Aloha Greg Noll Tuesday Surf & Culture Report



Lost Boys & Co...

Greg Noll (#1), local and international big wave legend, board builder and cultural icon passed away in his home in Crescent City.  It's hard to assess the impact he had on the early days of modern surfing and the number of peoples lives that he touched in the process.  A wild man, he gave surfing some of the outlandish cultural vibe it still carries today.

Appropriately gray this morning with 9 miles visibility.  Winds have stayed off all day and the sea surface has been smooth to textured.  The air was 65.0º at checkout and the water is 66.7º.  Low tide was at 8:00am -0.3' and high tide caps at 2:53pm +4.2'.  We had a west swell out of 260º at 3.9' and it was 3' to 5' with some low tide grinders...

One of our favorite pics (#2) in the old factory between Valley and Cypress.  Pictured are Eddie Talbot (E.T.), Gumby (Pat Ryan) and Greg checking the thickness of a new shortboard.  We used to get our boards glassed there and he's always make a big deal out of measuring them and make some sage comments.  He actually made some fabulous Simmons twin-fin copies that we can only imagine would have been cool to try...

#3)  Iconic shot of the Bull waiting to paddle out at outside Pipeline.  He said it took him and Mike Stang an hour to paddle out, then they sat there for another two hours waiting for the right wave.  Stang caught a bomber and took a half an hour to finally get in after he lost his board.  Greg grabbed, maybe the biggest wave that came through and rode it for about three blocks before getting airborne and losing his 11'8" gun.  When you see the film, it doesn't even look like Pipe it goes on for so long.  It took him an hour to get in (he always claimed he was a shitty swimmer) and he dog-paddled half the way.  Lots of stories...
✠
"When the surf breaks, we'll fix it"
The Professor!!





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