Waterfront stories
“First I put up a sign. ‘This Boat Not Abandoned.’ I had to; things had already happened. I’d heard someone look at the mast and say, ‘That’d make a nice flagpole.’ Next day it had been sawed off! “
Each urchin is worth about 75 cents to the divers, and by the time it reaches a sushi bar in San Diego, the five pads of sex organ from a single urchin are worth 15 to 20 dollars.
The commercialization of surfing started out innocently enough. The way ex-world-champion surfer Mike Doyle recalls it, it began in the summer of 1966, with the Catalina Swimwear promo tour. Before the mid-Sixties, Catalina Swimwear had …
There was one new mark off the ocean side of Silver Strand, which Tex had told them was a big, bad one. Gowdy made a dip on it, came up, and yelled, "Jesus, Frank, it's a submarine!
Imperial Beach. A bonanza: twelve lots remain here, though their prices are escalating rapidly. An upland, California, couple owns two 30x100-foot lots assessed at $90,000 each. A comparable improved lot next door sold in August of 1979 for $486,000
Here at Windansea Beach in La Jolla, surfers prefer the Vespa motor scooter for solo transportation. This is a low, fat motorcycle that you'd be crazy to take for a long fast ride. Your Vespa …
On another occasion a lifeguard supervisor brought his dog to the beach at 17th St. and let him run loose in front of headquarters while he went for a morning dip. Obviously, he knew the rules about unleashed dogs.
Del Mar had the only 24-hour lifeguard phone in the entire North County. So I punched the button and picked up the receiver. Ranger Paul Anderson at San Elijo State Beach was reporting an emergency.
The San Diego Chamber of Commerce couldn't dig up stronger allies than these people. Almost to a man, these people — the diving fanatics in town — claim that there is no finer place in …
“Tom Wolfe really was a jerk when he was with us, and when the story came out, we knew he was a jerk. After it came out, someone wrote ‘Tom Wolfe is a dork’ on the Pump House.”
Fall 1969. Huntington Beach at the Pier. U.S. Surfing Championships: 50,000 people see Corky Carroll regain the title, Number One U.S. Surfer. Sunday, January 28, 1973. A typical Southern California beer bar and Mexican restaurant …