PART THREE IN A SERIES
Looking back with Dick Metz
SURFIN ’
SAFARI
DICK METZ WENT ON A WORLDWIDE WAVE-RIDING EXPEDITION IN THE LATE 1950S THAT HELPED TO INSPIRE THE FILM “ THE ENDLESS SUMMER .”
By SHARON STELLO
Dick Metz was itching to see the world — and ride the killer waves he knew must be out there . After growing up in Laguna Beach during the Great Depression and experiencing the evolution of surfing , starting as a young grom taught by local legends , he decided in 1958 to set out on an adventure . With a rucksack and $ 2,200 in traveler ’ s checks , he stepped up to the curb in front of The Sandpiper Lounge , stuck out his thumb and waited for a ride .
He planned to visit Tahiti , Australia and Africa , attend the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 and run with the bulls in Pamplona , Spain . “ Those were the five things . I had no idea how I was going to get to any of them ,” he says . Metz ’ s world travels , which spanned three years , would help inspire the film “ The Endless Summer .” He would go on to open and manage Hobie Surf Shop locations across the country as well as establish the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente — but first , he had to get halfway around the globe in a time when airplanes didn ’ t fly to his first destination .
His plan , based on a tip he had read , was to reach the French embassy in Panama and arrange a ride on a French Foreign Legion ship , which stopped in Tahiti ( a French possession back then ) 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 .”
Dick Metz with Patty ( Krause ) Gerstle on the beach in Cape Town , South Africa , in 1959
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