Leucadia Surf School owner Gerry Kantor and his brother Phil Kantor in this early contest at La Jolla Shores. Shot originally in 8mm, from the collection of Kantor family home movies.
My father, standing on the right. Airforce bomber crew during WWII, was shot down over Germany during the war. He jumped out with a parachute, was captured by the Germans and put into in a POW camp, and lived to tell the tale, and take me and my brothers to the beach and teach us about the ocean and waves when we were little kids. Born into it because my father survived WWII.
Dwain Kantor, father of Leucadia Surf School owner Gerry Kantor, in 1946 San Diego Lifeguards Group photo.
People often ask me where is my favorite place to surf. And I have to say, that I have a favorite place AND TIME to surf, which is the Bay of Biscay, a spot called Boucou, in the 1970's in France. Boucou means (phonetically anyway) "very much." This place we called Very Much. It was … Continue reading Way Back in Time at the Bay of Biscay
We have been in business a long time. We used to make a video of every surf camp. We don't anymore, but we have all the videos still of years gone by. This one from way back in the summer of 2011 when we had just moved our camp from Grandview, to Moonlight Beach.
Sid Madden grew up right up the street from Swamis, and was a super star of local surfers, though a very humble guy, and always friendly to all.I have been getting surfboards from him since the 1970s, and now have three. (In the 1970's, I used to get rounded pintails from him. I probably got … Continue reading Sidney Madden – Encinitas original
As told by Woody Brown in Legendary Surfers .com special thanks to Legendary Surfers.com for this interview http://www.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/woody.shtml#dickie_cross122243 This is an account of the death of big wave hawaiian pioneer Dickie Cross, when Woody Brown and Dickie Cross paddled out at big Sunset in 1943, as told by survivor Woody Brown. WOODY BROWN: "In the … Continue reading The story of losing Dickie Cross in big surf at Sunset Beach in Hawaii in 1943
THE FIRST WETSUITS IN SURFING The only westsuits were for skin diving, and usually were very uncomfortable and gave you a nasty deep rash in the sides of the neck and the armpits, so that you could barely move. It was a toss up between being freezing cold in 57-58 degree waters, or … Continue reading Extreme old school – Surfing without a wetsuit!
San Diego has always had more surf than anywhere else on the California coast, but that was not recognized by the media until the last 20 years. Meanwhile, we quietly got our waves down here in San Diego.
