Hermosa’s Surf Legends Memorial Fountain

[Marianne]

I was alerted to this thru Joy. I hadn't heard about it yet even though it was approved in 2003 by the City Council. It's a great idea:

HERMOSA’S SURF LEGENDS MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN

On October 28, 2003, the City Council unanimously approved the installation of a memorial statue/fountain commemorating Hermosa’s great surfing heritage. The City is raising funds to construct this surf motif fountain on the lawn in front of the historic Hermosa Beach Auditorium at PCH and Pier. The fountain will be a full-size bronze replica of the famous photo of Dewey Weber surfing 22nd Street in Hermosa Beach taken by Leroy Grannis (“Granny”), in 1966. Water jets will simulate the spray from Dewey’s trademark “Wheelhouse” cutback. Around the base of the fountain will be photo-etched granite tiles depicting the legendary surfers/watermen who emerged from the Hermosa area. Special thanks Granny, Steve Wilkings and Doc Ball, all Hermosan locals and famous surf photographers, for capturing these classic moments and providing the photos. Also special thanks to artist Phil Roberts for the beautiful rendering of the fountain.

This memorial will preserve for posterity the classic surf stories from the “good old days” when Hermosa Beach was at the epicenter of this new sport. The ancient Hawaiian sport of surfing was first introduced to the “mainland” when George Freeth came to the South Bay in 1909. By the ‘40s there was a hardcore group of surfers riding their heavy wooden “planks”, without aid of wetsuits or leashes, year-round in the South Bay surf. During the ‘60s and ‘70s the surf shops were lined up along PCH in Hermosa Beach (called “surfboard row” as quoted by Steve Pezman, publisher of Surfer’s Journal). The amount of legendary surf talent in one area is unparalleled, with Velzey, “Da Bull”, Jacobs, Bing, Dewey, Purpus, Becker, and many more surfing at the Pier or 22nd Street and creating new board designs in their shaping rooms. These are the roots of what led to the sport enjoyed by millions today.

Mike Purpus wrote in Easy Reader (9/2/04) … “Dewey Weber may have only stood 5-feet-5 but he was the P.T. Barnum of the surfing world and by the mid ‘60s he was the biggest show on both coasts. He was the originator of the hot dog surfing style that is used today…This Hermosa Beach Surf Legends Memorial Fountain is perfect in every way for the city and every surf shop, wetsuit company, surf school operator, surfer and surfing enthusiast should help build it.”

The walk area around the fountain will be paved with personally engraved bricks. This project is funded through tax deductible donations for the bricks (at $200 each) as a grassroots effort to help keep alive the surfing soul of the great City of Hermosa Beach. You will also receive an 8” x 10” photograph of Dewey personally signed by Leroy Grannis with each brick purchase. Special recognition will be given to large donors.

Please help us achieve this ambitious goal!

Call City Public Works at (310) 318-0211 for additional information or check out our website at www.HBSurfLegends.org

Here is the current list of donations:

http://www.hbsurflegends.org/donate.html

We're purchasing some bricks today. Hope some of you do too!

[oldcrow]

Originally Posted by Marianne

I was alerted to this thru Joy. I hadn't heard about it yet even though it was approved in 2003 by the City Council. It's a great idea:

HERMOSA’S SURF LEGENDS MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN

On October 28, 2003, the City Council unanimously approved the installation of a memorial statue/fountain commemorating Hermosa’s great surfing heritage. The City is raising funds to construct this surf motif fountain on the lawn in front of the historic Hermosa Beach Auditorium at PCH and Pier. The fountain will be a full-size bronze replica of the famous photo of Dewey Weber surfing 22nd Street in Hermosa Beach taken by Leroy Grannis (“Granny”), in 1966. Water jets will simulate the spray from Dewey’s trademark “Wheelhouse” cutback. Around the base of the fountain will be photo-etched granite tiles depicting the legendary surfers/watermen who emerged from the Hermosa area. Special thanks Granny, Steve Wilkings and Doc Ball, all Hermosan locals and famous surf photographers, for capturing these classic moments and providing the photos. Also special thanks to artist Phil Roberts for the beautiful rendering of the fountain.

