Is history important?
Is getting the story right important or does it matter?
After the Surfline thing from a couple weeks ago I got to
thinking about the story of surfing or at least the surfing story of Ventura . How the little mission town then oil town of
Ventura found surfing through a few young guys and how the young surfing
community made up of kids from the towns working class grew to what it is
today.
During the 1960's when surfing first started to grow Ventura
was a pretty isolated town. My first trips to "C" St were spent in a
car on the then 2 lane highway that connected San Fernando Valley
to Ventura . This 2 lane road of at
least 35 miles had one traffic light, at Victoria Ave
on the very east side of Ventura . For perspective, the current path the old
road followed is now a freeway. It's run from Ventura stretches all the way to down town L.A and beyond, as
well, goes up the coast past Santa Barbara. The Ventura Freeway is no less than
6 lanes and as wide a 10 in places now.
Because Ventura
was a pretty serious destination stop the local surfers didn't see that many
visiting surfers. There weren't that
many people surfing in the early to mid sixties in Ventura
so if you did make the day trip to surf "C" St.
you may not even see anybody at the beach.
I remember my first surfing visit. I came with a couple
friends via one of the guys dad who happened to have business in the area so he
brought his kid and 2 buddies and dropped us off at the beach while he went off
on business.
It was a cool overcast day with some small surf peeling down
from the point, maybe about waist high to us. As the day progressed and some of the fog lifted I could see the
bigger surf up the point and a few guys up there surfing. Granted I was young
and not that experienced but looking up the point and seeing bigger surf and a
vacant beach in the fog seemed un inviting and spooky.
Those guys I saw up the
point surfing that day were the locals.
They were comfortable surfing a spot that was out of the way and not
crowded. Maybe overcast and cold, not
pretty and some what out of the way.
When the surf was good there was no one on the beach to see their great
rides. If they took some knocks while in
the water they suffered on their own.
The 2 or 3 dozen guys and gals that made up the local crowd
at "C" St. back then were the Ventura
surf community. They knew who they were
and knew that the surf in Ventura
was what they had. The good days, the
bad days, the wind, the fog, the sunny days, the cold water, the cut feet from
the rocks as well as the damaged boards.
The mild summer days and the heavy winter currents... it was all theirs.
So what happened when getting to Ventura
became easier?
D.R.