A 3,000 pound, lifesize size bronze sculpture of Hermosa Beach surfer and surfboard manufacturer Dewey Weber was lifted from a flatbed truck and placed on a pedestal at the entrance to the Hermosa Beach community Center Friday morning.
Present to greet the statue were its sculptor Phil Roberts, of Newport Beach, and Hermosa Beach contractor Bennett Talsky who help guide the statue from its conception in 2003 to its completion.
The statue will be formally unveiled on Saturday, November 14. Between now and then, tile and fountain work and landscaping will be completed.
The sculpture is based on a 1966 photograph by Leroy Grannis of Weber cranking a drop knee cutback at 22nd Street in Hermosa Beach. The strain on Weber’s face reflects the effort required to swing around the 10-foot Weber Performer.
Roberts said he talked to Grannis about the photo shortly before his death in 2011 at age 94. Weber died in 1993 at age 55.
“The reason for the strain on Dewey’s face is that he’s trying not to run Leroy over. Leroy said he was shooting from his surfboard in the water and was afraid Dewey was going to hit him. It was a heavy board and Dewey was only 5-foot-3. Leroy said it was the favorite of all the photos he shot,” Roberts said.
Though Roberts never met Weber, he said the two shared a close friend. When Roberts was a teen in Melbourne Florida, he airbrushed surfboards for Donny Mulhern, a prominent board builder and member of the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame. Mulhern was from California and managed Weber’s Venice surf shop before moving to Florida to begin building his own boards. Weber was Mulhern’s best man at his wedding.
