Tales of a Pioneer: The Life of a Swell Guy

It seemed only natural to Lorrin Harrison to go fishing on his high school graduation day. After all, the barracuda were running. Harrison caught a nice one too.

He and his fishing companion had trouble getting a ride back from the beach, so they missed the actual graduation ceremony. But Harrison, holding his newspaper-wrapped fish in one hand, used the other to receive his diploma and shake hands with the principal.

The anecdote is told by Rosie Harrison Clark in a book that comes out today, “Let’s Go, Let’s Go.” The late Lorrin Harrison, known to most of us as “Whitey,” was one of this county’s surfing pioneers. The author is one of his six children.

Harrison, from Capistrano Beach, was known locally for his surfboard designs and for introducing outrigger canoe racing to California. He had come to love it in Hawaii. But Harrison gained wider fame in his 70s doing nationally televised commercials as a senior surfer. When he was 80, the Armor All people asked him if he could surf for a full hour while they filmed an ad. He stayed on the waves for six hours.

If you’re going to have a book written about your life, I can’t imagine anything greater than having it done by your daughter or son. Clark’s mother died when she was just 4; she and sister Ginger became devoted to their father.

The title of Clark’s book was her father’s favorite phrase when he was hurrying everybody to the beach for the day. Her father loved almost everything about the sea.

Riding waves on a surfboard with him as a small child, she writes, “I was on top of the world . . . I only felt complete trust and love for this man that held me aloft so effortlessly.”

Her written tribute to her father is filled with delightful

anecdotes about his life on the water. It’s also about a less congested era in Orange County, one that many of us can only imagine. She writes of riding her horse to the beach and selling abalone shells for her father in front of the San Juan Capistrano Mission.

What you learn from the book is how complete Harrison’s commitment to the ocean really was. Long before anybody had ever heard of him, he was working lobster traps, shark fishing, racing boats and making beach hats out of palm fronds. And, of course, he never missed a grunion run. Long before he got into the surfboard design business, Harrison was a commercial fisherman.

Clark, now 57, writes of her father’s abalone fishing period just after World War II: “A day could start at 5 a.m. to go out diving; and if they had a good day, it wasn’t uncommon for the processing to last until 2 or 3 a.m. Many of the restaurants insisted on fresh abs instead of frozen. It was important that this process be completed as quickly as possible in order that the abalones retain that rich, delicate flavor.”

With his second wife, Cecilia, and their growing family piled into his car, Harrison would deliver the abalone to restaurants from Santa Monica to Carlsbad. But never on Saturday or Sunday. Clark explains: “Those were reserved for surfing.”

Clark told me that she first talked about doing the book with her father before he died in 1993. After his death, she said, she was determined to pursue the project. It was while she was putting the book together that she learned just how widespread her father’s popularity was. Surfers all over the world have told her about his influence on them.

The book runs $35. Clark, who splits her time between homes in Montana and Surfside here, will sign copies today from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Heritage of San Clemente building, 415 N. El Camino Real.

The book includes lots of pictures of Clark’s father doing the things he loved. I don’t think you can read it without wishing you had known Whitey Harrison.

Courtroom Repeaters: Esperanza High of Anaheim got a new coach this year for its mock trial competition. But that didn’t seem to hurt any. Esperanza this week again won the county competition in Thursday’s final round. The Esperanza team now goes on to try to win the state title.

The competition, which began with 48 schools, is sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County.

Fair Weather Any Time: About the only time some of us make it to the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa is when the County Fair runs each year in July. But the fairgrounds operate year-round. I just got a peek at the 1998 schedule. A six-month sampling:

Dog, gun, travel and computer shows will run in January.

Bird, sports collector and home remodeling shows come in February. That’s also the month for the big Train, Dollhouse and Toy Show.

March brings in an Amish quilt and craft show, an antiques expo, and motorcycle racing.

The huge annual Youth Expo runs in April, with 15,000 students expected.

In May, it’s the Scottish Games, put on by the United Scottish Society. If you’re into reptiles, they come that month too.

Also: If you miss the February cat show, don’t worry, there’s another one in March.

You can get a great many more details from the Orange County Fairgrounds’ new Web site: https://www.ocfair.com.

Wrap-Up: “This is my church,” Whitey Harrison often told his daughter Rosie, referring to the beach and the ocean and the sky. One of his favorite church sites was Hawaii, where he and his wife, Cecilia, owned a home. It was there that he died at age 80, after a morning swim.

Clark writes of the Hawaiian memorial service: “It was held in a quiet little cover surrounded by lava and trees . . . next to the break wall where he liked to surf.

“Several dozen surfers laden with leis paddled out over the clear water, followed by the four outrigger canoes carrying family and friends. The brilliant colored coral below seemed to reach up to meet his ashes as they were placed into his beloved sea. . . . Then we all leaped into the water to share our tears and hugs in a celebration of his life.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by call-ing The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823, by fax at (714) 966-7711 or by e-mail at jerry.hicks@latimes.com.