‘Desperado’ Dale Velzy rode surfing’s wave of popularity
By Mike Purpus Dale Velzy is responsible for the South Bay becoming a center of the surfing world. In the late ‘40s, he reshaped plywood he found on the beach into surfboards that were much lighter than the traditional redwood boards. His future partner Hap Jacobs told me, “Everyone at Redondo High envied Dale. He lived on the beach, and ditched class everytime the surf was good. The truant officers would find him at the Manhattan Pier and drag him back to school.” Velzy made enough money selling his surfboards to rent a one room storefront a block up from the Manhattan Beach Pier. Everyone hung out there. Velzy couldn’t remember names so he called Hap Jacobs Gremmie 1, Bing Copeland Gremmie 2, Rick Stoner Gremmie 3, and Greg Noll Gremmis 4. Along with Velzy, all are now charter members on The Hermosa Beach Surfing Walk of Fame. Dale Velzy and companion Fran Hoff at a reunion of early South Bay surfers held at the Hermosa Beach home of Bob and Katrina Bergstrom in 2004. Velzy died the following year. Photo by Katrina Bergstrom Velzy was a natural promoter, and was the first to put his name on the boards he built. As his business grew, he opened a shop in Venice, strategically…
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