Some Chairmen of the Boards

At one time or another in the 1950s and ‘60s, nearly every great California surfer rode the waves at San Onofre.

Phil Edwards, considered the best surfer in the world during the 1950s and early ‘60s, spent his teen-age summers inventing surfing maneuvers at San Onofre, along with Mickey Dora.

Dora later became famous for his fancy surfing at Malibu. Dora and Edwards “spurred each other on to become perhaps the two best hotdoggers the sport has ever known,” said Steve Pezman, publisher of Surfer Magazine.

Joyce Hoffman was the leading female surfer of the 1960s. She won Surfer Magazine’s reader poll for best female surfer from 1964 to 1967. Pezman called her one of the two greatest female surfers in the history of the sport, along with Margo Godfrey Oberg.

L.J. (Little John) Richards is another great surfer from the late 1950s and ‘60s who surfed San Onofre, and occasionally still surfs in long-board competitions.

Corky Carroll, who because of his Miller Lite commercials is probably the most famous surfer around, often went to San Onofre. Carroll, according to Pezman, became the world’s fastest paddle-board racer in the early 1960s. With his Corky Carroll Mini Model, he helped introduce short-boarding to California in 1966.