This memorial will preserve for posterity the classic surf stories from the “good old days” when Hermosa Beach was at the epicenter of this new sport. The ancient Hawaiian sport of surfing was first introduced to the “mainland” when George Freeth came to the South Bay in 1909. By the ‘40s there was a hardcore group of surfers riding their heavy wooden “planks”, without aid of wetsuits or leashes, year-round in the South Bay surf. During the ‘60s and ‘70s the surf shops were lined up along PCH in Hermosa Beach (called “surfboard row” as quoted by Steve Pezman, publisher of Surfer’s Journal). The amount of legendary surf talent in one area is unparalleled, with Velzey, “Da Bull”, Jacobs, Bing, Dewey, Purpus, Becker, and many more surfing at the Pier or 22nd Street and creating new board designs in their shaping rooms. These are the roots of what led to the sport enjoyed by millions today.

Mike Purpus wrote in Easy Reader (9/2/04) … “Dewey Weber may have only stood 5-feet-5 but he was the P.T. Barnum of the surfing world and by the mid ‘60s he was the biggest show on both coasts. He was the originator of the hot dog surfing style that is used today…This Hermosa Beach Surf Legends Memorial Fountain is perfect in every way for the city and every surf shop, wetsuit company, surf school operator, surfer and surfing enthusiast should help build it.”

The walk area around the fountain will be paved with personally engraved bricks. This project is funded through tax deductible donations for the bricks (at $200 each) as a grassroots effort to help keep alive the surfing soul of the great City of Hermosa Beach. You will also receive an 8” x 10” photograph of Dewey personally signed by Leroy Grannis with each brick purchase. Special recognition will be given to large donors.

Please help us achieve this ambitious goal!

Call City Public Works at (310) 318-0211 for additional information or check out our website at www.HBSurfLegends.org

Here is the current list of donations:

http://www.hbsurflegends.org/donate.html

We're purchasing some bricks today. Hope some of you do too!

As long as the Veteran's memorial(of which I was a committee member at the ripe age of 17) is not in the same view I can dig it.

[Marianne]

What do you mean "in the same view," Old Crow?

[oldcrow]

Originally Posted by Marianne

What do you mean "in the same view," Old Crow?

I mean they shouldn't be on top of each other. I'm assuming they will put the Surfer memorial where the entrance to the Auditorium is located, next to the ramp .

[oldcrow]

I'll answer the ones I can...

1. How many veterans are honored on the wall?

Every veteran is honored. Every Service is represented. The memorial is a sundial ,which symbolizes that "Veterans are timeless" , the motto on the memorial

2. Who funded it?

Private donors. TRW(now Northrop Grumman),Raytheon,Learned Lumber,Kiwanis for example.

3. How long has it been around?

1993

5. How many veterans are still living? Who are they?

You'll have to ask the Department of Defense that one.

6. Which wars or time are we honoring these veterans for?

See answer 1.

7. Do you have a one-sheet on it?

No. (I used to be in a band ,so I do know what a one-sheet is)

8. Are you in contact with the veterans still living?

A few. One of my buddies I was down playing volleyball with at the beach today is leaving for Iraq tomorrow(1/17/2007).

9. Would you be able to gather them together at some point down the road?

Many gather there every Veterans Day since it has been finished.

10. Have we done anything to honor our recent veterans who have been serving overseas lately?

This last Veterans Day the keynote speaker at the Veterans Day commemoration had just returned from overseas.

[oldcrow]

Originally Posted by thejoywriter

I think I'm getting the hang of this quote stuff and have put my comments in caps to make it (hopefully) easier to find. Sorry if you all think I'm shouting. I'm not...



VERY COOL. THANKS FOR TAKING TIME TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS. REALLY APPRECIATE IT!

No problem.

And those dates for my friend leaving to Iraq should be 2008! I always friggin do that for the first month of the new year!

[Marianne]

Thanks, Old Crow. Here is a color version of the statue and approx. where it would go...

[Marianne]

We visited the Public Works Director Rick Morgan yesterday and got that image. Rick has been championing this project for four years.

Either a fountain version could be built or simply a bronze version. If they raise enough money to do the fountain, you have to imagine the base of the fountain to be much wider to catch all the splash. The water would be designed to look like white wash from a wave. It could be very cool.

