Sidewalk Surfin’, StingRays & Hessians • Life in Surf City 1968
The 'Chopper', post-Sting Ray wanna-be. Definitely Not Cool for School.
The year was 1967 or ’68, Somewhere in There..I was hanging in Downtown Huntington Beach ~ Surf City USA. I never lived there when I was a kid (I did later) My Cousin Joey Batchelor did. Joey looked & acted exactly like a 9 year-old Jan Michael -Vincent. He was Just Like that guy. Spitting image. Blonde straight surfer hair, all over on one side. We were Hell-Raisers. Joey & his Mom Marlene & her other kids lived in this Thrasher Spanish Bunglalow right on the PCH in Huntington. Man, that lady could not Keep House at all. It was always a Pigsty. It was just near the Gordie Surfboards Shop. It’s Long Gone but Gordie’s was a Classic Calif. Surf Shop, 8 & 9-foot longboards all lined up out front, Tropical Pastel colors, redwood stringers, Pre-Shortboard Era. Oil Wells for a backyard. Stainky things, they were still Everywhere then, leftover from the whole 20’s ‘There Will Be Blood’ Era.
My Dad had been dating Joey’s Mom but ended marrying her Twin Sister. Damn, that must have burned her. What a Player. I had to Shake my Head at his Macho Gall even then. So I would Go Down there & Hang & we would Skate the whole Downtown. This is all way pre-Dogtown Z-Boys era. Joey was a year younger than me but we were always Competing on Everything, about Even. My Swinging 60’s Dad had married Joey’s Mom’s Sister by then so I inherited a fresh Brother & Sister & several Cousins, including Joey. Me & Joey ( I know, but that’s how I would’ve said it back then), used to skateboard down Main Street in Huntington Beach to Downtown, Main & PCH, Surf City Ground Zero. We had been shredding the concrete outdoor hallways of our school already for a few years. We made our 1st skateboards from 2×4’s, and we would schmooze the neighborhood girls & snag their Roller Derby white lace-up roller skates & pry the riveted-on wheels off with a screwdriver. Hammer the plates flat & nail ’em to the bottom of the 2×4. Skateboard ! STEEL 3/8″ wide wheels, no trucks, Pre-Clay wheels, Way Pre-Urethane. We didn’t ride pools like the Z-Boys later in Dogtown Venice did later. We had no concept of pool riding. We were ‘Sidewalk Surfers’ shredding the flat concrete. There was this one corner, a hard right-hand 90-degree downhill sweeper, that was Dead Man’s Curve. You would always hit the smallest rock & Go Flying trying to make it. Sprained ankles, wrists, raspberry knees & elbows, ripped-up pants. Standard Skater Fashionistos.
Then Came Revelation! A Revolution! Clay Wheels. 3 times as wide as Steelies! Stores started carrying manufactured Skateboards. My first store-bought skater was The Black Knight. An Oak plywood deck with real clay wheels, badass ball bearings & trucks, actual turning-action & all-round a totally new machine.
Now we could shred the Banks on the local Miniature Golf Course. We’d sneak in there at night & just burn up the Turf.
So now you could hit Dead Man’s Curve & MAKE IT all the time. I saved my allowance for Weeks & bought it at Leonard’s Department Store… Cool Black Knight ! It was around $7. or $8. bucks That was A lot.
We would Skate to the Surf Theater & Checkout the Whole Scene. It was around .75 to go to the movies. Raquel Welch was Up there in a Shredded leather Bikini Bigger than Life. Why can’t SHE be my Mom?
‘Champion Surfer’ Corky Carroll was always Hanging Out down there trying to impress everyone. He was an Ass. Total Short Man Syndrome. Then David Nuuhiwa Came to Town. Corky Shut Up real fast after that. Corky was a Kook.
Joey & I would go drive the Model T Ford Cars-a ride at Knott’s Berry Farm. Knott’s wasn’t a big Theme Park then. It really had been a farm, they had a few rides, the whole place was still very quaint & rural. It was cool. It was right on Beach Blvd. next to the real highway just over the fence. The cars weren’t on tracks, had small engines & ran on gasoline. They went about 20 mph. Pretty fast when you’re 9. Those cars probably had been running that track for 20 years. They were Thrashed. We floored those things for all they were worth.
We would actually pass the Tourists on the Track. It was a Dirt track & you could just literally slide & blow a rooster-tail of Dirt in their Faces. 2 California Kids razzing the Tourists. They Kept & Fixed all the Cars in that Barn there. I wanted to Work there So Bad. Later they put the cars on tracks and paved the track which was Not Happening at all. Like the Autopia slowpoke Cars at Disneyland. We were Not Happy about This. We had already Been Drivin for Real’. So that’s how I learned how to Drive. I was a Pro by 16. Got a 100% on my Test.
We used to go there All the Time. Buena Park. How California of a name is that?
We would buy our StyroFoam Surfboards at the Grocery Store. They cost like $2.99, maybe less.We could stand up & Surf on them ’til they’d break in half. ‘Styrofoam’ was a brand new material then. High-Density surfboard foam came from the Military in WWII originally. But the low-density cheap-o kind was new. Nobody had Cool Plastic Coolers or those ‘GetAway’ ones or whatever they are back then. All there was were the Styrofoam kind with these yellow rope handles on them, like Waterski tow rope. Of course they were just big enough to hold a Sixer, but that did not occur to me then. So many things were still made by hand back then. Everything said ‘Made in Japan’. I guess we Forgave Them.
De Riguer Supermarket Quiver-H.B. Pier Here I Come !
