THE SURFACING OF AL DUKES
By Corky Carroll
I did a column just before Christmas about a dinner I had with a dude named Al Dukes in Hawaii many years ago. Al was a well-known big wave rider and surfboard shaper during the 1960’s and 70’s and then sort of slipped out of view. I got the following email from another surf dude I know named Don Howarth. It updates the saga of the legendary Albert Dukes. I love this story.
“Your column today about Christmas dinner at Al Duke’s house in Pupukea Heights really took me back.
Al and I were good friends in the late sixties. We commuted and worked as waiters together at a chophouse in Niu Valley called “The Sty” and later as bartenders, at a place in Wahiawa called “Alfred’s Great Steaks”. Of course, we surfed together too. At the time I was living with my ex-wife in the old military housing on Ke Iki road and Al had just finished building the A frame up in the Heights. Was that view from Al’s lanai and front room completely insane, or what! I can only imagine what that A frame and the property must be worth today. I even helped Al put in the lawn there, some of which involved us going and digging up a couple hundred pounds of chicken s*&% from inside the coops at the chicken farm in Haleiwa, now there was an adventure. Al’s wife (at that time) was Mary McRay Dukes who was becoming quite a noted local artist.
I do remember Johnny Fain staying at Al’s house back then and being introduced to him by Al. I think they were old surf buddies from either Malibu, or the South Bay. Dukes had connections all over the place. Around that same time, I recall that the guys who made up the duo “Brewer and Shipley” of “One Toke Over the Line” fame also stayed at Al’s place for a bit. Al loved big waves and was also good friends with Felipe Pomar.
I also “fondly” remember that chess set in Al’s front room. You know, I think Al taught me to play the game on that very same table. He also taught me the basics of shaping and gave me free reign to use his tools and the shaping room behind his carport.
Anyhow, I got divorced and left Hawaii in mid 1972 and moved to New York City in search of fame and fortune. In the mid 1980s I got a promotion and transfer at work, so my second wife and me and, by now family, moved to Huntington Beach and have been here ever since.
I had completely lost touch with Al after leaving Hawaii in 1972. Sometime around 1992, or ‘93 (I really can’t remember exactly) my family and I were sitting in the Denny’s at Brookhurst and Adams having dinner. In the booth behind us are an Asian family, mother, father and a twenty’ish daughter. They are having a very serious (but not so quiet, especially for Asians) conversation about the guy the daughter was planning to marry. Clearly mom and dad didn’t approve of this dude. Something to do with age difference, the fact that he was non-Asian, he didn’t seem to have a “regular job”, he didn’t go to college, he was a surfer, etc, etc. It was kind of a take your pick from column A, or column B, Chinese restaurant menu of issues spewing forth from good old mom and dad about why their darling daughter should be running from this dude. Making it even worse on the daughter is that we figure out that the prospective groom is about to arrive for his first meeting with this happy family.
About then, I looked up as a familiar looking face goes cruising by. He sits down at the Asian’s booth and introduces himself as “Albert Dukes”. In a flash, I put it all together and almost choke on my burger right there on the spot. Yep, Al’s the prospective new son in-law. So we hang and as slowly as we can, finish our meal, while raptly listening as the story unfolds behind us. Al explains he’s in the import business moving tropical fish and assorted hand made items out of Costa Rica to So Cal. When asked directly, he also tells dad that he’s 40 years old. Now, I know for a fact that Al is at least 5 years older than me and at that time I was probably just about 45, so that made Al at least 50 then. Like I said, this girl is maybe 21, or 22 max. Additionally that makes Al about 5 years older than the girl’s father as well. So as you might imagine, this quickly became a pretty challenging interview for Al. In the end, the girl’s parents were having none of it and dragged their now sobbing daughter out of the restaurant, leaving Al behind. He walked over and we had a short conversation and agreed to meet and catch up the following weekend. Al showed up at my house on an ancient bicycle, as his VW van was down for repairs. He told us he was just out of the hospital, having been there for a severely damaged shoulder and upper back. He was staying on for a bit in HB with a buddy from his surf club until he finished his treatments with the doctors. Seems he had been living in Costa Rica and one night, while less than sober and showing off for some stewardesses, he did a swan dive from a bridge over a river, into, as Al described it, “10 meters of air and 1 meter of water that covered a 5-meter high pile of clam shells on the river bottom”. Turns out that Al had picked the very spot to dive into that the local fishermen dumped their clam shells. He managed to tape himself up and drove his old VW van from Costa Rica to HB, where he turned himself in to the hospital.
