Joe Surf: A true local knows the legend of Bud Llamas

A series of events this past weekend got me to thinking about what defines being a “local.”

I’ve lived in Huntington Beach for 27 years — three apartments, one condo and two houses, all within the city limits. Downtown, old town, you name it. I thought that qualified me for “local” status.

Then last Saturday I was at the Shorebreak Hotel for an event. HB Culture Magazine hbcult.com had its second annual surf contest at Golden West Street earlier that day and held the awards ceremony at Shorebreak in the evening.

They were holding a raffle to give away a bunch of cool prizes, including a surfboard. So I found a guy I recognized from the contest and asked him where I could buy some raffle tickets.

He told me, “Go see Bud Llamas.” After I hesitated for a moment, he said, “You know who Bud Llamas is, right?”

Sheepishly, I said no.

This brings me back to the definition of “local.” If I was a true “local,” I would know Bud Llamas. I would know what he looks like, what he’s done and what he means to surfing and Huntington Beach.

If I was born and raised in HB, I would have known. That would have made me a local. Moving to HB at age 26 in 1989 and living here the past 27 years does not make me a local now. Because if I was a local, I would know Bud Llamas.

I Googled Bud Llamas, and now I feel really dumb. Llamas graduated from Huntington Beach High in 1979 and quickly became a local legend in the making, as one of the first surfers to perform acrobatic aerials, even before boards were really built to do that type of thing.

He has been on the cover of both Surfer and Surfing magazines and competed in the Assn. of Surfing Professionals , what is now called the World Surf and is the highest level of surf competition in the world.

He won the first National Scholastic Surfing Assn. championship in 1978, turned pro in 1980 after graduating high school and became the Body Glove Grand Prix champion in 1982.

One notable Bud Llamas moment came in 1990, as he neared the end of his competitive career. He surfed his way into the final heat of the Body Glove Surfbout contest at Lower Trestles in San Onofre. The three others in his final heat were Chris Brown, Charlie Kuhn and a then-relatively unknown 19-year-old named Kelly Slater.

Slater won the heat and the contest, as well as $30,000, the first big win of what has become a legendary career. You can watch the final heat at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGbWrbn2BmI

But you probably already knew all that.

Llamas, though, wasn’t all about the competition lifestyle. He was, and is, more about the “stoke” of surfing itself.

Now, Llamas is owner-operator of 17th St. Boardshop, which brings me back to the raffle. Llamas was coordinating the raffle to help raise funds for well-known surf photographer John Salanoa.

Salanoa acquired a rare disease called transverse myelitis, which nearly killed him about a month ago. Salanoa was temporarily paralyzed from the chest down and is working to regain movement.

Doctors said they believe this disease could have been caused by a viral infection acquired when traveling in a foreign country. Most recently, Salanoa was in Mexico shooting the Todos Santos Big Wave Challenge.

To help out with Salanoa’s medical costs, a gofundme page has been set up at https://www.gofundme.com/tvw87ps4 or you can call Llams at his shop, (714) 536-6200.

Whale sighting

I wrote last week about how Huntington’s coast recently has seen sharks, green blobs, red crabs and brown foam, but Monday there was a much better sighting.

As my son finished his before-school surf session he looked up at me on the pier and yelled “whale!” pointing just beyond the pier. I started running toward the end of the pier and told surf photographer Brian Bott, who was shooting the surfers on the north side.

Brian and I got to the end of the pier and sure enough spotted a gray whale, which surfaced a few times as it traveled north. Brian got a few shots of the fluke breaking the surface.

See? I didn’t even mention the 7-foot great white spotted near Tower 3 on the south side of the pier on Saturday.

JOE HAAKENSON is a Huntington Beach-based sports writer and editor. He may be reached at joe@juvecreative.com.