Also, plaques of etched photos on granite of other famous surfers would encircle the base of the fountain. The statue and all of the plaque etchings are based on the photos of LeRoy Grannis, a famous surfing photographer.

[Marianne]

Here is the original Easy Reader article on the statue:

http://easyreadernews.com/story.php?...ate=2003-12-04

[Marianne]

Here's some info on the famous photographer. It's his famous picture of Dewey that the statue is based on.

LEROY GRANNIS BIO
by Steve Pezman (Publisher of The Surfer's Journal - http://www.SurfersJournal.com/)

LeRoy Grannis was born in Hermosa Beach on August 12,1917 and began surfing in the early 1930s. It was a good time to be a surfer in California. The ocean was clean and largely unpopulated, especially by other surfers; maybe several hundred comprised the entire state's surf population at that time. SoCal surfing centered around Santa MonicaNenice, South Bay/ PV Cove, Long Beach, Corona Del Mar, (when the jetties were extended, San Onofre replaced the Newport Bay harbor entrance waves for the displaced COM crew around 1934/35), and Pacific Beach and Sunset Cliffs in San Diego. Granny and his surf buddies such as Doc Ball, Hoppy Swarts, Tule Clark, and a hardy crew of young mostly male enthusiasts surfed it all but called the South Bay piers and nearby Paddleboard Cove home.

During the later 30s and into the 40s, Doc, inspired by the late 20s and 30s surf photography of Tom Blake, began making a photo record of his clan's daily surfs and travels that now serve as the defining "early period" visual record of our sport. In 1960, LeRoy was advised by his doctor to take up a hobby in addition to riding the waves, and influenced by Doc's work, began generating his own photographic view of surfing. At the time, Dr. Don James, John Severson, and a scant few others were active with still surf photography. Surfer magazine, started in 1960 by Severson, followed by "Surfing Illustrated' co-founded by LeRoy, "Petersen's International Surfing" and a steady flow of other occasional new attempts helped fuel the hunger for surf photos.

As the sport continued to grow, new waves of photographers were attracted to taking photos of wave riding with the photographers developing their own celebrity amongst aficionados of the sport, relative to the stoke level of the images they published. It was during that period that LeRoy took the photo of Dewey Weber that will serve as a statuary tribute to Dewey and to the formative role of surfing in the South Bay culture.

Dewey was known for being radical in all ways. AAU wrestler, Duncan YoYo champ, Buster Brown in-a-shoe, famed surfboard builder, pulling off whip-like cutbacks and tip-rides specialized to the South Bay's quick waves, wearing flashy red trunks and with while blond hair flOWing, he was the quintessential metaphor for California surfing.

Through the later 60s and into the 70s, as Don James gradually tailed off and Stoner disappeared, Grannis powered on, both in California and North Shore Oahu arenas, while inspiring and mentoring such new talents as Steve Wilkings (Bay Cities Surf Club/Manhattan Beach). During the 70s, LeRoy became a pioneer recorder of the new-borne hang gliding movement and, as such, is regarded with equal reverence by that cult of sportsmen.

Continuing his photography through the 1980s and into the late 90s, Grannis complied an unbroken record of the evolution of the sport from 1960 to current day. Through the years, as his picture taking slowed, he has enjoyed an increasing demand for his prints. What at first amounted to selling prints off his kitchen table to the surfers in the photos for ten bucks apiece, has turned into major Beverly Hills and New York City gallery shows, with expensively produced, collector quality reproductions selling for thousands of dollars each.

As a wonderful tribute to LeRoy, he is the first surf photographer to have his work regarded and valued as fine art. While not the most technical, inventive, nor artsy-fartsy maker of photographic images of surfing, LeRoy, being a stubbornly incessant presence during every good day or event within his range of choice for all those decades, recorded honest and highly engaging tableaus that now charm the socks of the art world and surf world alike. Several books and calendars of his images have been published in recent years, first by The Surfer's Journal, then a heroic tomb by German publisher Tashen, a lavish special edition volume that sold out at $1000 each. As for LeRoy who is now turning 90, he's amused that all the money and fame have come "too late for Kate (his wife of 60-years) and I to enjoy." But as he says with a smirk, always the practical one, "Better late than never."