THIS SPREAD : COURTESY OF SURFING HERITAGE AND CULTURE CENTER / DICK METZ COLLECTION / SHACC . ORG |
surfing . … I didn ’ t pester them too bad , I guess , and we were friends for life .”
Back then , surfing wasn ’ t very popular because the boards were heavy , wetsuits hadn ’ t been invented yet and the Pacific Ocean was cold . Plus , guys were more interested in playing sports like football and baseball . But as boards became lighter , interest grew . People started to have money and time for recreation after the war ; servicemen returned and began demanding more time off , changing the workweek from six days to five . With a full weekend , they could hop in the car , drive to the beach and try catching a wave .
“ This is when surfing took off ,” Metz says , noting that lightweight boards helped fuel the craze . “ Girls could start surfing , young kids could surf . So all of a sudden , in the ’ 50s , it became a real sport . … Boards were lighter and clothes came out that surfers could really wear , and
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wetsuits . … It started in the ‘ 50s , but … the ’ 60s were really the growth years in surfing .”
THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME After college and a brief stint in the Army , Metz was managing a liquor store in Huntington Beach ( at the behest of his dad ) when he wasn ’ t out surfing or poring over magazines that showed exotic destinations he was itching to visit in person . Metz says he sold the shop ’ s liquor license to a guy from Disneyland — which was being developed at the time — paid off his debts , sold his car and set off hitchhiking with a rucksack and $ 2,200 in traveler ’ s checks . He began this three-year global expedition in 1958 from the curb in front of The Sandpiper Lounge in Laguna , where he had worked as a bartender .
“ I wanted to go to Tahiti . I wanted to
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go to Australia , because I knew there had to be surf in Australia . I wanted to go to Africa and see wild animals , elephants and rhinos and wild tribes . … I wanted to go to the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 . … And I wanted to go run with the bulls in Pamplona , Spain , “ Metz says . “ Those were the five things . I had no idea how I was going to get to any of them .”
There were no airplanes that flew to Tahiti ; the only way to get there was by ship . He had read that if you got to the French embassy in Panama , you could get a ride on a French Foreign Legion ship , which stopped in Tahiti ( a French possession at the time ) on the way to taking troops to the French-Indochina War in what ’ s now Vietnam . “ You never know when the ships are going to come ,” Metz says . “ It ’ s not like they ’ re scheduled . And so I just took a chance .” / To be continued …
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LAGUNA BEACH MAGAZINE 43 |