Flash back to summer of 1968.
I am in the prime of my professional surfing career and did a lot of traveling to different places to surf. I worked for Hobie Surfboards and one of the great perks of the job was use of the Hobie Surf Team Ford Econoline Van and travel expenses covered.
I always did my best to promote the brand, and it worked out well for both of us.
One of my favorite destinations in late summer was the Pacific Northwest. There are tons of great waves up there and at that time there were very few surfers riding them. It is cold though. Very cold. But incredibly beautiful, too.
On one of these trips north, my wife at the time, Cheryl, and I were driving up the coast roads, Highway 1 and 101. We would do the coast one way and the inland freeway the other.
On this trip, we were driving up and were well north of San Fransisco. We came to the town of Garberville and as we were getting to the town, I remembered that I heard somewhere that Dr. John “Doc” Ball lived there and was the town dentist.
Doc Ball is the guy who published the first book on surfing, “California Surfriders,” back in the 1940s. I had met him once before at some surf event and we had a great talk, I liked him a lot. Super good energy.
So, I am thinking it would be cool to stop and say hello. And just as I was thinking this, low and behold I see the sign on the front of his office. “Doctor John Ball, Dentistry.” Shazam, there it was right there. So, I pulled in and walked inside.
I was wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. When the receptionist saw me I guess she figured I was a surfing friend and just told me to “go on back, he is working on another surfer.”
I opened the door and there was Doc with a big ol’ smile on his face. He looked up and saw me and let out a big hoot. Then he pointed at the man in the chair, who was also wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, and says, “Do you know Tom Blake?“
Wow! This was a guy who had been a major part of surf history from way before me. He is the guy recognized as the first to put a fin (skeg) on a surfboard. Many of the boards he made back in the middle of the 1900s are on display in the Bishop Museum in Hawaii. This guy was a huge part of the evolution of surfboard design in Hawaii during the years that boards were big heavy redwood and pine beasts. He is one of the pioneers.
I was in shock. How cool this was. I had never met Tom before, he was already well into his 60s at the time. Here he was sitting in Doc Ball’s dentist chair getting his teeth worked on and reaching out to shake my hand. Classic.
We wound up spending the night. Doc invited all the local surfers over and he showed his old surf films from the early days, guys riding paddleboards and redwoods. He also had film of the local surf spots and of himself wading through giant snowbanks to get to the water. He was also in his 60s at the time.
Tom was amazing, full of good energy just like Doc. Between the two of them, we heard first-hand accounts of all sorts of great surf events and adventures from before I was even born. What started off to be just a chance encounter turned into one of my very favorite memories and surf stories.
The next day we left and headed north towards Oregon. There was one other happening of note on that trip. We got stuck in the “Drive-Thru Tree.” It’s a pretty funny tale, I will get back to it at a later date.
Crazy things happen when you least expect them. Meeting Tom Blake and getting stuck in a van in a tree are perfect examples for me.
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