Huntington Beach remembers surfing greats - OCRegister

Hall and Walk: Huntington Beach is home to two – some would say "dueling" – honor roles of the top names in surf history. The Huntington Beach Walk of Fame is the older of the two, with the first inductees in 1995. It's in front of Jack's Surfboards at corner of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway. Across Main Street is the Hall of Fame, within the Huntington Beach Surf & Sport, which started inductions in 2002. The two usually hold their annual ceremonies a day or so apart in late July or early August, during the U.S. Open of Surfing, the premier surf contest in terms of audience popularity, to be held in Southern California.

The Walk of Fame official statement says "Each year the Walk of Fame selection committee compiles a comprehensive ballot of qualified candidates with the help of cooperating surf associations, museums, magazines, and other media organizations. The ballots broken down into five categories of achievement, are then distributed to an international panel of surfing authorities who cast their votes to decide which candidates will receive the coveted stones. Surf culture - nominated from the arts and/or administration field and must have helped create a define surfing culture."

Inductees have included surf guitarist Dick Dale, surfwear pioneer Jack O'Neill, surfboard and boating legend Hobie Alter, and "Endless Summer" filmmaker Bruce Brown. Males surfing champions honored include Rob Machado, Sunny Garcia, Ian Cairns, Andy Irons, "Rabbit" Bartholomew, Tom Carrol, "PT" Townend, and Mark Curren. Early era surfers such as Rabbitt Kekai, Eddie Aikau, Gerry Lopez, Dale Velzy, Gregg Noll and Duke Kahanamoku are honored, as are local heroes Bill Fury and Corky Carroll. Women surfers honored include Debbie Beacham, Kathy "Gidget" Kohner-Zuckerman, Layne Beachley, Lisa Anderso and Jericho Poppler. Also included are those that influenced surf culture such as the "Hole in the Wall" gang of La Jolla surfers immortalized in Tom Wolfe's "The Pumphouse Gang"

The Huntington Beach Surfing Hall of Fame says it chooses "inductees based on a contribution, dedication, integrity and revolution to the sport of surfing." The 2011 Inductees were Chuck Linnen, George Downing, Simon Anderson and Taylor Knox. Past inductees include Stephanie Gilmore, Pat O'Connell, Mike Parsons, Brad Gerlach, Sofia Bulanovich, Kelly Slater, Laird Hamilton, and Robert "Wingnut" Weaver.

Many of the "hall" inductees have also been inducted into the "walk."

After touring the nearby Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum and the two spots that honor surfers, head across Pacific Coast Highway to the beach where so much surfing history has been made. A good vantage point is from the Huntington Beach pier, with the surfers congregating on the south side. Winter is the best time for big waves, but the most surfers are out on summer weekends. If you are lucky, you might see someone try to "shoot the pier," a move that only the best surfers should try.

For a full list of members, go to www.surfingwalkoffame.com or www.hsssurf.com. Both lists can be accessed off the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum website at www.surfingmuseum.org