Five Provocative Thinkers on the Art and Science of Wave Riding

By Scott Hulet

Since Volume 1, Issue 1, The Surfer’s Journal has explored the farthest frontiers of the experience. Along with pioneering travel, surprising profiles, and vivid history, our readers have become intimate with our most Avant Garde tribal members. All of them are lifelong wave riders. While we surely appreciate virtuoso surfing performances from the world’s best, we give equal credence to the creatively gifted.

This first stab at pure digital delivery is a gift to you, the subscriber. Culled from our rather vast archive (available, as you might already know, as part of your suite of subscriber benefits), this first TSJ E-Book spotlights some fellows that only the surfing life could have possibly birthed. Our realm is rife with artists, designers, thinkers, and inventors. The five gathered here are beyond emblematic—they’re archetypal.

When TSJ launched 20 years back, Tom Morey was on the short list for inclusion in the premier issue. You could call him a blend of Bucky Fuller, N.G. Herreshoff, and Max Roach (Tom’s an accomplished jazz drummer), but that would be a disservice. Morey is a one-off. One of the very best at Malibu when that really meant something, Tom managed to pair beach life with academia, earning an engineering degree from USC. Surf inventions and provocative board designs ensued. Soon enough, the Boogie Board was unleashed on an unsuspecting public, becoming the most widespread and democratic way for the world to go surfing.

The piece included in this volume—titled “Bazooka”—reads like the title, with history’s exhaust fueling forward propulsion. Morey riffs on the future of surfing, constantly returning to the benefits of non-parochial thinking and the dangers of hype. No one’s Pollyanna, Tom derides the spectacle of a modern surf contest as, “kinda like vomit or some type of fungus.” But don’t read that as bitterness on his part. He has higher goals for the surfing species: “A few people will start [surfing]…not for reputation or gain. And these precious souls will help revolutionize the thinking of man."

Craig Stecyk made his TSJ debut in the second issue, but was a decades-long colleague of publisher Steve Pezman. A fine artist, writer, and photographer, Craig’s roots trace back to Santa Monica in the 1960s, where he caroused with the likes of Dale Velzy and Miki Dora. Constantly evolving but always his own man, Stecyk thrives in the frontera between historical veracity and modern phenomena. Quite simply, he has forgotten more about surf culture than any young surf journalist could ever hope to learn. He knows where the bones are buried, and how to avoid the poison oak that guards them.

In “Ghost Dance,” Stecyk investigates guerilla bicycles suitable for Point Conception wave poaching; the nuclear realities of San Onofre; the connection between a certain Bush Oil Company and the demise of Stanley’s Dinners; the meaning of eclipse in Hawaii; Pete Peterson’s legacy, and the strange arc of Los Angeles’ notorious Samoan street gang, the Boo Yaa Tribe. Craig became a regular contributor to the Journal, and remains one of our most valued operatives.

Derek Hynd germinated as a rocking schoolboy division ripper from Sydney, Australia’s arch-competitive Newport Plus surf club. Armed with a quiver from Terry Fitzgerald, he attacked the nascent IPS pro tour, burning his way into the top five. Counter-intuitively, a horrific mid-heat surfing accident claimed one of his eyeballs but sharpened his focus and resolve. He has been, by turns, a coach, a marketing director, a journalist, and a hugely experimental surfer who gets better with each passing year. Another regular Australian contributor, Andrew Kidman, spent a period of time with Derek, and knew exactly where to steer the conversation to yield a broad and riveting interview.

In a look at two legendary California inventor/designers, longtime TSJ writer Chris Ahrens draws portraits of Carl Ekstrom and Stanley Pleskunas. Carl’s surf provenance is unimpeachable. Early WindanSea surfer, shaper, laminator, colorist, fin man, furniture designer, Andy Warhol’s surfboard consultant, artificial wave co-inventor, vocal proponent of asymmetrics… Ekstrom’s interests are catholic and his curiosity unquenchable. Ahrens’ catalogs his accomplishments—and hints at where he’s going—in this inside view.

Stanley Pleskunas takes surfboards seriously. Hardly a household name, you won’t find him in the Encyclopedia of Surfing. Quiet and hardcore, such specious motes of fame are lost on him anyway. He is real, he is deep, and he does what he does out of self-determination and passion. His C.V. includes the invention of tubular battens for sailboards, two-into-one concave, power rasps, and surfboard-specific calipers.

It’s our hope that these e-books become stand-alone documents you can store on your laptop or device before a trip. With a handful of them loaded, you’d have a wealth of intelligent, stoking brain food on hand for the inevitable down time.

Enjoy this first collection.