They’re Still Surfing After All These Years

For some, it seems, there is an endless summer.

It’s an overcast Sunday morning at Surfrider Beach in Malibu and surf’s up--sort of. This is junk, slop, two-footers.

Rabbit Kekai is not happy. Back home in Waikiki on a day like this, “You pass the beach, you look, you keep going.”

But, waves or no waves, the games will go on. Beach marshal Chuck Asbaugh reviews the rules with Kekai and his group: Two preliminary heats of 15 minutes. Best three of six waves count. Top three scorers in each heat make the final. No snaking (dropping down on another guy’s wave).

“Good luck, gentlemen. . . . Two minutes before you hit the water.”

Bill Moore, a retired lumber executive from Brentwood, is about to paddle out. “The last time I was in one these (contests) was in 1936,” he says. “I tied for fourth.” Moore is 76.

This is “Team Geritol,” as the announcer would have it--nine men competing in the 60-and-over division of the Malibu Surfing Assn.’s two-day event.

There’s Kekai, 73. Like Moore, he’s been surfing since 1925. 1925? That was 34 years before “Gidget” hit the beach.

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There’s Jack Cantrell, 66, of Ventura, a retired oil distributor. Still surfing after 40-plus years, he’s trimmer and fitter than on Jan. 4, 1992, when he had a heart attack while riding a wave. “I’d been partying a lot,” he explains.

Just turned 60, Gary Stellern, a Pasadena high school teacher and co-president of the sponsoring surfing club, is the baby of his group. “These guys are national treasures,” he says. “Maybe they don’t shred anymore, but they ride.”

Take Frayne Higgason, 60, from Santa Barbara, still surfing three times a week after 44 years. “You do it for your ego,” he says. “It keeps you healthy--and it keeps your sinuses cleaned out.”

It’s still flat out there, very flat. The surfers bide their time between sets, hoping for action. From shore, it’s about as exciting as watching wallpaper peel.

When they do pick up a wave, it’s just a smooth, gentle ride. No aerials, roller coasters, spinners today. And nobody yelling, “Cowabunga!”

Bringing his board in, Cantrell says, “I got one wave worth riding.” He watches the 50-to-59 age group paddle out. “A whole different breed. They’re pros, amateur pros.”

At 60-plus, Stellern adds, you’re less aggressive. You still want to beat the other guys, “but you want to see them do well, maybe give them a good wave.”

This is long-board competition, which suits them just fine. They were riding long boards before anyone had ever heard of a short board. Wood boards, 100-pounders that you had to drag end-over-end to the water.

Kekai, who learned to surf when he was 5 from the legendary Duke Kahanamoku, used to make his redwood boards, one of which is now in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. He’s won so many trophies, he says, “My wife says ‘you bring one home, you take one away.’ ”

Short and compact, with mahogany skin and a white goatee, he’s a fixture on the beach at Waikiki, which he calls “Rabbit’s playland.” Who do you think got Peter Jennings, Kirk Douglas and Gregory Peck up on a board?

Riding a wave, Stellern says, “We forget how old we are. I’m about 30, 32 maybe.” Old enough to remember when surfing was synonymous with rowdiness, when “guys who’d never been in the ocean would drive around town with surfboards on their cars.”

Blame it on Gidget: “Even in Ohio, everyone wanted to be a surfer.”

Those were the days of knee-paddling. Nobody wore booties; their surfers’ bumps were their medals. And territorialism was vicious. At Ventura Beach, Stellern recalls, “They’d beat up your car while you were in the water.”

The man with the white ponytail is Gabby Makalena, 62, from Oahu. He’s a born-again surfer, who started as a kid, took time out to raise a family and took up serious surfing again in 1989. (His daughter and grandson are also competing here.)

At day’s end, when they hand out the trophies, Makalena takes first. The old guys get a big hand. “An awesome division,” says the announcer.

Says judge Paul Nielsen, “It’s an older style, but they looked great. They’ve got legs like 15-year-olds. The young kids, they move a little faster maybe, but they don’t move any better.”

Zack Howard, 15, the day’s youngest winner, says: “I have a lot of respect for those guys.” Does he expect to be out there 45 years from now? “Yep.”

Kekai, finishing seventh, takes it in stride: “When the waves are big, I can handle it as good as the kids can.

“They don’t call me Rabbit for nothing. I just keep on going, and going and. . . .”

Looking for Mr. or Ms. Right

At the Westwood Singles Growth Center, some SWMs and SWFs between 30 and 60--and those ISO the same--are talking about those ads.

Facilitator Maxine Geller gets things going: How would you describe yourself in a four-liner?

“Tall, intellectually inclined . . . very wide range of interests,” says Bill.

Annette isn’t buying. “I’d want to know some specifics, like hobbies.” Well, Bill says, he likes walks on the beach, movies, travel, candlelight dinners.

Laughter all around. Anyone who’s ever read the “Women Seeking Men” or “Men Seeking Women” columns knows the cliches.

They also know the code: D for divorced, S for single, W for white, B for black, J for Jewish, N/S for nonsmoker, ISO for in search of. . . .

And they know it’s hard to find Ms. or Mr. Right in L.A., where people are afraid--of crime, commitment, AIDS.

Another man tries this out: “I play chess. The next move is yours.” Someone retorts, “What if a computer answers?”

Leslie defines herself by her interests--travel, tennis, bridge. How about “blond and beautiful?” Bill asks. No, she says: “If that’s what’s important to him, his value system wouldn’t be in sync with mine.”

Says Byron: “I’ve answered ads where the woman put ‘pretty’ and it wasn’t even close.”

Mel has “no intention of ever (placing) an ad because I don’t think there’s any correlation between what I am and what I’d write.” For starters, he adds wryly, he’d put “mentally healthy.”

Well, suggests Bill, “That’s a good point in California.”

Where, Geller asks, have they actually met interesting people?

Two women say where they haven’t : at singles dances, where they’re expected to make the first move.

Sure, says Bill. “Men who can approach women--and do--are all paired off.”

Maybe so, says Marge, but the others are all looking for Miss America. At the door, “They wait for 10s” to come along before deciding whether to go in.

“Geographically desirable” is high among priorities. Other phrases keep resurfacing: Trim and fit, financially independent, stable, fun-loving.

Tall orders, maybe. But, says Geller, “There is a needle if you look in enough haystacks.”

FO, Bill Moore has been surfing since 1925. The last time he competed--1936--he finished fourth.