SO YA WANNA BE FAMOUS 7-25-07
By Corky Carroll

This week the big surfing dance and show is going on at the Huntington Beach Pier and all the biggies from all over the world are there.  This is the major spotlight for surfing here in the United States.  Today I was walking down Main Street on the way to watch some of the surfing action when I overheard two of the younger competitors talking.  One was saying “What’s the deal with Kelly Slater anyway?  He should get out of the way and give somebody else a shot.  What’s he trying to prove?”

This sort of surprised me.  What’s up with this stupid kid?  Slater has not only set the bar incredibly high already but he could be on the verge of ten World titles.  And that is something that might not, and probably won’t be, ever done again.  Why NOT?  

This little incident just reminded me how being famous can be very good or very bad.  People don’t realize what it is unless they have been there.  There is always somebody that wants to knock ya down for whatever reason.  

When I was a young and cocky up and coming surf rat back in the early 1960’s I used to go surfing with Phil Edwards now and then.  Phil was pretty much recognized as the top surfer in the world at that time.   One morning he and I were headed down to surf at Cotton’s Point and I could tell he was in a sort of foul mood.  When I asked him what was bothering him he looked at me and said, “You want to be a famous surfer don’t you?” 

This sort of took me back a little because it was not a question I expected from the most famous surfer on the planet at the time.  I didn’t know what to say so I tried to act cool about it.  “Well, I just wanna get better that’s all.”  That was such a lie.  Yes, I wanted to be famous.  I wanted to make a living surfing and be the best.   Being the best in reality is very subjective, but Kelly Slater has a strong claim on that one today.  

Phil told me to be careful what I wished for because people could be really ugly.  I had no idea what he was talking about at the time.  But I certainly found out later.  When you are young and coming up it seems everyone is on your side and rooting for you.  But when you are at the top and stay there for a while it can not be that way anymore.   The worst part is that you will get people that hate your guts that you have never met or had any sort of contact with at all.  The more successful you are the more jealous some people get.

I remember a couple times going surfing somewhere new and having somebody I have never seen before tell me that I wasn’t so hot and his buddy, the local hot guy, was worlds better than me.  And all I wanted to do was catch a few waves and not compete with anybody.  Surfing competition is a way to make a career out of it and make a living.  It has very little to do with everyday going out and catching waves and having fun.   Phil was right, people can be ugly.  But it did surprise me to hear this kid badmouthing Kelly Slater.  Kelly is a good guy and somebody to respect.  Especially by some young up and comer.   But that is just the way it goes in life I guess.

So after watching some surfing I came back to the trusty laptop and was thinking about what to write for today’s column.  I checked my email first though.  I had to laugh.  I got an email from some dude I don’t know and have never met.  It read, “You look so fat and old in that new commercial you are doing on TV it is scary.”  And the guy had under his name that he was some exec in some company somewhere.  Geeze, I have been fat and old for years, dude.  This is hardly a bulletin to me.  But I can rejoice in the fact that this fat old dude is surfing everyday while that smartass is working in some office building.  Just goes to show ya that there is always somebody out there with something cruel to say.  It’s part of the deal.

 

FAME DAYS AND A GOODBYE

The Wave ~ 7-25-07
By Corky Carroll

This week is huge as far as the surfing world goes in Huntington Beach. We have inductions into both the Walk of Fame and the Surfers Hall of Fame. 

But before I talk about that I have the sad job of reporting that we lost one of the all time great local surfers.  Rocky Freeman has passed away leaving behind more than a half a century of great surfing and great adventures.  I asked his daughter Joy to write something about Rocky and the following are her words.

‘My dad was born on Feb. 19, 1929 as Roderick Howard Freeman.  He was adopted in Marysville, up by Sacramento, by Alice and Laverne Freeman, who were fruit farmers up there.  Laverne died in a tragic car accident when Rocky was three, so Alice moved back down to Huntington Beach where her sister lived.  She had the house on the farm moved onto the property she owned on 6th St. He had no brothers or sisters. 

Rocky gave Alice a lot of trouble in his teen years and quit high school and joined the navy with a couple buddies.  He wasn't even eighteen yet and still pulled it off.  He learned early on that he could make his own rules.  Sometimes it worked out.

