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Never Had a Bad Wave
- Metadata
Title
Never Had a Bad Wave
Series Title
Collection Guide (External)
Created Date
September 9th, 2019
Published Date
November 19th, 2019
Description
Chuck Herpick on body surfing in South Orange County and the meaning of his phrase, "Surf Life." Recorded at Dana Point Library.
Transcript
Well I grew up in surfing. As a young kid, as I said my parents used to take us to the beach every weekend. I mean every weekend of the summer for sure. And my dad and mom used to body surf and they taught me to body surf and so that was my introduction to surfing. Bodysurfing there in Laguna Beach, and then we used to have air mattresses called surf riders. And we, Tom Morey and I as a matter of fact, Tom Morey, the inventor of the boogie board who later in later years became my partner in the surfboard industry. But Tom and I used to hang out at Main Beach there and we were hired by this guy that had a surf rider stand and we would rent umbrellas, rent backrests and surf riders that we'd pump up every morning 19cause they'd lose air overnight and then rent them out to the people. So we used to ride these surf riders prone when we were little but then we'd get on our knees and pretty soon we're stand up riding those things, not for very long, but we were trying. That was our introduction to surfing.
Well, we transitioned from the main beach down to a beach called St. Ann's that's now called Thalia Street. But St. Ann's was where the lifeguard tower was and so that's where we learned how to surf and this was , I went down there in 1953, but I was , before that, I think Tom Morey was , we used to hang out at the main beach. We go back to 1947. And, so when he went down there, the next year, my gosh, he came back and his chest was twice the size as it was the year before just from surfing and paddling and he was all stoked and excited about surfing so we got a surfboard. Hobi. A Hobi-made surfboard, one of the first he ever made and we went down to St. Ann's and , or I did , and started surfing with these guys. And the next thing I know, we're , there were very few of us out there in those days, but the protocol was different than it is now. Nowadays, when you're in position to catch a wave, it's your wave so to speak. And if you drop in or get in front of somebody and they get all upset and , but in those days every wave was a party wave. We were having fun. There was Hobi and Tom Morey and Phil Edwards and Joey Cabell came from Hawaii when he was 19-years-old and he was the best surfer of us all , (cough) excuse me , and he also was the most handsome and all the girls were attracted him instead of us but that's where we started surfing at St. Ann's. And then we moved up to , in the summer time there was big south swells coming in and we moved down the beach to Oak Street and Brook Street and we started surfing those waves.
Well surfing life is what everybody should be doing in life. As what it is. Where it came from, I don't know. I kind of think that I kind of coined it but I'm sure somebody did before I did. I know , Tom and I were talking about developing a product called Surfer's Choice. Somewhere along the line when Tom and I were working together, we worked together for 20 years from , in fact we're still partners , from 1998 19til the present. We started talking about surfing life and you know, people, if they learn what , if they , being in the ocean is a special special feel to life. It makes you feel clean, it makes you feel healthy, it makes you invigorated. It just , gosh it's a great feeling. So, that feeling, if everybody could carry it over into life, it would be surfing , you'd be surfing life, every day. And everything you did. You know, in all the years I've been surfing and that goes way back to the 1940's, I've never really had a bad wave.
Creators and Contributors
Creator:
Orange County Public Libraries
Interviewer: Gilliom, Jon
Editor: Murdy, Chad
Interviewee: Herpick, Charles
Interviewer: Gilliom, Jon
Editor: Murdy, Chad
Interviewee: Herpick, Charles
Subject Topic
Subject Entity
Genre
Spatial Coverage
Temporal Coverage
1940 to 2019
Language
Media Type
Format
mp4
Extent
1
File
Generation
Copy
Color or Black and White
Color
Silent or Sound
Sound
Copyright Statement
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This item may be used for non-commercial and educational purposes. The opinions expressed in OC Stories do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of OC Public Libraries or its partners and no official endorsement should be inferred.
Images are courtesy of story tellers and affiliate organizations or used in accordance with fair use and Creative Commons.
Music and sound in accordance with fair use and Creative Commons [ http://creativecommons.org ].
Country of Creation
United States
Contributing Organization
Call Number
OCDS HERC 02
Contributing Organization Contact Information
Email: ocstories@occr.ocgov.com
Phone: 714-566-3055
Phone: 714-566-3055
Organization Websites
Link to Internet Archive
Additional Technical Notes for Item
Original file was named, "OCDS HERC 02.mp4". It was renamed to, corcl_000144_prsv.mp4.