The groundbreaking for a 12-foot tall, bronze statue of surfer Dewey Weber will be held Saturday, May 16 at 9 a.m., at the entrance to the Hermosa Beach Community Center. The statue will be surrounded by a reflective pond with rippling water to suggest waves and drought tolerant plants to suggest a coral reef.
Upon its unveiling, scheduled for late August, the statue’s cost will have approached $500,000. Last Tuesday, the city council allocated $82,000 of city funds to make up a projected shortfall in private contributions. The balance will have come from donations and grants.
The statue was proposed in 2003 by then public works director Rick Morgan, a surfer who lived in Paradise Cove, near Malibu. The design is  based on a famous black and white photograph of Weber by pioneer Hermosa Beach surf photographer Leroy Grannis. The photo shows Weber throwing up a spray of water as he cuts back on a wave at 22nd Street. Weber was a professional surfer and surfboard manufacturer. He died in 1993.
Morgan was a fan of renowned surf artist Phil Roberts and selected him for the project. The 2008 class of Leadership Hermosa undertook to raise money for the statue, but was able to raise only $30,000. For a fundraiser at Sangria restaurant that year, Roberts contributed a painting of Grannis sitting on his surfboard, taking his famous photo of Weber. But the high bid was so disappointing that Morgan withdrew the painting from the auction.
Then, in 2010, Santa Monica resident Joe Melchione, a longtime admirer of Weber, donated $50,000. That same year, city council awarded a $90,000 contract to Roberts for the design and construction of the statue, to be funded solely through donations.
In 2012, while battling terminal cancer, Melchione increased his contribution to $329,000.
Last Tuesday, Spyder Surf founder Dennis Jarvis donated $4,500 to the city to help offset the cost of the statue. The city also anticipates receiving a $40,000 grant from the West Basin Water district to pay for the drought resistant garden and $6,000 from the Turf Removal Program for removing 3,000 square feet of lawn to make way for the garden. ER
