Several local surfers and shapers were among legends of the sport who were inducted Aug. 13 into San Diego’s Surfing Hall of Fame at a ceremony at Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach.
\nThe event was hailed by its organizers as “the greatest gathering of surf legends San Diego has ever seen.”
\nAmong the inaugural list of surfing hall of famers: \u2022 Skip Frye (from Pacific Beach known for his pro surf career and iconic boards.) \u2022 Mike Hynson (from Pacific Beach who costarred in the 1966 hit “The Endless Summer” and surfboard design guru.) \u2022 Butch Van Artsdalen (from La Jolla, a pioneering surfer who took on 25-foot waves in Hawaii to garner the title “Mr. Pipeline.”) \u2022 Tom Ortner (La Jolla resident and an icon in the Windansea beach community.) \u2022 Carl Ekstrom (from La Jolla, developed the first asymmetrical boards in the late 1960s.) \u2022 Larry Gordon (a fixture in the board making community from the 1960s until his death in 2016.) \u2022 John Holly (veteran Ocean Beach surfer and board shaper.) \u2022 Chuck Hasley (founder of the Windansea Surf Club of La Jolla.) \u2022 Windansea Surf Club (legendary surf club known for boasting some of the best-known surfing names.)
\nSurfboard craftsman Hank Warner, a legend in his own right, was the event\u2019s master of ceremonies.
\n“It was a big event, Belly Up was packed,” said Warner adding, “Ninety-nine percent of surfers grew up idolizing these inductees in the San Diego Surfing Hall of Fame.”
\nAttendees enjoyed live music from Jimmy Lewis, live art from Wade Koniakowsky, and a special collaboration between Warner and surf filmmaker Ira Opper.\u00a0
\n“These innovators and pioneers have emerged everywhere that waves break. In this regard, San Diego has been particularly blessed,” organizers wrote. “Our 70 miles of coastline have produced some of the most innovative shapers and wave stylists in the sport. And as everyone paddling out to the lineup knows, you have to honor those who have come before us.”
\nWarner discussed his long-term goals for the San Diego Hall of Fame.
\n“We\u2019re going to be doing this yearly,” he said. “We have a list of about 100 people we\u2019ll be choosing from.”
\nWarner pointed out the inaugural list of legends are “influential surfers so it was pretty much bulletproof (selecting) for the first year.”
\nWarner said the objective is for the San Diego Hall of Fame to be nonprofit and truly representative of the surfing community. “It\u2019s an amazing group,” he noted. “It\u2019s not just surfers. It\u2019s shapers. It\u2019s artists. It\u2019s photographers, the whole gamut. It\u2019s really honoring all the elite surfers who have come before us.”
\nDiscussing the policy of a future brick-and-mortar San Diego Hall of Fame site, Warner envisions inductees “donating boards, photos, wetsuits, etc., priceless heirlooms to the museum\/hall of fame.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several local surfers and shapers were among legends of the sport who were inducted Aug. 13 into San Diego’s Surfing Hall of Fame at a ceremony at Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. The event was hailed by its organizers as “the greatest gathering of surf legends San Diego has ever seen.” Among the inaugural […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":256999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Local legends inducted into San Diego's Surfing Hall of Fame","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}