TODAYS COLUMN IN THE OC REGISTER BEFORE THE FREEWAY PART 12 By Corky Carroll Once again, continuing on with my series on life in the surf scene here in Orange County in the years I was growing up before they connected the coastal communities of North and South County with the freeways and the route of choice, and necessity, was Pacific Coast Highway. This would be mid 1950’s into mid 1960’s. Moving up the OC coastline from last weeks stop in “Middle County,” today we are gonna take a look at Newport Beach. This is one of my favorite beach towns on the globe and was the home of some of the top surfers anywhere during the pre freeway years. The lineup included a dude named Mike Marshall who became a real icon in Orange County surfing, not only as a top surfer but also as a great surfboard shaper and craftsmen. “Big Red” was also one of the real cool people in surfing and seemed to be everybody’s pal. Along with Mike there was probably the best unknown surfer, to the public anyway, of all time. The legendary Chris Marseilles. I have talked about this dude many times here before so I won’t go into great detail in this story. But honestly, this guy was easily the hottest young talent on the California coast in the early 1960’s. Along with Mike and Chris there were the likes of young Herbie Torrens, Bob Limacher, Denny “River Rat” Waller, George Weaver, Pete “the Fabulous Flame” Sellas and a whole bunch more. The town was just packed full of great surfers in those days. Almost anytime there was surf the action in the water was a real show. The waves in Newport are beach break. There are a number of sand bars between the Pier at the south and the River Jetties to the north. The main spot and social hangout in town is called “Blackies.” This is named after the pub of the same name that sits right there in the same parking lot that you park to surf. In the early years the local surf club was the Newport Beach Surfing Association and at one time you needed to have a surfing permit attached to your board to surf there. You had to live in town to get a permit. That was a tad later than the period I am talking about though. The NBSA was a strong contender in the club surfing events up and down the coast and matched up well with even the super clubs such as the Windansea Surf Club from San Diego and the Long Beach Surf Club. The surfboard guru in town at the time was Joe Quigg. Joe was one of the great surfboard builders of that time period and he was also the mentor of Mike Marshall. Even today a Quigg in mint condition will sell for many thousands of dollars at one of the vintage surfboard auctions. A cool thing about Newport Beach is that with the bend in the coast it will have surf most of the year. The spots near the pier, such as Blackies, work well in the winter while the spots farther to the north, all the streets are numbered and each street is it’s own surf spot, work best in the summer on south swells. One of the more memorable moments I have of surfing in Newport Beach came one afternoon at Blackies with a nice head high swell running. Both David Nuuhiwa and I had showed up to catch the action and were having a great session. This was in the longboard days and noseriding was the big thing. David was the best noserider of the era, no question about that. But I was ok at it too and we were sort of going head to head in the long lefts coming off the pier. I was inside by the beach, having just ridden a wave, when I saw David tuck into a nice hollow little wall. He had one foot over the nose and got nicely covered by the wave. All of a sudden he slid the fin out and came out of the curl with the fin in the front. At that time this move was not seen much, if at all, and was really spectacular. The whole beach roared in unison. I just stood there with my jaw dropped and started clapping in appreciation. Yeah, I was seething in jealousy. But it was just so good I could not help but give him the nod. We were heavy rivals in those days but always great pals at the same time. This was just one of a zillion love/hate moments in our, what was then, extremely competitive surfing relationship.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:41:13 +0000
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