My life is the ocean...the ocean is my life. - Robert Wally Waldemar memorial plaqueI've always been in awe of surfers. I am an avid ocean frolicker, body surfer and paddle boarder, but I have never been able to muster the courage to get on a surf board. But I do love to watch surfers, with their steely concentration and easy grace, as they wait for waves in quiet repose.
Photo: Hadley Meares
So when I arrived at Santa Cruz's iconic Steamer Lane Beach on a foggy morning, I expected to see dozens of weather beaten, wetsuit clad surfers in the water. Surprisingly, the cold crashing waves were empty, but surfer spirits were all around. They were in the playful carved faces and symbols etched into the rocky outcrops on the beach. They were represented by a statue of a young surfer and by plaques dedicated to historic surfers of days gone by. Most touchingly, they were memorialized colorfully on wooden planks and flower strewn benches, happy remembrances of men and women who spent their lives hanging ten in the turbulent Pacific Ocean.
The tale is almost biblical. According to most scholars, surfing was introduced to North America on July 19, 1885, when three young Hawaiian princes appeared on the busy beach at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz. There was the eldest, 17-year-old David Kaw nanakoa, handsome and strong. Next was the athletically gifted Jonah K hi Kalanianaole, known as Prince Cupid, who would become a congressman and beloved Hawaiian official. Bringing up the rear was 14-year-old Edward Keliiahonui, sickly and frail, who would die only a few years later.
The boys were studying at the strict Episcopalian Saint Matthews College, a military school in nearby San Mateo. But it was summer break, and they were spending an idyllic vacation in Santa Cruz, under the care of Antoinette Swan, a former employee of the Hawaiian royal family.
From left to right: Jonah K hi Kalanianaole, David Kaw nanakoa, and Edward Keliiahonui | Public Domain
That afternoon, all eyes were on the three teenage royals. Riding long, heavy planks -- weighing around 100 pounds -- of San Lorenzo redwood that had been cut at the nearby Grover Lumber Mill, they presented interesting exhibitions of surf-board swimming as practiced in their native islands. They had learned the royal sport of surfing as children in Hawaii, even though Christian missionaries had been attempting to stamp out the sport, which dated to around 1,000 A.D. Soon the princes were back in school, but the memories of their surfboard swimming were not forgotten.
In 1896, the Santa Cruz Surf reported, the boys who go in swimming at Seabright Beach use surfboards to ride the breakers, like the Hawaiians. A small surfing community developed in Santa Cruz, which was closely entwined with their Hawaiian counterparts. In 1915, Santa Cruz surfer Dorothy Becker was one of the first Americans to surf in Hawaii, when she rode the waves at Waikiki.
Surfing, however, did not really take off in Santa Cruz until the 1930s. Many attribute the boon in interest with the arrival of the legendary Duke Kahanamoku, who presented an unforgettable surfing demonstration at Santa Cruz in 1938. A group of local, adventurous youth soon formed the Santa Cruz Surfing Club, and began to venture into the waves at Cowell's Beach. According to historian Thomas Hickenbottom, the water that these self-taught surfers encountered was no laughing matter: Unlike Southern California with its mild climate, sandy points and warm water, surfing in Santa Cruz is an entirely different undertaking. Freezing offshore winds, numbing water, strong ocean currents, and a precipitous coastline all add up to an endeavor of deep concentration and dedication.
Photo: Hadley Meares
Not surpassingly, Harry Mayo, a member of SCSC, remembered that back then we had the waves to ourselves. The group was making up the rules as they went along. Mayo rode a plywood board that he made in shop class, while fellow SCSC member Burt Landess rode his grandmother's old pinewood ironing board, which was decorated with pictures of penguins standing on blocks of ice. According to Mayo:
A group of us started surfing in 1936, and started a formal surf club in 1938. We started by keeping our boards in a barn behind Buster Stewards house about one block up Bay Avenue from West Cliff Drive. In 1938, the Junior Chamber of Commerce helped us to build a board-house. We kept our boards right down there on the beach . The closest thing to a wetsuit is what Buster Steward and another guy Bill Grace used to wear. They were old sweaters with the arms cut off. I didnt like to wear them. They got them at the Salvation Army and Goodwill and cut the sleeves off and wore them like a vest In our day, we surfed Cowell's, the River mouth, and Pleasure Point. We didnt surf too much at Steamer Lane because if you lost your board it would go into the rocks. There were some guys surfing out there but it wasnt like it is now. There were no leashes; the size and weight of the boards we used would have torn your leg off.
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After World War II, surfing's popularity increased greatly. Surfing clubs sprang up all over Santa Cruz, with different groups claiming different stretches of beach. Materials made and perfected during the war, like fiberglass, revolutionized board production, making boards much more lightweight and pliable. Legendary Santa Cruz resident Jack O'Neill is often credited with the invention of the wetsuit, which made surfing in cold water much safer. These innovations meant that the art of surfing was able to flourish, as Santa Cruz surfers were able to stay in the water longer, perform more tricks, and ride bigger waves on their lighter boards. Locals even began to tackle the treacherous breaks at Steamer Lane, which was fittingly named by a local surf
