A half-century of San Diego stories from the Reader So much of identity is memory. There’s experience; maybe we chase it, maybe it just washes over us. But memory is what makes experience stick, what …
The commoners rode short, flat boards that were really no more than an aid to body surfing, something like a bellyboard, they were called Alaias.
Posted January 19, 1978
Stories this photo appears in:
Fifty years of the Reader’s best stories
October 12, 2022
Steve Soderberg, Mike Doyle, Rusty Preisendorfer, Tom Morey
Of Wave and Camera Shaun Tomson, Larry Bertlemann, Terry Fitzgerald. Gerry Lopez, and Donald Takayama are special because of their boundless optimism, a character trait he feels is infectious. “Good surfers are the most positive …
August 9, 2021
The business of surfing
Surfboard Shapers Eaton didn't invent the Bonzer, but is responsible for its refinement. It is a strangely old-fashioned board (in the sense that Chuck Berry is old-fashioned), yet as different from conventional surfboards as the …
September 23, 2017
Steve Mathias collects huge planks Duke Kahanamoku, Tom Blake, Joe Quigg used to ride
Steve Mathias decorates his house with surfboards the way you or I might decorate our houses with furniture, paintings, or plants. They line his driveway, border his shrubs, greet you at the front door. Rotting …
January 19, 1978