Dana Point Surfing Legends
Many surfing legends lived, worked, and surfed in Dana Point. Brief descriptions of some of these men and women follow in alphabetical order:
Drummond, Ron: learned to surf as a kid on his mother’s ironing board; “his creativity in ‘shooting the curl’ has been a legend of Capistrano Bay for several decades and several generations”; “one of California’s champion water sportsmen, he went on winning gold medals in his 70s”; last of two surfers to surf Killer Dana prior to the harbor.1
Edwards, Phil “Guayule Kid”: best surfer in the world in the early Sixties, according to Surfer magazine readers and others2,3; first (filmed) person to ever ride Banzai Pipeline in Dec 61’; shaped surfboards and worked on Hobie Cats for Hobie; starring roles in surfing movies; cover of Sports Illustrated.4
Harrison, Lorrin “Whitey”: one of California’s foundational all-around watermen5; one of the first and best California surfers; 1939 Pacific Coast (national) Champion Surfer; made surfboards; originator of the Dana Outrigger Canoe Club; one of the first producers of fiberglass outrigger racing boats.
Hoffman, Joyce: dominated women’s surfing in the sixties; after winning the 1965 U.S. Surfboard Championships, she was four-time world champion 1964-67 and was honored as one of the original eight inductees into the International Surfing Hall of Fame; one of the first internationally recognized female surfers6; daughter of Walter Hoffman.
Hoffman, Phil “Flippy”: called Killer Dana “home” and when not surfing, spent his time lobstering, fishing, and abalone diving; among the first California surf figures to ride the Hawaii’s big waves in early ‘50s; has one of the largest collection of historically significant surfboards; provides fabrics to the surfing industry; lives on Beach Road.
Munoz, Mickey “Mongoose”: pioneer big wave rider and surfboard designer; “invented a lot of the stock poses we used in those days, like Teléfono, Quasimodo, El Spontanéo. They were sort of like compulsory exercises in gymnastics — every surfer had to master them in order to prove he’d reached a minimum level of skill;”7 lives in “Capo Beach”.
[1] Local historian, Doris Walker, in her book about Dana Point, Home Port for Romance
[2] http://www.surfline.com/surfaz/edwards_phil.cfm
[3] http://starbulletin.com/97/04/15/features/story2.html
[4] http://www.surfline.com/surfaz/edwards_phil.cfm, Jason Borte
[5] http://www.surfingheritage.com/reg30.html
[6] http://www.geocities.com/noale1/womensurf.html
[7] per Mike Doyle, http://www.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/lsc202.shtml, from Malcolm Gault-Williams