kids it's the "one thing"


Tim

 

Rolf was fast becoming one of the great surfers ever and would win the World Championships in Australia in 1970. Even though his professional surfing career was very short, he is recognized as one of the best surfers ever. Rolf blew everybody away at that World Championship and on the North Shore of Hawaii that winter riding giant surf at Makaha and Waimea Bay. Having won the championship, Rolf seemed to lose interest in surfing, took up playing improvisational jazz piano for a time, and married an "astrologer to the stars," who died of cancer in 1978. This, combined with the shocking deaths of his sister Jenny (in 1975) and his mother (1976), sent Rolf into seclusion at his father's property at the Hollister Ranch in 1980, where he gradually resumed an active surfing lifestyle and worked on developing high-speed hydroplane surfboards.

 

Always surfed since 1958, always had hot rods, always been poor. When were not running the funny car, I'm with the grand kids at the beach.

 

like how Nosurf was first to reply.

 

I'd like to meet the guy, catch a few waves, then spend some time in the garage bench racing and nursing margaritas...I am a Texas surfer which is almost oxymoronic or at least moronic..We would drive the 140 miles to Port Aransas from San Antonio and surf three-foot jetty breaking pea soup with a man-o-war wrapped around your leg..Our big surf trip was the 300 miles further south to Port Isabel for some decent waves, caught some hammerhead there..I did surf in Northern California when I was in the Forest Service but could not believe how freaking cold the water was...

 

Cool "surf buggy" and well done custom..................Has nice details (taillights).....

I can hear the Beach Boy, Jane and Dean........

 

Never surfed myself, but admire Bob's determination to follow both seemingly divergent paths.
Good on yer Bob!

 

Laguna Beach Highschool class of 1966. Everybody surfed and rode dirt bikes. HotRods and gassers just seemed like part of the lifestyle. OCIR was just out Laguna Canyon to El Toro.

 

Very cool story. I have only taken up surfing the in the last 2 years, but have always done hot rodding. They seem to naturally go together, and I would encourage anyone, regardless of age, to give surfing a try. It has a very spiritual aspect to it that is hard to describe. Its when the wave comes and grabs you and just thrusts you forward. There is nothing like it!

 

Love this Post - 2 of my greatest loves covered here! In Australia in the 50's and 60's greasers and surfers were constantly at war my dad tells me but these days the 2 cultures seem to have alot more in common. Lots of californian shapers and pro surfers are into hot rods now. Mason who posted on here is one (didnt know he was a hamber.) Dano is another rodder who shape boards. Brian Bent from hotrod church. The Stopniks are into bobber Motorcycles even and are die hard surfers (look up cycle zombies!) Great Story

 

Thanks for the very cool story.

 

great story!