La Jolla’s historic and iconic Windansea Surf Shack just got a periodic makeover as volunteers recently re-thatched the landmark oceanfront structure.

“This has been going on since 1946 and uses 180 fronds,” said Melinda Merryweather, one of the founding members of Friends of Windansea, a group of La Jollans dedicated to preserving the beach’s natural environment. A dozen Friends of Windansea members and others donated their time and talents to the shack re-thatching effort on Saturday, April 29.

Local landscape architect Jim Neri, who participated in the shack’s renewal, noted it was a joint project of Windansea Surf Club and Friends of Windansea. He said the shack’s refurbishing, necessary every few years, has become more challenging recently. “Now we’re running into history repeating in a way because the palm weevil (beetle), lives in Canary Island date palms, which is their favorite food, and they’ve just basically destroyed the entire species in San Diego,” he said. “You see them (palms) dying all around town. We had to be very careful to get large fronds that weren’t infested by the palm weevil.”

Consequently, Neri said they had to acquire palm fronds for the re-thatching from four different sources. “Fortunately, we had a tree trimmer in our midst, Johnny Jacobs, who got the fronds from different jobs,” he said. “We were able to get some good, clean, fresh fronds and mixed them all in together. Unlike other years, they were all brand new and green.”

Neri said it took a full half-day to strip the shack of its old worn-out fronds. Then, it took a full day to install the new ones. “There were four guys up on the roof, two on the ground, and a host of helpers too,” he said adding, “We’re looking forward to another (shack restoration) celebration.”

Of the shack’s longevity, Neri noted: “The fronds get preserved by the salt air, which tends to pickle them, so they last longer than you think. We’ve gone five years in the past (before re-thatching). We don’t like to go more than three years usually. The fronds shrink, and as they shrink, you start to see through them. That’s when we come in and do a little infill.”

Neri described renewing the shack as a transformational experience. “When you get there in the morning it’s just a skeleton,” he said. “And when you leave in the afternoon, you have a brand new coat on it. Everyone is smiling at the end. People are thanking us and clapping. It means summer is here.”

Neri said shack restorers consider themselves custodians of this local landmark. “We see ourselves as keepers of the shack,” he said. “With every new generation, we need to continue the tradition of taking care of the shack. By no means are we going to be the last to do it.”

WINDANSEA SURF SHACK

One of San Diego’s oldest and most prominent beach landmarks, the shack is a simple hut shelter built of eucalyptus tree trunks for posts and covered by Canary Island palm fronds. It was first constructed in 1946 by Woody Ekstrom, Fred Kenyon, and Don Okey, along with a few friends and vets from World War II. They got the idea from Okey’s wife, who asked him to build some shade on the beach for their kids. Okey and the gang went to Scripps Hospital and stealthily cut some branches off eucalyptus trees to build the shack, never realizing that one day it would be a legacy.

At first, the shack’s creation was celebrated with a small toast. Celebrants never suspected that toast would subsequently become a full-on luau with Hawaiian dancers and music that grew into huge social events for surfers up and down the coast. Luaus got increasingly rowdier and larger each year they were held between 1946 and the early 1950s.

The shack has been destroyed and rebuilt a few times over the years. Just 52 years after its construction, it was officially designated as historical by the San Diego Historical Resources Board. The plaque reads: “Historical Landmark No. 358, Surf Shack at WindanSea Beach Built by Returning WW II Surfers For Shade and Aloha 1953 The City of San Diego.”

Now a part of La Jolla’s history for 75-plus years, the shack has become so embedded in the surf culture that it’s a symbol of not only Windansea Beach itself but of a longstanding, deeply rooted local surfing tradition. There’s no doubt that both surfing and the little shack are – and always will be – a huge part of the La Jolla scene. Hopefully, the little seaside shack will continue to stand the test of time, with a little help from the locals.

Photo by Kip Ives