Hanging Out After Hanging Ten: Bar Serves Froth and Philosophy

Billy Baxter sees himself as the Socrates of surfboards. He even has his own Parthenon, in the form of a bar called Kahuna’s, which lies about two blocks from the water in Pacific Beach.

It’s a bar chock-full of surfing memorabilia where you sit at plywood tables made to resemble the primitive board used by Tom Blake in 1945.

Who is Tom Blake? Baxter will tell you right away that Blake was the first world-champion surfer, crowned in Coronado in 1928.

Baxter, who won’t give his age but let it slip that he was 21 in 1964, is a portly man with a lusty salt-and-pepper beard, a throaty laugh and his very own Baxteresque view of life.

A Life, Not a Living

He studied philosophy at a series of junior colleges and at San Diego State University. He never graduated, but does believe that education is for making a life, not making a living.

He says too many people nowadays are too interested in making a living, when what they should be doing is making a life.

Baxter says he can say what he wants, because he’s “the big Kahuna”--the big boss, big cheese, whatever you want to call it. An example of a few Baxterisms tossed out on a typical beery afternoon at Kahuna’s, the “Cheers” of Turquoise Street:

“Colleges nowadays are service-oriented. They teach people how to be a lawyer, an insurance broker--how to live off other people. How to be a parasite. A lot of the restaurants and bars in San Diego are anti-California culture. All the big East Coast money has brought chain operations--discos, pizzerias. . . .

“Californians used to be farmers, natural people. They ate hamburger, steak, chicken and fish--food that they grew themselves. Here you eat California food. Most places you get these fancy processed foods. A true Californian would starve to death eating what most of these places serve nowadays.”

Baxter is proud of serving the 1-pound Kahuna burger, along with ho-dad food. Ho-dad food is “surf fries” and “surf fish,” but what, pray tell, is a ho-dad?

Non-Surfing Preppies

“Most of the people who come in here are ho-dads,” Baxter said, with a look of genuine sadness. “A ho-dad is a non-surfing preppy, a guy who drives a BMW. A guy who looks at the beach and says, ‘Wow, that’s nice. That’s pretty .’ ”

Most of the people visiting Kahuna’s Tuesday afternoon were not ho-dads, Baxter said. They were “the real thing.”

They included Robert Hanson, a 76-year-old surfer who moved to Pacific Beach in 1942. He came from Minnesota, and used to drink at the Coral Inn, which predated Kahuna’s by at least four decades.

“A rough place,” Baxter said grimly. “Used to be a lot of blood in the alley. The joint averaged about three murders a week.”

Hanson laughed. He likes Kahuna’s for “the atmosphere. It’s the closest you can get to Hawaii for that real surf feeling. It’s mellow, real relaxed.”

After surfing, Hanson goes to Kahuna’s for a beer and a generous cooling-off. He likes to surf for “the exercise and the feeling of flying like a bird. Freedom, exhilaration, peace. . . . “

‘Like I’ll Live Forever’

Baxter likes surfing for the same reasons, saying it’s the only thing that makes him feel “truly alive, like I’ll live forever. I like the sun, the water. When the waves get big, you can feel the danger. The power of the ocean--it’s something I can’t resist.”

Baxter was born and raised in Mission Beach. He came from a family that loved surfing--or maybe worshiped is the word. His father was a friend of legendary Hawaiian surfer Duke Kahanamoko. One of the boards in Kahuna’s was ridden by the Duke. It’s part of Baxter’s personal collection, which numbers in the dozens, in all colors, sizes and shapes.

The bar itself is like a surfing museum. It boasts real grass skirts from Hawaii, paintings of memorable surf scenes, boards from all over the place, even video games that pay homage to the gods of surfing. It’s not surprising that Kahuna’s has already been featured in a pair of surfing movies.

The jukebox is like a hall of fame of surfin’ rock ‘n’ roll. It features “Wipeout” by the Surfaris, Don Ho’s “Tiny Bubbles,” the Surfaris’ “Surfer Joe” and “Baja” by the Astronauts.

The boards suspended overhead range from the sublime to the bizarre. They include a solid teak number used by the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team in World War II, as well as an all-fiberglass board.

You can even ride a board, a la the mechanical bull in the movie “Urban Cowboy.”

“My ambition, now that I’m successful, is, when the beach gets cold, to go where it’s warm--to run, to flee,” Baxter said. “I want to go to Rio and Costa Rica. My idea of nirvana is to ride in on a big crasher in Rio and have Mick Jagger sitting at the foot of it, saying, ‘Far out, man.’ Other folks’ idea of nirvana is to live on top of Mt. Soledad, saying: ‘Look how cool I am. Look at everything I have .’ ”

Baxter is aware of the clean-and-sober consciousness spreading through America. He loves selling beer and brags about being the No. 1 seller of Budweiser in San Diego.

“I’m the Socrates of surf,” he said. “Socrates was a little old guy, really strange, who loved to drink wine and go to orgies. He walked around on the beach a lot, asking, ‘Why?’ Or was it, ‘Why not?’ ”

“I feel like Socrates reincarnated. I’m up and down the beach all the time, asking people why. Or why not.”

Baxter’s clientele genuinely seems to love him--even his witticisms, which flow as freely as the Bud. Hanson raves about Baxter, as does Bradley Baben, 33, a regular. Baben said he just likes the fun atmosphere “and the good-lookin’ girls, the good food and continuous talk of surf.”

Adriana Lara, 31, who lives nearby in Bird Rock, said she is a friend of Baben, and of Baxter, and of the bar. She says she is “always treated great” at Kahuna’s.

Lara said her mother had just died. The burial occurred a few hours earlier. Her mother’s survivors had come to Kahuna’s to unwind, to “get our minds off grief, if only for a while. We just wanted to snap out of it somehow, if we could. What better place to come than Kahuna’s? The people are so kind. They’re genuine. The place is super-comfortable, super-nice.”

Kalani Palama, 23, from Kauai, Hawaii, heard about Kahuna’s from fellow surfers. He first started coming, just to drink, then got a job as a bartender. He says Kahuna’s is better than any bar on any island in Hawaii.

“There just isn’t a surf bar like this over there,” he said. “Most bars in Hawaii are set up strictly for tourists. They’re owned by wealthy New Yorkers or Japanese. This place is like a family. We all work together and have a hell of a lot of fun.”

Baxter once served as president of the Mission Beach Precise Plan, a planning adjunct of the Mission Beach Town Council. He “made enemies” in city politics, he said. He likes politics and politicians about as much as marriage and thoughts of potential wives.

He says the planning group voted against the redevelopment of Belmont Park, but the city went ahead with it anyway. He says it left him cynical and bitter about “the system.”

As president of the Mission Beach Surf Club, he cites the organization’s main rule:

“If you spend more than two days with the same girl, you’re on probation. If you spend more than three days with one girl, you’re expelled. Out. A goner. Forget it. And a married guy--hell, he’d just never belong.”

Baxter, who says he’s never been--and never will be--married, claims to be wedded to only one thing. Well, actually, two:

The Surf and The Bar.

“I may be an old codger, but I still ride the waves,” he said. “I’m good, and I’m strong. Ten-footers are now my limit. I’ll leave the 30-footers to the youngsters.”