Modern Style Masters
Words and photos: Herbie Fletcher
High-performance surfing in the early ’60s was all about smooth and stylish longboarding. Standing on the nose and hanging ten, making it look effortless. Drop-knee turn under a small section to run back up to the tip and squat into a cheater five.
This was the time of the Pavilion on the pier in Huntington Beach, where small bands like Ike and Tina Turner, Dick Dale, and Stevie Wonder used to play while lowriders from Long Beach were cruising Coast Highway out in front. The outside world was being spoonfed the music of the Beach Boys, which they were led to believe was the anthem of the California surf culture. By the late ’60s, the
shortboard was allowing surfers to explore the inside of the tube while the sounds of Jimi Hendrix reverberated in their heads.
By the early ’70s, I had returned to California with my young family and needed to make a living. The waves were small and unexciting compared to the Hawaiian surf I was used to, so I opened up the doors of my surf shop in Dana Point with a new square-nose longboard for hanging ten. It carried the slogan “The Thrill is Back.”
The longboarder of today is a unique blend of the old and new, and it’s amazing to watch. From the North Shore to San Onofre and big waves to hot-dogging, anything goes, but style is everything!
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