"If we get up that hill ahead and down the other side without being stopped, I'm happy," Jeff says. We are on the road to Playas de Tijuana, the stretch where the border fence acts …
September 2, 1999
Surf Diego
Guide to Baja's best surf spots
Killer Surf Websites
The jagged blue line’s surges and plunges read like the electrocardiogram of a manic patient. But the line tells an innocuous story. It’s the wave report for San Diego County as described by the “swell …
October 15, 1998
San Diego surf glossary — based on Trevor Cralle's Surfin’ary
A. AAAAHOOO! The first term found in a book on “surfspeak." is reported as the sound made by a surfer when up and riding a wave, when watching another surfer catch a hot ride, or …
January 23, 1997
Coronado's surfer Marty Horvath thrashed in Hawaii, finds God
And Jesus answered and spoke unto them in parables. — Matthew 22:1 Some pretty radical things happened my senior year of high school, beginning with my dad dying of a heart attack. My dad was …
March 3, 1994
Mike Doyle and Catalina, David Eggers and Gotcha, Chris Gage and Beach Towne, Pat Daly and Picante, Corky Carroll and Lite Beer
The commercialization of surfing started out innocently enough. The way ex-world-champion surfer Mike Doyle recalls it, it began in the summer of 1966, with the Catalina Swimwear promo tour. Before the mid-Sixties, Catalina Swimwear had …
October 20, 1988
All of the La Jolla hotshots were there —Tim Lynch. Rusty Priesendorfer. Reed and Joel Wayne, Skip Frye — except one
Do you know what it is to be an old surfer? To hustle waves from kids who weren't even born when you first learned how to catch a wave? To pull out all stops beneath …
December 4, 1986
Mike Doyle starts at the North Shore and finds Pat Curren's perfect board design
In the spring of 1960, a tall skinny kid with sun-bleached hair, a nose his body hadn't yet grown into, and a tan that could only have come from Hawaii, parked his ’47 woody (nicknamed …
March 15, 1984
Skip Frye Is Still Stoked
If a surfer wants a medium short board of six to seven feet, or an old fashioned board of eight feet or longer, and he wants Skip Frye to shape it for him, Frye will …
April 14, 1983
San Diego's part in the early days of surf films
There are certain Friday nights at Encinitas's La Paloma Theater when the crowd awaiting the 9:00 p.m. show is a virtual sea of blond heads. Blond heads standing in line, blond heads looking in shop …
November 6, 1980
Boogie boards got their start in Carlsbad
For the last seven weeks the Morey Boogie Board Division of the Kransco manufacturing company has occupied a squarish tan building in one of Oceanside's new industrial parks, a mile or two east on the …
August 24, 1978
A bump on the head could kill Chris O'Rourke
Here at Windansea Beach in La Jolla, surfers prefer the Vespa motor scooter for solo transportation. This is a low, fat motorcycle that you'd be crazy to take for a long fast ride. Your Vespa …
August 3, 1978
Steve Mathias collects huge planks Duke Kahanamoku, Tom Blake, Joe Quigg used to ride
Steve Mathias decorates his house with surfboards the way you or I might decorate our houses with furniture, paintings, or plants. They line his driveway, border his shrubs, greet you at the front door. Rotting …
January 19, 1978
Surfers versus Oceanside Harbor
There's a classic confrontation in Oceanside these days that should be interesting to watch in the months to come. It involves the city council, Camp Pendleton, the Western Surfing Association, the Army Corps of Engineers, …
March 3, 1977