7 surf icons honored at the Surfing Walk of Fame highlight the sport’s past and future
For several of the surf icons on the stage in Huntington Beach, it all started as a simple love story. An early passion for the saltwater sport.
They had no idea they’d be paving the way for future generations, influencing fashion, art, style and athletics while inspiring others to pursue a life immersed in the richness of surf culture.
Seven people were honored on Thursday at the Surfing Walk of Fame, an event that pays tribute to surfing greats whose names will be placed on granite stones at the corner of Main and Pacific Coast Highway.
The event, put on by Jack’s Surfboards, celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. The first stone placed in 1994 was dedicated to Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku, a Hawaiian who helped popularize surfing on the mainland.
“We were going ‘I wonder where this will lead to’,” said Peter “PT” Townend, who has served as emcee since the event’s beginnings, and announced his retirement after this year. “Now we have 150 stones on the sidewalk.”
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The seven new additions to the Surfing Walk of Fame include: surf champion Mick Fanning, woman of the year Stephanie Gilmore, surf pioneer Ben Aipa, local hero Randy Lewis and Quiksilver co-founder Bob McKnight for the surf culture category. Fernando Aguerre, who has helped push surfing into the Olympics, and Steve Van Doren, who has carried on the legacy of the Vans brand, were this year’s Honor Roll inductees.
Fulfilling dreams
Aguerre was the first to take the stage. An Argentinean businessman, Aguerre started the sandal brand Reef with his brother before moving to San Diego.
For the last 20 years, he’s dedicated his life to getting surfing included in the Olympic games, fulfilling a dream Kahanamoku had nearly 100 years ago.
Aguerre hopes one day that “any person, regardless of age, gender, race or social-economic status, will be able to enjoy the ultimate pleasure of the ultimate playing ground — the waves of the oceans.”
“The dream, the complete dream, remains unfulfilled,” he said. “Much extra paddling needs to be done so that everybody who wants to surf can surf.”
Now, he’s ready for people around the world to be introduced to surfing when it debuts in the 2020 Olympic games.
“Olympic surfing will inspire children of all corners in the world with dreams of going from their local wave, to the Olympic wave,” Aguerre said. “I believe the world will be a better and happier place if we infect them with surfing.”
Van Doren, VP of Marketing for Vans, talked about how his father, Paul was influenced by the surf culture to start his own shoe brand.
In 1964, Paul Van Doren had taken the pattern of a Hawaiian shirt worn by Kahanamoku, similar to the one Van Doren wore on Thursday, during a surf championship event, and made matching shoes.
A few months later, Paul decided to quit his job at a Boston-based shoe company, and with his brother James start their own rubber-soled shoe brand now known as Vans.
“It all began right across the street here,” Van Doren said, just steps away from where some of the world’s best surfers are in town to compete at the U.S. Open of Surfing.
Van Doren has kept his family’s legacy alive, helping to build relationships with top athletes in the skate and surf world in the ’70s and through today.
“The surfers and skaters adopted us. I didn’t do anything more except stick to it,” Van Doren said.
Vans will have its mark at skateboard’s Olympic debut, also in 2020, where a concrete bowl created for the U.S. Open of Surfing six years ago will be recreated for a portion of the games in Japan.
Building boards and brands
Two surfboard makers were among the Walk of Fame inductees: Aipa, from Hawaii, and Lewis, a Huntington Beach local.
Aipa, a competitor in the ’60s who eventually became a coach to top surfers, was an early craftsman whose surfboard designs like the “swallow tail” are still used today. He was joined on stage by his son Duke, who now lives in Huntington Beach, and Hawaiian world champion surfer Sunny Garcia.
Lewis, who got a job at Jack’s Surfboards in the ’60s, was a competitor and surfboard maker who learned from Huntington Beach icon Gordie Duane.
“I just think about all the people I met from all around the world. It was really good to just make all these friends” Lewis said. “For me, to be just a small part of surfing is very important to me.”
McKnight talked about becoming enamored with the surf culture as a kid. After graduating college, pro surfer and friend Jeff Hakman talked him into going into business. The pair acquired the licencing rights to Australian brand Quiksilver and built the brand out of their Newport Beach house.
“We delivered our first board shorts out of the back of my VW bus in 1976, we had no idea what we were doing,” McKnight said, noting it was only supposed to be a 2-year project before they’d have to get “real jobs.”
McKnight acknowledged that Quiksilver wasn’t the first surf brand, but they were at ground zero for the surf explosion. For 10 years, the surf brand only made three styles of board shorts.
“Our industry was hot,” he said.
His time with Quiksilver turned into a 40-year career helping to build one of the biggest surf brands in the world.
“And I feel like I’ve never had a real job,” he said. “It’s been one helluva great ride. Looking back, I can now see the influence as clear as day – surf culture has influenced almost every walk of life globally. Style, fashion, prints, color, art, sport, photography and film, architecture, music, attitude, vibe and certainly language.”
Surf champions
Three-time world champion Fanning couldn’t attend the ceremony. The recently retired pro surfer was off somewhere on a remote boat surf trip.
Townend said he would personally deliver the trophy to Fanning, who sent him a video giving thanks for the award.
Six-time world champion Gilmore talked about first coming to Huntington Beach at age 13, a place she’s come back to compete every year since.
She gave nods to female champion surfers Jericho Poppler and Lisa Andersen, “who have inspired me so much to not be afraid to chase after my dreams, to surf with style and be graceful.”
“It’s such a special time in professional surfing,” said the Australian surfer, currently ranked number one in the world. “I’ve never been more proud than right now to be a female surfer.”