by Mark McDermott
A plaque memorializing the spot where Dale Velzy operated what many believe was the world’s first surf shop was approved by the Manhattan Beach City Council Tuesday night, ending a two-month delay caused by a few local historians questioning the veracity of the claim.
The council solved the dilemma with the insertion of two words into the plaque language — denoting the plaque’s proposed location, at 117 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, as the site “one of” the world’s first surfboard shops.
“That’s what the issue is, whether this was the world’s first,” said Councilperson Steve Napolitano. “It’s certainly one of the first. I think we can agree on that.”
The South Bay Boardriders Club and resident Jacquelyn May proposed a plaque at a location near where Velzy’s shop was once located, outside the present-day Strand House restaurant, and in March gained approval from City staff for a small plaque on the sidewalk that said, “Dale ‘Hawk’ Velzy opened the world’s first known surf shop on this site in 1950.’”
But Gary McAulay, former president of the Manhattan Beach Historical Society, brought forward several objections to the claim that gave the City Council pause. McAulay said no records could be found of the shop, other than a photo taken in 1952, and that city records showed a shoe repair shop called Jimmie’s Shoeatorium was there at least from December 1949 through June 1950. Additionally, McAulay argued, Velzy was drafted into the U.S. Army in August 1950.
“I believe that unfortunately the weight of evidence doesn’t support their initial plaque,” McAulay said at Tuesday’s meeting. “A consensus has been reached to use the phrase early 1950s, which I absolutely can agree with. Sometimes compromise just has to be reached, because they can’t prove their side. We can reasonably prove our side, although there is room for quibbling over some details.”
Staff’s proposed revised language for the plaque read, “Dale ‘Hawk’ Velzy developed his world famous surfboard brand at this site in the early 1950s.”
May, who has been trying to have a plaque installed at the site for 11 years, expressed frustration.
“I was born in 1951,” she said. “We had a phone, but our phone number’s not in the phone book. The record keeping wasn’t that great back then. We have numerous high profile well respected professionals in the surf industry, testifying and writing letters and signing their names, including Matt Warshaw, who is the consultant on surfing for the Oxford English Dictionary, saying that it was 1950 and it was the first surf shop, but that’s not good enough…So we have to compromise and have a generic plaque, which is very unfortunate.”
May and the Boardriders collected more than a dozen testimonials, including those from Surfer’s Journal, the California Surf Museum, Velzy biographer Paul Holmes, and several contemporaries of Velzy, including Bing Copeland, Roy Bream, Sonny Vardeman, and Barbara and Don Guild (who took the 1952 photograph). What they lacked in records was supplied in the form of eyewitness accounts of the shop.
Chip Post, a former Hermosa City Councilman and City Attorney, wrote that he knows the shop was there in 1950 because that was “also the year I started surfing at the age of 12.”
“I used to sit with friends on the floor of his shop on MB Blvd suffering the din of his planer and the dust of its shavings,” Post wrote.
South Bay Boardrider president Tom Horton said that the gaps in records that McAulay pointed to all have explanations. Velzy’s son, Matt, said that his father sublet the building from the shoe repair shop, Horton said, and that he operated the shop both before and after being drafted. He was injured while in the military and returned before the summer of 1951.
“The point is, we can explain away all the opposition’s objections to this,” Horton said.
Perhaps only half joking, Horton also included in his correspondence to the City a query he entered into ChatGPT, asking who opened the world’s first surf shop. “The world’s first surf shop was opened by Dale Velzy in Manhattan Beach, California, in 1950,” ChatGPT responded.
Napolitano didn’t like the compromise language staff presented.
“I don’t know really how we came to this….surfboard brand as opposed to shop,” Napolitano said. “I don’t know where the word brand came from and why we’re using that. To me, it’s almost promoting the Velzy brand that’s still in existence, whereas I think we want to be specific to the idea that this was a shop — this was one of the first, and I’ll tell you I’m not opposed to saying that Dale ‘Hawk’ Velzy developed or opened one of the world’s first surfboard shops at this site.”
Councilperson Amy Howorth said the Boardriders had “reasonable proof” of their claim, and compared it to the “turf wars” common to surfing as well as beach volleyball, noting that both Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica claim to be the original home of that sport. She made a motion for approval of language saying “opened one of the world’s first known surf shops in the early 1950s.”
“I think that does more to honor the contributions,” Howorth said.
Napolitano quickly seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
“For those of you keeping score at home,” said Mayor Richard Montgomery, “we’ve talked about this item 30 more minutes than we did our annual budget. I was clocking it.”
“I realize how naive I was years ago with thinking that proposing public art seemed like a no-brainer,” Horton told the council. “It is really a lot more difficult than what I thought it was going be. So I applaud you for your patience.” ER
