Lorrin (Whitey) Harrison; State Surfing Legend

Lorrin (Whitey) Harrison, a California surfing legend who stowed away on ocean liners as a youth to surf Hawaii’s waves, died there at age 80.

Harrison, a resident of San Juan Capistrano, suffered a heart attack Wednesday at his second home in Hawaii, said Paula Tompkins, a family friend.

Several members of Harrison’s family were in Hawaii with him when he died, including Cecelia, his wife of 46 years, and one of his six children, a daughter, Marian.

Steve Pezman, co-publisher of Surfer’s Journal, said Harrison personified Southern California’s surf culture and was one of a handful of people older than 70 who surfed regularly.

Harrison’s fame had spread beyond California and Hawaii. He was interviewed by Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show,” featured in Life magazine and performed in TV commercials, among them one for Armor-All, the car-care product.

Although he underwent quintuple-bypass heart surgery in 1984, he continued surfing, canoeing and diving. “Being on the ocean is life itself,” he said.

At his 80th birthday celebration at San Onofre State Beach in April, Harrison donned his signature palm-frond hat and surfed for more than an hour.

Born in Garden Grove in 1913, Harrison began surfing while attending Orange High School. He traveled the world searching for the perfect wave.

He was among the earliest Orange County surfers to tackle the Corona del Mar break. It was in the 1920s, when surfboards were carved from kiln-dried redwood and weighed 135 pounds.

Pezman, who plans to publish a recent interview with Harrison in November’s Surfer’s Journal, said Harrison often had stowed aboard ocean liners headed for Hawaii in the 1930s and would rent an island cabin for $7 a month.

On one trip, friends said, Harrison was brought back to a stockade in San Francisco after he was discovered sleeping in a lifeboat.

In Hawaii, Harrison became enchanted with the people, including a young Hawaiian named Duke Kahanamoku, who later popularized surfing in Hawaii and California.

In 1936, Harrison introduced outrigger canoe racing to California, after discovering it in Hawaii. In 1959, the first club competition featured a team from Oahu racing Harrison’s team from Avalon to Newport Dunes. “The Hawaiians made the 30-mile crossing in five hours,” Harrison said. “We did it in 5 hours, 11 minutes.”

Despite his years, Harrison raced regularly in the masters’ division. There are about 30 outrigger canoe racing clubs in California.