Surfs Up!! I loved surfin' and the people who surfed! Their music, cars, Woody Wagons, boards. Surfers partied!They were some of the best people I would meet in Southern California!
I won’t blah-blah about surfin' music. You're only gonna get what I’m givin' ya, it's all I know about this !! The rest of you SOTD writers are experts anyhoo! This spiel is as much about surfers as their music. S
urf music was played on the beach and in ballrooms. Don’t remember the names, Balboa, Huntington, this was before rock concerts. Surfin' had become a lifestyle that would become universal, wherever there was a beach!They wore their hair long, always in flops, they started a new style with the knee length swim shorts. Surfers were the first beach artist, they “airbrushed tees, setting up, painting and selling them on the beach, these Tees became a silkscreening industry.
Surfer's ideas and fashion were Hawaiian-style surf scenes, Skull’ and Bones and bikinied girls. The Beach Boys sang about “California Girls”. Surfers were being ripped off. Hippies would emulate surfers, all but their hygiene. “Straights” didn’t like surfers. They were treated as degenerates, coming in a close second as a group most hated! Other than Outlaw Bikers!I was a usually-broke Marine and stationed in Southern California. People that lived in Orange County treated us with disdain, I already knew what it was like to be unpopular.
One nice weekend, as most are in Southern California, a fellow Marine asked “Do ya wanna learn to surf?” Free, FFO! The U.S. Marines own a stretch of beach called Delmar Camp Pendleton. They will also let you check a surfboard out free. Off to Delmar and my lessons began.
The local surfers also liked to surf Delmar though the Marines had put it off limits. They used Delmar to practice amphibious warfare. No surfers or surfing allowed during these operations! Most weekends the beach was open.
Anyhoo, after a month of “Belly Boarding” it was time to “Walk the Board” to stand up. Standing on a surfboard requires the skill of a tight rope walker in a hurricane! I knew how to ski,I rode motorcycles, horses, these activities were nothing compared to surfing! Working at it every weekend for a month, I was finally able to ride that longboard!
The local surfers all cheered me on, having watched me ”wipe out” for the past month! They gathered around and gave me a surfers welcome, a jug of wine they kept buried on the beach. From that day on I surfed and partied with them. I introduced other Marines to my surfin buds.
A Marine friend bought a '55 Chevy Nomad from a surfer. The surfer was interested in an old Ford “Woody Wagon” which he happily purchased. He would later be drafted by the Marines and go to Vietnam with us. I’m happy to report he made it home!
Surfers didn’t like “the Beached Boys” or their music! They preferred Jan & Dean, Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Dick Dale and the Deltones, The Surfaris, Minnesota's own The Trashmen (and their hit “Surfin Bird”), The Rivieras from Indiana. In 1964 they had a hit called “California Sun”. Two band members joined the Marines before their song had become a hit! Like most Marines they went to Vietnam. That was the end of the Rivieras.
Surfin' music was easy to sing along with, with a 4/4 tempo. The songs were mostly telling stories like the Surfaris “Surfer Joe '' and who can’t sing along with ‘The Bird is the Word”. “Wipeout” was instrumental. Jan and Dean, Link Wray, Duane Eddy, most of these musicians surfed!
The British- John Mayall, Beatles, Stones and the Animals, so called “British Invasion” bands became as popular as Elvis and Bob Dylan. Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, put an end to surf music. Damn shame. My peers started taking themselves way too fuckin' serious, wannabes and hippies who protested the war, which was OK, who became yuppies, who after consuming too many drugs became Born Again’s, Who Became Right Wingers!They need Drugs!
These hypocrites are the assholes trying to run the world according to their Biblette Preacher Pimps!
Old surfers remained surfers, you can still find them in Del-Mar, Oceanside, Balboa, Hermosa and the other beaches. A couple tours in Vietnam, on one of my “In Country” R+Rs I was able to surf China Beach Danang!
Rotating Stateside I bought a ‘Tee’ from Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. He had airbrushed a caricature of a combat Marine- helmet, boots, and M-60-firing, ammo belt over his shoulders, Pancho Villa style. We few can brag, ”I surfed China Beach Vietnam”.
1975. I made a visit to Southern Calif, as was everything there were changes. The “Woody’s were gone, replaced by Chevy, Dodge and Ford vans/ The old surfers were still there surfin! I would rent a longboard to surf Oceanside, no can do! My legs wouldn’t bend at the knees anymore! I bodysurfed and had a ”BLAST” anyhoo!
That night I partied with some “Nam Vet’s”Former Marine’s Forever Surfer’s! they hadn’t changed! My Partyin was still good! Now ya know about my surfin, ain't cha glad to read an Old Mans Fun Times? Party On! “SFFS” Rat-a-Tat-Tat! Share and Enjoy!...
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