Living Up to Nickname Surf City

In what has become one of the more appealing rites of summer, the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach has inducted seven new members.

Those living outside California may think of surfers as beach layabouts with no interest in anything but wave height. Indeed, movies and advertising have latched onto the surfer’s word “dude” and transformed it into the signature utterance of someone whose intelligence is less than top-drawer.

The reality, fortunately, is different. It’s easily seen daily at the beach, in the periodic surfing championships along the coast and in the annual Huntington Beach ceremonies.

Consider the O’Neill wetsuit. It’s so commonplace on cold days that no one stops to wonder who O’Neill is. It turns out it’s Jack O’Neill, entrepreneur in the classic mold.

O’Neill disliked cold water but liked to surf. After considerable experimenting, he created what we know today as the wetsuit. That got him into the Surfing Walk of Fame. O’Neill also sponsors an educational program in the San Francisco area to teach children care of the environment.

Joining O’Neill at the ceremony was Frieda Zamba, one of surfing’s best-known women. Zamba won four championships in the 1980s and called her inclusion in the Walk of Fame a “tremendous honor.”

Peter Townend, another inductee, received deserved salutes for helping with the transition of surfing from strictly a hobby to an endeavor whose stars actually could make money. Two decades ago, before corporate sponsorships and contracts, Townend traveled the world to compete. He rated his colleagues and the events they staged and helped encourage the notion that competitions could become good economics.

Days after the inductions, surfing as a business was evident at the Op Pro contest, held on a suitably sunny day in Huntington Beach. Hawaiian Andy Irons won, picking up a $15,000 check for the victory. Event organizers put the crowd at 35,000, a recognition of the importance of the sport in Southern California. Thanks are due to Huntington Beach, the self-proclaimed “Surf City,” for its Walk of Fame and encouragement of the sport that has a firm place in local culture.