The StyroFoam Surfboards were up in front of the store wrapped in Plastic with the Charcoal and Dog Food. Everybody fed their Dogs canned Dog Food. There was dry then but it was pretty basic. No Dog would Eat it. Steel Cans. Aluminum cans weren’t invented yet. Sodas, Beers, Tuna, all Steel. This all way before Recycling, No IAMS Dog Food for the Eco-Bio Dog like now. People burned their Trash in Outdoor Incinerators in their backyard whenever they wanted. The Neighborhood smelled like a Campfire all the time because people were burning their trash back there – Mexico style. Your basic Household Trash Cans were Steel, like old war-surplus Oil Drums. My Dad would heft those over his head, Clean & Jerk up to a Full Military Press and Carry ’em out.. All the other Dads rolled theirs out to the Curb. Now I do the same thing whenever I pick stuff like that up. But he was a lot Stronger than I’ll Ever be. He drank this beer called Brew 102.
Doing research for this article I come to find that all these people collect old Beer Cans. Buy and sell them on e-Bay, that sort of thing. Too bad they didn’t know us back then, we burned up 100’s of those things in the Backyard incinerator every Saturday, contributing to the demise of the Atmosphere & Environment of the Greater Los Angeles area. We could’ve saved them for 45 years & got all that Beer Money back on e-Bay.
Brew 102.
Not Me. looks Like Dana Point. But you Get The Drift.
Another Big Breakthrough in Modern Technology for us was the Invention of the Schwinn Sting-Ray. We had been riding a whatever hodge-podge of Bikes, and may have already had a Thrasher mini-bike or 2 around by then also. I’ve had so many wheeled vehicles I don’t remember the exact whole cross-over from pedal to power. The Sting-Ray was just THE COOLEST bike back then and it pretty much still is. THIS WAS A MUST-HAVE… If you did not have this bike in your equipment line-up, well it was pretty much the equivalent of not having Air to breathe. Your basic Sting-Ray came in around 5 colors.I could look it up but that just wouldn’t be right about this…I should remember… Red (as shown), A Cool Metallic Blue, Gold and Metallic Green. I think that’s it. I do know you could choose from a Knobby (treaded) tire in back, if you were a Quasi-Moto-Crosser (or ‘MX’ for short) this term had not been invented yet either. In Europe it was called ‘Cross’, I believe. We’ll get to that later. Or, if you were a ‘Dragger’, you could get a cool Drag Slick tire in back. THIS was the Hot Set-Up. You also had your choice of a plain White seat (shown), or Leopard print seat, which was so BEYOND COOL it was almost unbelievable. When I first saw this bike, maybe on T.V., it was almost Diaper Time, a throwback of about 6 years for me at this point.
Red (as shown), A Cool Metallic Blue, Gold and Metallic Green. Wish they had Black.
So FINALLY Xmas came & I got one. It wasn’t exactly the one I wanted. It was Metallic Green & I think had these lame wrap-around 10-speed-style ‘Rams-Horn’ handlebars instead of the Bad-Ass Ape Hangers as shown. Also I got a Knobby tire in back. Well, I was a little peeved, but I was never the kid that spelled out exactly the Christmas List B.S. I always felt that to be a bit presumptuous & damn, my Dad took really good care of me, so I Bit the Bullet on this one.
I never really got over it. Plain Blue with the White seat & Slick was Cool. Very Drag-Style. Leopard seat..beyond Boss, which was we called everything Cool back then. That is SO Boss! That’s What I Really Wanted. But somehow there was a lesson to be learned there somewhere…& even then I knew it. Damn, no Slick. Apparently I never got over the Leopard Seat thing either, because ever since I’ve always loved Leopard-Print. I have some very Cool Leopard Bar-Stools that used to be in my Leopard Bar in my house. Whenever I see a woman with Leopard on, I go Weak in the Knees Immediately.
There were these Bikers that lived a ways away in a Different Neighborhood, on the other side of our school. They had all these Greasy Dirty Harley rigid-frame Panhead choppers in the driveway. They had full-on ‘Colors’, Levi jackets with the sleeves cut off & covered with patches. They had Chains hanging off & Biker Boots, which are Red-Wing railroad Lineman’s or Engineer boots. The Jackets all said HESSIANS on the back, with cool skulls.
These guys were the Real Deal, and we were not supposed to think they were cool, but they were so Counter-Culture, Evil-looking, nasty, dirty with Loud, ratty bikes, well of course, we did. They were Cool. Their beat-down tract house was right on Magnolia Street, directly across the street from the front of our school parking lot. While we were in class they were over there all day raging, in & out, bikes everywhere, front door open, Full-on torn down Panhead motors laying on the Living Room carpet, Grease & Oil Biker Mania. Joey & I Had to Check it Out.
We were specifically Not Allowed to cross Magnolia Street. “Under Any Circumstances”. Yeah,Right ! It was a super-busy street, fast cars hauling ass by, not our ‘hood, too far from home. So of course that’s where we were headed. There was a kid from the Hessian Biker House that went to our school. He was scary, older than us and a Bad-Ass and we didn’t really know him. He Blew us Off. He was a Real Biker Kid. We were just kids.
So One Day we ride our Sting-Rays over there, sort of nearby but not too close so as not to raise attention. We were wearing standard Converse All-Stars and the usual candy-ass JC Penney school gear.
The Chopper Kid comes Flying out the front door Ready To Kill Us or Beat Us Down, so we ride, ride, RIDE as fast as we can back to our street, barely ahead of him. He would’ve Kicked Our Ass. After that, he didn’t come on our block and we didn’t go on his. Mind Your Business.
Federico de California 