La Jolla\u2019s historic and iconic Windansea Surf Shack just got a periodic makeover as volunteers recently re-thatched the landmark oceanfront structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been going on since 1946 and uses 180 fronds,\u201d said Melinda Merryweather, one of the founding members of\u00a0Friends of Windansea, a group of La Jollans dedicated to preserving the beach\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Local landscape architect Jim Neri, who participated in the shack\u2019s renewal, noted it was a joint project of Windansea Surf Club and Friends of Windansea. He said the shack\u2019s refurbishing, necessary every few years, has become more challenging recently. \u201cNow we\u2019re 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\u2019ve just basically destroyed the entire species in San Diego,\u201d he said. \u201cYou see them (palms) dying all around town. We had to be very careful to get large fronds that weren\u2019t infested by the palm weevil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consequently, Neri said they had to acquire palm fronds for the re-thatching from four different sources. \u201cFortunately, we had a tree trimmer in our midst, Johnny Jacobs, who got the fronds from different jobs,\u201d he said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. \u201cThere were four guys up on the roof, two on the ground, and a host of helpers too,\u201d he said adding, \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to another (shack restoration) celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the shack\u2019s longevity, Neri noted: \u201cThe fronds get preserved by the salt air, which tends to pickle them, so they last longer than you think. We\u2019ve gone five years in the past (before re-thatching). We don\u2019t like to go more than three years usually. The fronds shrink, and as they shrink, you start to see through them. That\u2019s when we come in and do a little infill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neri described renewing the shack as a transformational experience. \u201cWhen you get there in the morning it\u2019s just a skeleton,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neri said shack restorers consider themselves custodians of this local landmark. \u201cWe see ourselves as keepers of the shack,\u201d he said. \u201cWith 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
WINDANSEA SURF SHACK<\/p>\n
One of San Diego\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
At first, the shack\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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: \u201cHistorical Landmark No. 358, Surf Shack at WindanSea Beach Built by Returning WW II Surfers For Shade and Aloha 1953 The City of San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now a part of La Jolla’s history for 75-plus years, the shack has become so embedded in the surf culture that it\u2019s a symbol of not only Windansea Beach itself but of a longstanding, deeply rooted local surfing tradition. There\u2019s no doubt that both surfing and the little shack are \u2013 and always will be \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
Photo by Kip Ives<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" La Jolla\u2019s historic and iconic Windansea Surf Shack just got a periodic makeover as volunteers recently re-thatched the landmark oceanfront structure. \u201cThis has been going on since 1946 and uses 180 fronds,\u201d said Melinda Merryweather, one of the founding members of\u00a0Friends of Windansea, a group of La Jollans dedicated to preserving the beach\u2019s natural environment. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":324215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"La Jolla\u2019s historic and iconic Windansea Surf Shack just got a periodic makeover as volunteers recently re-thatched the landmark oceanfront structure.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15429,15433,15490],"tags":[15950,12537,12704,13924,15949],"class_list":["post-324211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news-features","category-la-jolla-village-news-top-stories","category-sdnews-top-stories","tag-friends-of-windansea","tag-la-jolla","tag-surfing","tag-windansea-surf-club","tag-windansea-surf-shack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324211","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\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324517,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324211\/revisions\/324517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}