Surfing Walk of Fame inducts its class of 2026
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Patti Paniccia said she read in the pamphlet for Thursday’s Surfing Walk of Fame induction ceremony that the six honorees would have insightful and illuminating speeches.
So Paniccia, the Woman of the Year honoree, decided to use artificial intelligence to craft the start of her speech.
“Getting this recognition is like totally gnarly, and I’m completely stoked to the max,” Paniccia said, to laughs from the audience along Main Street in Huntington Beach. “Talk about hanging 10 on the boulevard.”
Paniccia stopped herself.
“It went on, but I’ll just take it from there,” she said. “I don’t think ChatGPT surfs.”
The authenticity of the honorees shone through during the ceremony.
Jordy Smith (surf champion), Dean Torrence (honor roll), Phil Roberts (surf culture), Mike Purpus (surf pioneer) and Joey Hawkins (local hero) were the other five inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame.
Hawkins suffered a back injury when he was on the Huntington Beach High surf team, and began longboarding to recover. He became a master on the longer board with his aggressive style, winning the 1992 World Championships in France to end a six-year run on top by Australians.
Peter “P.T.” Townend, the first world surf champion in 1976, said that Hawkins is one of just three world surf champions from Huntington Beach, joining fellow Walk of Fame honorees Scott Farnsworth and Janice Aragon, who won at the ISA World Surf Championships in 1984.
Torrence, a Huntington Beach resident, was half of the popular group Jan and Dean. They popularized surf music in the 1960s, including with the song “Surf City.”
Among his comments, he credited Townend for making sure his name was spelled correctly on his plaque.
“I actually have a Grammy with my name misspelled, and I gave it away,” Torrence said.
Purpus has been surfing for 67 years, and still keeps it going now in the South Bay Boardriders Surf Series.
One of surfing’s most colorful characters, he once posed nude for Playgirl magazine and appeared on the ABC show “The Dating Game.”
“Everybody asks me how long I’ve been surfing,” Purpus said. “I started surfing when my mom’s water broke, and I’ve been surfing ever since.”
Smith, from South Africa, jump-started his career in Huntington Beach with a gold at the ISA World Surfing Games in 2006. He was a two-time World No. 2 finisher, in both 2010 and 2016.
Roberts, an artist, got his start illustrating covers for surf magazines and is well-known for his caricature paintings.
Paniccia, a Hawaii native, helped expand opportunities for female surfers during her career as one of the original World Tour female surfers, and after.
Nate Stacy of San Clemente was the honoree of the MacAllister Scholarship Award, given to any surfer in a high school surf program who is a scholar and gives back to the community.
