Posts by Mike Purpus
Steve Wilkings: the artful eye
In 1964, Steve Wilkings became a member of Bay Cities Surf Club. He was a husky, smooth surfing regular footer whose family had just moved 7th and The Strand in Hermosa Beach. For a high school graduation present, his parents bought him a Honeywell Pentax 35 mm with a 400mm lens and his father converted…
Read MoreHudson Ritchie takes the longboard route
Thirteen-year-old Hudson Ritchie is skateboarding past my apartment. The barefoot grommet looks cool in his faded blue Levi’s and white T-shirt. His long blond hair, which usually hangs halfway down his back is now blowing in the wind behind him. He slows down a bit to say hi and then sails past me, showing off…
Read MorePipeline: A new generation of Luhrsens Breaks in at the Breakwater
Brothers James, Jude, Joey, George, and Mike Luhrsen have patrolled the line-up at the Redondo Beach Breakwater for over 20 years. I call them the Breakwater Hui. “I don’t care what you call us,” Mike Luhrsen said. “We are a family that surfs the Breakwater with pride.” The Breakwater locals go back before wetsuits to…
Read MoreTominaga wins shortboard, and longboard at high school contest
The South Bay Surf League All Star Individual Championships took place Saturday under grey skies and glassy, low-tide, 3-foot walls on the south side of the Hermosa Beach Pier. The ocean was so smooth and the sky so grey that it was hard to see where the sky ended and the ocean began. League director…
Read MoreBarrelin’ Ahead: Mira Costa’s Noah Collins commands respect in his first South Bay Surf League season [PHOTOS]
Everyone involved with the South Bay High School Surf League is talking about Noah Collins. They say the Mira Costa High freshman is better than Costa alum Dayton Silva, currently the number one ranked college surfer in the NSSA. He’s being compared to Palos Verdes High alum Alex Gray, an alternate to this year’s Quiksilver…
Read MoreMira Costa surf team tops Palos Verdes [PHOTOS]
[scrollGallery id=287]PHOTOS BY BRAD JACOBSON (CivicCouch.com) South Bay Surf League director John Joseph was starting to sweat halfway through the surf league season. Week after week, contests needed to be postponed because of fog, strong winds, rain, storm drain runoff or dead flat conditions. Last week the surf finally started to come up so John…
Read MorePipeline: Redondo’s Beaty wins shortboard and longboard divisions
A few weeks ago the South Bay High School Surf League held its Kick off Classic so the coaches could get an idea of how their surfers will fare in league contest. A lot of surfers rip everyday but can’t hold up under contest pressure situations. Last weekend the best surfers competed for their high…
Read MoreSouth Bay Surf League Kick Off Classic II
It was 6:30 morning on Saturday October 22 when South Bay High School Surf League Director John Joseph walked out on the Hermosa Beach Pier to check the waves for the short board event of The Kick-Off Surfing Classic. The fog was thick like a scary werewolf movie set in the eerie bogs ofEngland. John…
Read MoreSouth Bay Surf League kick-off at Torrance Beach
Each year at this time, the South Bay High School Surf League Kick-Off Classic is held to give coaches and their surfers a chance to size up the competition. This year’s contest for the girls’ shortboard and boys’ longboard and body board division was held Saturday, October 15 at Torrance Beach in fun, three-foot, hollow…
Read MoreSouth Bay Surf Series schedule announced by South Bay Boardriders Club
The South Bay Boardriders Club has announced the schedule for its 2011-12 South Bay Surf Series. The contests are open to non club members: Sunday December 4, El Porto, sponsored by Becker/Billabong. Saturday, January 21, 26th St., Manhattan, sponsored by E.T. Surf. Saturday, Feb. 18, el Porto, sponsored by Dive N’ Surf. Saturday, March 17,…
Read MoreSouth Bay High School Surf League Kick-Off Classic
Each year at this time, the South Bay High School Surf League Kick-Off Classic is held to give coaches and their surfers a chance to size up the competition. This year’s contest for the girls’ shortboard and boys’ longboard and body board division was held on Saturday at Torrance Beach in fun, three-foot, hollow peaks.…
Read MorePurpus High School Assembly Film to Screen at RUHS
Friday, September 23, Mike Purpus will narrate his original 1960’s High School Assembly film at the Redondo Union High School Auditorium. Along with Purpus, the film show rare footage of Miki Dora, David Nuuhiwa, Gerry Lopez, Sahun Tomson and other top surfers of the transitional era from longboards to shortboards. The evening is being presented…
Read MoreTerrible surf, great surfing at ISF 50th Anniversary contest
It was a stormy two foot, sloppy, onshore windy drizzly morning for the 50th Anniversary International Surf Festival Surf Contest on the south side of the Hermosa Beach Pier on Saturday. “I almost called it off. But then I noticed there was enough surf to survive the high tide and started the contest,” director John…
Read MoreHey, Leroy: “I always thought Leroy Grannis was first a surf photographer and then a surfer”
Every Tuesday night when I was 12 years old Don Craig, Sparky Hudson and I would run down the street after dinner to go through Leroy Grannis’ trash cans. We separated the surf photos Leroy had thrown away from the rest of the trash and ran down the hill to Don’s house to fight over…
Read MoreRedondo’s Beaty, Costa’s Hawks earn surf titles
Redondo Union High School’s Conner Beaty and Mira Costa High’s Madie Hawks were presented with the South Bay Surf League’s highest honors on Saturday, during the Hermosa Beach Surfers Walk of Fame Ceremonies at the Hermosa Pier.
Read MoreDick “The Fox” Mobley gets bronze plaque on Surfers Walk of Fame
The best Christmas I ever had was the year I was 12 and saw a shiny, brand new, blue, 8-foot-6 Bing Surfboard shaped by Dick Mobley standing next to the Christmas tree with silver ribbon and big, gold bow. It was 1960. Dick had already shaped for the era’s biggest names — Dale Velzy, Greg…
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