Surfers Earned a Place in the Sun : Catching the Waves Is a Reminder of the Joys of Local Life

Enough of politics and politicians. Forget worrying about the stock market’s ups and downs. At least for a moment, let’s hear some applause for Greg Noll, Corky Carroll and their colleagues who surfed their way into fame and a corner of Huntington Beach.

Summer is meant for ceremonies like the one this month that drew several hundred spectators to Main Street near the pier to watch five stars inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame. The sun shone in force, of course. The waves were good. The jokes were plentiful.

Noll is 59, and remembered as one of the best at riding the big waves. Carroll, 48, was U.S. champion five times and was stoked at the honor: “I’m still alive,” he said to laughter and applause. “Many of you thought I wouldn’t be. But here I am.”

Also included in the Walk of Fame were Australian champion Nat Young, filmmaker Bud Browne and veteran surfer Rell Sunn. There were fitting tributes to two others who have died in recent years: John Rothrock, former surfing coach at Edison High School in Huntington Beach, and Tom Pratte, an activist in beach conservation.

Huntington Beach likes to think of itself as “Surf City,” and the organizers of the Surfing Walk of Fame, which was inaugurated two years ago, aptly summed up the reasons for the location of the new attraction: accessibility to the beach and a record of hosting major surfing contests. That was enough to outweigh the claims of some other locales to bigger waves.

Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Huntington Beach this month for two major surfing contests, the AirTouch Pro and the U.S. Open of Surfing. The Open is billed as the largest surfing contest in the United States.

The sport has a deserved image as a laid-back opportunity for a day at the beach. But for merchants, it means a good chunk of cash when the crowds show up to watch the heirs of Carroll and Noll shoot the curl.

Surfing is one of those sports that may be practiced on the East Coast, but is associated with the West Coast, especially Southern California. Schools in the Bronx don’t have surfing coaches. Nor did the Beach Boys grow up in Brooklyn. As the waves break and the sun shines, the sport is a pleasant reminder of the joys of local life.