Hermosa Surfer’s Walk of Fame inductee Derek Levy embodies the surfing spirit
Derek Levy chasing the Big Wave Challenge award in 2012 at the Redondo Breakwall. Photo by Brent Broza (BrozaPhoto.com) Unlike the other 2015 Hermosa Beach Surfer’s Walk of Fame inductees, Derek Levy was never a top ranked professional surfer. Nor was he a leader in the surfboard industry. But the Surfer’s Walk of Fame honors not only singular achievements. It also celebrates the spirit of surfing. And no one embodies that spirit more fully than Levy. Derek Levy in 1972 at Salt Creek. When Levy graduated from Mira Costa High School in 1977, he made a deliberate and difficult decision to commit himself to surfing by turning his back on a professional surfing career. At the time, he was the number one ranked Western Association of Surfing junior in California, for the third consecutive year. He had been competing in surf contests since he was 11. “It tore me up. I loved surfing. I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. But you can’t without money and there was no money in surfing. I knew I couldn’t keep living with my dad for the rest of my life,” Levy said. So he went to El Camino College and then to Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles. Derek Levy with sons Luke and…
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