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Tom Arnold's Old Places: Hamel's Action Sports Center
The idea of writing about old places in San Diego County has been something I’ve been mulling around for years – but I kept putting it off because coming up with the parameters was a lot harder than I imagined. In the end, I decided to focus on businesses and restaurants that have been in the same place, with the same name and line of business, for at least 50 years.
Brothers Dan and Ray Hamel opened their funky shop at the foot of Ventura Place in 1967, the Summer of Love, with a initial inventory of 24 used Stingray bikes and two dozen surfboards, which they rented out. They soon expanded, adding roller skates to their rental business and then moving into retail with swimwear, beachwear and assorted other merchandise, from flip-flops to beach towels. Their business boomed; by 1977, they had quit their side jobs — Dan was a painter and Ray a sheet-metal maker — and purchased the two-story building (and the land beneath it) for less than $300,000. The Hamels soon became sandy-haired ambassadors to the rest of San Diego, with their annual Miss Mission Beach bikini contest getting tons of TV coverage, and the brothers themselves emerging as caustic critics of local politicians for not doing enough to rid the area of gangs, transients and, most recently, street vendors. In 1994, they remodeled their building into a gaudy castle, complete with turrets and a fake stone façade. Today, the Hamels have long since retired (they sold the business, but not the building, in 2001), but the legacy of Mission Beach’s own beach boys lives on: Hamel’s Action Center remains the center of Mission Beach activity nearly 60 years after it first opened for business.
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Miss Mission Beach bikini contest, 1967
Here's something you might be interested in.
Tom Arnold's Old Places: Hamel's Action Sports Center
Tom Arnold's Old Places: Hamel's Action Sports Center
The idea of writing about old places in San Diego County has been something I’ve been mulling around for years – but I kept putting it off because coming up with the parameters was a lot harder than I imagined. In the end, I decided to focus on businesses and restaurants that have been in the same place, with the same name and line of business, for at least 50 years.
Brothers Dan and Ray Hamel opened their funky shop at the foot of Ventura Place in 1967, the Summer of Love, with a initial inventory of 24 used Stingray bikes and two dozen surfboards, which they rented out. They soon expanded, adding roller skates to their rental business and then moving into retail with swimwear, beachwear and assorted other merchandise, from flip-flops to beach towels. Their business boomed; by 1977, they had quit their side jobs — Dan was a painter and Ray a sheet-metal maker — and purchased the two-story building (and the land beneath it) for less than $300,000. The Hamels soon became sandy-haired ambassadors to the rest of San Diego, with their annual Miss Mission Beach bikini contest getting tons of TV coverage, and the brothers themselves emerging as caustic critics of local politicians for not doing enough to rid the area of gangs, transients and, most recently, street vendors. In 1994, they remodeled their building into a gaudy castle, complete with turrets and a fake stone façade. Today, the Hamels have long since retired (they sold the business, but not the building, in 2001), but the legacy of Mission Beach’s own beach boys lives on: Hamel’s Action Center remains the center of Mission Beach activity nearly 60 years after it first opened for business.
Video:
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Miss Mission Beach bikini contest, 1967