I was pleased to receive the announcement of the inductees into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame for 2024.
This year the surfing greats who are getting the nod are Hawaiians Ilima Kalama and Jamie O’Brian, along with the excellent Huntington Beach local star Jeff Deffenbaugh. A solid lineup for sure.
The induction ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. on Aug. 2 in the plaza at the corner of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway in front of Huntington Surf & Sport. The event is open to the public at no charge. It’s a great way to kick off the U.S. Open of Surfing week.
The Surfers’ Hall of Fame has always been a highlight of the surfing year for me. I had the honor of being inducted a while back, one of the thrills of my surf career, for sure. But also, I have been fortunate enough to have been invited on and off over the years as a guest emcee for the induction ceremonies.
Just got the invite to be back for this year and am totally stoked to be a part of it one more time.
Huge thanks to Aaron Pai of Huntington Surf & Sport for making this happen. Not only for inviting me, but for making the whole thing happen. The SHOF was his idea in the first place. The first year was 1997, and 27 years later it has become one of the greatest honors that a surfer can receive.
Aaron’s concept was to emulate the concrete slabs placed in front of the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Movie stars had their hand prints set into the concrete for everybody to see.
The feeling was that this would be a great way to immortalize the surfers who had been inducted, and also include their footprints.
He had no idea what an art it would be to be able to get the prints set into the wet cement at exactly the right moment in the drying process. Over the years, his crew has gotten this part down to a science.
Unfortunately, one year a certain guest emcee, while speaking to the crowd and moving around the area, accidently stepped right into a freshly drying slab featuring Tom Curran. Super embarrassing. Tom had to redo it and it totally wiped out one of my tennis shoes. Humph.
The list of former inductees is the who’s who in surfing. Just to name some of them: Phil Edwards, Mike Doyle, Shaun Tomson, L.J. Richards, Joyce Hoffman, Linda Benson, Mickey Munoz, Robert August, Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, Margo Oberg, Lisa Anderson, George Downing, Gerry Lopez, David Nuuhiwa, Paul Strauch, Peter Townend, Mark Richards, Timmy Turner, Laird Hamilton, Kai Lenny and more.
The cream of the sport and lifestyle.
I will get more in-depth on this year’s inductees during the weeks that lead up to the event. But for now, I will give you a brief rundown so that you have a good idea of who they are.
Ilima Kalama is a Hawaiian-born super surfer and waterman. He came to the mainland in the early 1960s and became a lifeguard for the city of Huntington Beach. In 1962, he won the United States Surfing Championship at the Huntington Beach Pier in very large and challenging surf.
He later went on to become an expert downhill skier and resident of Mammoth Mountain. Today he resides back in Huntington Beach and is a prominent member of the local surfing community. Ilima can be seen most any morning having breakfast at the Sugar Shack on Main Street.
Jeff Deffenbaugh grew up in the shadow of the Huntington Beach Pier, along with his also famous brother Barry. Jeff was the U.S. junior champ as a rising star and later won the Katin Team Challenge two times, as well as surfing as a member of the NSSA National Surf Team along with Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Taylor Knox and Pat O’ Connell, among others.
Jamie O’Brian is more known for just being “Jamie O’Brian,” than for his list of accomplishments. He is one of those personality kinda people. A celebrity who is famous for just being himself.
He grew up right in front of the Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu. He was surfing the place when he was a tiny kid, much like Laird Hamilton. He was one of the youngest “Pipe Masters” in 2004. Contests grew old for him after starting in them at the age of 6. By 18, he was burned out and looking to do something else. He became a traveler and film maker, and somewhat of an ambassador of surfing around the world.
Stay tuned for more on the Surfers’ Hall of Fame during the month of July. And see you at the ceremony on Aug 2.
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