We caught up on the intervening 20 years from the early 70s to the early 90s. Al had gotten divorced from Mary soon after I left Hawaii in ’72 and lost the house in the divorce. He wound up married to a Puerto Rican woman and lived in New York City for a while until they divorced. He came back to So Cal where I believe he married and divorced yet again and then moved to Costa Rica, where it was still very cheap to live and surf. He was there until he hurt himself. When we hooked up, he was working on one of the oil islands off HB as a cook and was definitely planning to marry the Asian girl, regardless of her parent’s opinion and then hopefully move back to Hawaii.
After a great get together, Al peddled off into the sunset that afternoon and I haven’t seen or heard from him since.
Al is a great guy and was a good friend. I’m still surfing and keep one eye out for him in the lineup, because you just never know.”
NOSE DIVING
By Corky Carroll
This morning I was giving a surfing lesson to a pretty little girl who was maybe 13 years old. I was explaining about catching waves and giving her tips on safety and how to avoid getting hurt. One of the problems that many beginners have is catching the waves. Most of them try to stand up before they actually catch the wave. In fact almost all of them. So I was telling this girl to make sure that she was actually in the wave before she stood up.
One of the main problems that goes along with that is that when someone either stands up too early, or is not totally confident in the take off, the nose of the board wants to go under the water and it is one of the most dangerous things in surfing.
When the nose goes under the person usually falls off the front and the board goes flying into the air. More bad injuries occur from this than from probably anything else with beginners learning how to catch waves. We call it “pearling.” This came from way back in maybe the nineteen twenties or so when the dudes trying to ride the big heavy wooden boards would bury the nose. They originally called it “pearl diving.” It later got shortened to just “pearling.” The common thing that happens is that the person falls off the front and immediately wants to get his or her head above the water. This is a bad thing. When your board is flying around in the air right above your head I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that the last thing you want in it’s path is your exposed head. You want to stay underwater a little while and wait for the thing to come down. And you want to cover your face and head with your arms and hands to protect yourself in the case the board comes down nose or tail first and penetrates the water. It can still hit you even if you are underwater. And when you do come up you want to come up hands first. NEVER EVER, EVER, EVER HEAD FIRST. This is one of the most important safety tips that I can give to people. Cover your head with you fall off. Come up hands first not head first.
Having the nose go under is really common with beginners. Sometimes they wait too long to stand up and get hung up at the top of the wave and then suddenly have to drop straight down the face. That is an almost certain “pearl.” Or they stand up too soon and are not really into the wave good enough yet. That causes the exact same situation. They hang at the top and either fade over the back of the wave or take that straight down drop into the “pearly gates.” Either way it is not a good thing to have happen to you.
Another common cause of burying the nose is being up too far on the board as you are paddling into the wave. When you are a beginner there are really two different places to lie on the board. One is in the “in perfect trim” position for paddling out. This is where the board has the least amount of drag. If you are too far back the nose goes into the air and you push water. If you are too far forward the nose will dig into the water. Perfect trim is where the nose is just out of the water and you are pushing the least amount of water. When you get good at surfing this is always your paddle position. But when you are a beginner you need to be just slightly farther back when you are trying to catch the wave. This helps eliminate burying the nose. The dreaded “pearl dive.”
So anyway, there I am explaining all these little “pearls” of wisdom to this cute little girl who is about to try to surf for her first time. And she is just looking at me and nodding and not saying much. Then, just as I finish the whole safety speech and am telling her all about the perils of having her nose go under and all that she gets this sort of funny quizzical look on her face.
“Soooooo,” she says. “Is my nose going to be safe?”
I am sort of confused over that comment. “What do you mean, the nose of the board?” I ask.
“No silly, my nose. I just had it done.”
So I am standing there in amazement that this little 13-year-old cutie has had a nose job. Call me old fashioned. But isn’t that a little bit young to start having plastic surgery? I mean yes, this is the O.C. But come on.
Not wanting to sound like the old geezer that I am I casually replied, “Oh yeah, plenty safe. And when you get done surfing you can have a pearl put in it.”
And she says, “Wow man, great idea.”