AFTERNOONS WITH SEVO
4-4-07
By Corky Carroll
Today I am sitting here at the dinning room table attempting to teach my wife, the muy bonita Karlita, how to play Scrabble. This is one of those little exercises in hilarity as she is Mexican and although her English is pretty good, way better than my Espanole; she has her own way of spelling words in English. So it is all but impossible to have to stick to correct spelling and any kind of dictionary use is useless. So we came up with our own way to play. Anything goes. Spanish, English, whatever. Of course this includes me being able to spell Spanish words they way I want just like the way she does English words. She gets “kar” and I get “torteaya.” And, just to make it more fun, slang and any kind of swear words or nasty words are useable too. It's totally wide-open scrabble. With the addition of a little way more than friendly wagering this has proved to be far more fun than I ever would have guessed.
All this reminded me of my old friend John Severson. John is the dude who originated SURFER magazine and turned it into the “Bible” of the surfing world during the 1960's. He also was a surf moviemaker and an extremely talented artist. Actually I think the magazine was originally a way to promote his surf movies but it turned out to be far more profitable than the moves ever were.
When the magazine started to take off, John found himself in a fairly affluent position and was able to purchase the farthest south front row lot when they first opened up Cypress Shore in San Clemente. This placed him smack in front of Cotton's Point, which was and is still my favorite surf spot on the California coast.
John designed and built a beautiful home on the bluff above the beach and could sit in his living room and watch the surf all day long. I remember that we were all in shock at the huge amount of money he put out for this. It was like seventy-five thousand dollars. That was a HUGE amount of money in the early 1960's.
Another good friend of mine built a house there too. Ralph Nichols. I used to date his daughter, Michelle, and that always made me nervous because even though Michelle was beautiful I didn't want to put my guest privileges in jeopardy. It was a hard situation and my being able to surf at Cotton's eventually won out over the possibility of amorous activities with the extremely sexy young Michelle.
On many an afternoon I would go down there in hopes of the normal wind dropping off and catching a good evening session at Cotton's. Most of the time, this involved waiting around for the wind to drop and being there at just the right moment. John Severson thought the same way as me and we would wind up checking out the waves at just about the same time everyday. At first we would just hang out on John's deck or down on the beach and chitchat or whatever just to pass the time. But then one day John casually asked, “Hey, you ever play Scrabble?”
I had played some Scrabble when I was a kid, didn't we all? So I said yeah, I played it a little bit. The next thing I knew we were sitting on the beach and John had this super deluxe Scrabble game set up on a little fold up table he had especially for this purpose. He had a rotating board and the latest and most comprehensive editions of Webster's Dictionary and a little cooler with drinks. I had died and gone to Scrabble heaven.
Naturally, as you can imagine, John was a master player. He knew all the words. And naturally, as you can imagine, my competitive spirit kicked in. After getting my butt kicked righteously the first few sessions I went on a mission to at least win a game from John. I actually started studying the Dictionary to learn bigger and higher scoring words. These afternoon sessions turned into extremely aggressive and competitive word-a-thons. I know that over one summer my vocabulary improved thousands of percents. Sometimes we would get so involved in the game we wouldn't even notice that the surf had gotten good and the sun would go down on us in the heat of a contested “word challenge.”
As I am thinking about this the muy bonita has just laid down “Chilaquiles” on a zillion word score. What have I done? I never could beat John either.
WHAT MAKES A LOCAL A LOCAL
The Wave ~ 4/4/07
By Corky Carroll
I always marvel at the extent of so-called “localism” that seems to go on these days. It's everywhere. Even down to every little narrow surf peak along the beach that might break in the same place more than four times a year. Remember when the barge was parked off Bolsa Chica dredging out the sand? It was only there a few months but there were actually “Barge” locals. A few weeks ago I was standing on the pier one very cold and windy afternoon. It was during the big kite festival and the muy bonita Karlita and I were watching the kites. There was some surf but it was freezing cold and very blown out. A guy I know came up to me and pointed at two kids out surfing. He said, “Remember when we were hardcore locals and would be out there?” I had to think about that one as I never really think of myself in those kinda terms these days.
I grew up in Surfside, about six miles north of the Pier. I started surfing in the mid 1950's and used to ride my bike down to the pier with my 47-pound balsawood board tied to a rack that I made with wheels off an old red radio flyer wagon. The first time I surfed the pier was in 1957.
I went to grade school in Seal Beach and eventually went to Huntington Beach High School and graduated in 1965. During the 1960's and 70's I won five overall United States Surfing Championships held at the Huntington Beach Pier. Also, won the Juniors once. In the 70's my boards were built in a factory over on 5th street.
I moved to south Orange County and spent ten years as Advertising Director for SURFER magazine. Also worked as a Tennis Pro and managed a car dealership for a while.
In 1990 I moved back to Huntington Beach and managed the Windansea Surf Shop for a number of years and then was co-manager, along with George Lambert, of the Longboard shop at Huntington Surf ' Sport. Along with my partner Rick Walker I opened the Corky Carroll Surf School in the early 1990's. This is where we did the filming for my Learn to Surf video. I got involved with Robert August designing boards. I also worked at Duke's on the pier as the house musician for the first 7 years that it was open.
In the early 2000's I served a couple of years on the Huntington Beach Visitors and Conference Bureau, getting a tad more upstanding than I ever thought of myself to be. And I became a realtor and worked for the “Greek” at Huntington Beach Realty.
I figure that in the 50 years that I have surfed in Huntington Beach I probably have ridden more waves here than just about any of the hottest of current locals under every known condition. At one time I would have been one of those two kids out there freezing but having a blast. But that time is not now. I was being a wuss standing on the pier with my baby and my coffee and being warm and content.
All that said, yes I remember being that hardcore. But things change.
For one thing I have been in search of warmer climates during our winter. And I really got tired of trying to compete for waves at my age. The good young guys are too good and too aggressive for me to be able to have as enjoyable an experience as I would like to have out on the southside where I like it best. And that is exactly the way it should be. I understand that and I respect them. It was the same way when I was one of those hot young kids at the pier. I didn't care at all what some dude had done in 1945. In 1965 it was my turf and he was just some fat dude taking up space. Well that's still the way it is. I'm just another old geezer in the way most days at the pier. I can accept that, it's just natural evolution. My only real advice for them is to enjoy it while they have it and maybe learn that a sense of humor is not a bad thing either.
I am really happy. I spend more time out of town as I do in, but I surf way more than I did when I was at the pier everyday. The hardcore locals are the ones that are here every single day. Yes, I am still in the water every single day. But it could be in any number of latitudes. My home address is Huntington Beach and this is and always will be hometown for me. If I retain any sort of local status it comes from seniority and tenure.
All that said, unless you have jumped off the end of the pier during a freezing cold winter storm to ride monster storm surf and ditched H.B.H.S. to catch a perfect south swell and have at least five scars from the pier and know exactly who “Chucker” and Chris “the Gremlin” Marsalles are then you might want to consider your own “local” status. Everything is relative and honestly we all should be thinking about our status as “locals” of this planet more than who has wave priority at some peak fifteen blocks north of the pier. There are bigger issues folks.