Topanga Dayz
In 1972, on the heals of 10 days in San Diego competing in the ISA World Surfing Championships with the Australian Surfing Team, I befriended film-maker Hal Jepsen. After the contest, he and I hit the road north to his Topanga Canyon home.
So began my true introduction to America.
Over the next few weeks on Topanga Canyon Road (three doors up on the left), I’d forge friendships that continue to this day.
Topanga was a private beach, then. The stretch of bungalows bordering the point were the prized homes of a core surf community.
Jepsen’s next movie, “A Sea for Yourself” records my Aussie team-mate Mark Warren and I scoring a good day during that visit. I also surfed my first Malibu session during that visit.
It was my introduction to the Malibu/Topanga crew of Jay Riddle, Davey Hilton, George Trafton and the “Natural Progression” crew of Terry Lucoff and master shaper Robbie Dick .
During a party at Mike Perry’s, I met “Little Lisa,” my first serious girlfriend. Perry was a shaper and Surfer Magazine editor. He shared one of those prime real estate shacks with Aricia, who would go onto “Aricia’s Bitchin’ Kitchen” fame with her food truck, which she parked at Sunset Boulevard through most of the ’70s. Perry and I had the shaping interest in common and from those “Topanga Dayz” we became life long, best friends. He ended up moving to Australian’s Gold Coast where he lives to this day.
The winter after my Topanga stay, “Little Lisa” and I lived together on the North Shore. A few years later we would share a flat with Perry in Rainbow Bay, Coolangatta, my home stomping grounds.
On this same Topanga visit, I went to the Ranch and scored perfect small Rights and Lefts. And more significantly, my introduction there to Jan Michael-Vincent would lead to my doubling in Big Wednesday for William Katt, who played the loner character Jack Barlow.
Though I didn’t foreseen it then, my intro to Jan Michael during that 1972 Topanga visit would lead to my wife, kids and I living the past 35 years in Orange County. DZ