After returning from the Navy, he joined the lifeguard department in HB in the mid 40's to early 50's.  I was born in 1952, and my brother Jon was born in 1955.  We lived on 9th St. then.  We moved to Newport Beach in 1957, where we lived near Horace Ensign Middle School.  He began working for the Harbor Department in Newport and became Captain, running the Sea Watch for many years.  He was famous for his daring rescues and our dog Bronco (a Boxer) was the mascot for the Harbor Department and went to work everyday with him.  There are numerous hysterical Bronco stories as well, and he was a famous as my dad.  He held down 3 jobs.  Worked for Hobie in Dana Pt.  My mom would drop him off for the weekend and dad would sleep down there, shaping and glassing boards.  One time he was so saturated with fumes, he stepped outside to have a cig and had a flame out when he lit it.  I remember when we would go pick him up and we would go to Killer Dana and play while the guys surfed.  We would also go to Salt Creek too, where I learned to love surfing.  Good memories.  Also, he worked for the Chart House when Joey Cabell opened it.  Dad made all the wooden paddle menus and painted each one by hand. Unbelievable!  He did all this to fund his love for motorcycle riding w/ the boys.  He participated in the first Baja 500's and he and friends paved the trail to Mike's Sky Ranch in Murietta and there are crazy stories to go along with that.

My dad was a rebel, so in the late 60's he quit the Harbor Department because he didn't want to cut off his handlebar mustache and cut his hair.  He got drunk and stole the lifeguard boat and they had to chase him down.  Ron Johnson jumped aboard threw him in the water and told Rocky, "Swim in Rocky, you’re drunk!"   

This unraveled his marriage in 1972.  I had moved to Maui after high school.  They had to sell the house in Newport.  My mom took her share and bought a condo in Costa Mesa, and dad went to Tahiti.  Alice died in 1975, so mom and dad had to get together to sort things out.  Dad wasn't drinking then (did enough of that on Moorea), they moved back into the old house.  He worked for Amsoil there in HB as a maintenance guy.  My mom and dad bought some property in Kona (where I lived with my husband Steve) and dad left my mom to move in with me and built a house on the property in 1979.  Mom and dad went separate ways again and my mom bought my dad out of the 6th St. house.  Dad began working on several boats in Kona and fishing for Marlin.  He worked on the Jun Ken Po that caught a 1,002 lb Blue Marlin.  He became as famous on the Big Island as he was here.  Gained respect for his daring gaffs of huge fish, once being yanked overboard on my husbands boat, the Mona H, a 50ft Sampan, when he grabbed leader on a giant Ahi tuna.  In 1995 my husband and I moved back to Laguna Beach, where he is from, and dad followed after that running out of options in Kona.  I think his health was failing then and he knew he needed to get help.  So in 1998, he had to have his voice box removed.  I wish we could have gotten more stories out of him before that.  He was too stubborn and vain to use the speaker thing one uses to make their voice be heard.  So for 10 years we played charades and he wrote notes.  He lived the last 3 years in a retirement home on Florida St. in HB. In January he was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He didn't go quietly, even though he couldn't make a noise.  He was a very strong in will as in body.  He wasn't ready to go and had more to say and do, but after all that booze, cigarettes, teak dust, foam, resin, acetone, and abalone shell dust (he made lures on the side), his lungs couldn't take it anymore.”  

I will never forget paddling out on the north side of the pier and watching Rocky Freeman come screaming down a huge winter wave without a wetsuit or leash on.  It was January and the water was in the 40’s.  He will be missed by all of us in the surfing community.  He also will be among “the boys of 55” being inducted into the Walk of Fame on Thursday morning at 11 A.M.  The inductions are in front of Jack’s Surf Shop.

On Friday an all-star cast will be on hand for the Surfing Hall of Fame honors to be held in front of Huntington Surf ‘n Sport.  This years inductees are Al Merrick, Martin Potter, Bruce Irons and Sofia Mulanovich.   Scheduled to speak are Shaun Tomson, Lisa Andersen and Richard Woolcott.  And yes, I will be there to M.C. yet another year.   Be there or be square.