Surfers

Facing a sea of Hawaiian shirts and leis, a seven-piece mariachi band set the tone early Wednesday morning for a festive memorial to surf legend Jack Haley. The memorial began in a parking lot close to the pier and ended at water's edge. Haley, who died March 25 after a three-year battle with cancer, had left instructions with family and friends about the manner in which he should be remembered. No black attire. No organ music. Instead, mariachi and casual, colorful Hawaiian wear.

Action sports and high fashion may not seem like the most likely of companions, but in the past decade designers have done more than dip a toe into surf culture; they have embraced the easygoing, sun-drenched lifestyle common to Southern California and found plenty of inspiration. The fashion industry's love affair with surfing became most apparent about 11 years ago, when Karl Lagerfeld sent models clutching Chanel-logoed surfboards down the runway as they modeled clothes for spring 2003.

Any surfer who has tried to catch a wave will tell you that timing is everything. And Sundek — the once-iconic '70s surf brand known for the rainbow stripe arching across the seat of its swim trunks — seems to have caught a killer curl on its way back to U.S. beaches. Founded in San Francisco in 1958, Sundek was an early sponsor of surfers and became known for its trademark multi-stripe and triple-stitched, two-ply nylon shorts, created specifically for surfing. While the label had faded quietly from the U.S. market by the mid-1990s, it lived on in Europe, licensed by Florence, Italy-based Kickoff SpA, where its American and surfing heritage roots and trimmer cut were a draw.

Don Payne, an award-winning writer and producer of "The Simpsons" and screenwriter of the 2011 blockbuster "Thor" as well as "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles, said his friend and former writing partner John Frink. He was 48 and had bone cancer. Payne was most recently a consulting producer on "The Simpsons," Fox's long-running animated series. Two episodes he wrote are in production and will air in the fall: "Labor Pains" and the Christmas installment, "White Christmas Blues.

  Three years ago, Quentin Derrick was eating clams at a beach-side restaurant in Da Nang. As he gazed east at the South China Sea, he couldn't believe what was rolling in. Derrick has lived in Vietnam for eight years and surfed a good part of the Vietnamese coastline. But he didn't think it compared - surfing-wise - with the coastlines of Spain, France, Scotland, Morocco, Indonesia or his native Australia. He hadn't expected to find good waves in Da Nang, Vietnam's fourth-largest city, but the ones breaking off Non Nuoc Beach looked eminently carve-able.

A disagreement over a well-known slice of the Southern California coast is threatening to drive a wedge between Marines and surfers, groups that had recently set aside differences and become political allies. At issue is the 2.25-mile stretch of surf and sand known as Trestles, between the San Onofre nuclear plant and the San Diego County-Orange County line. The name comes from two train trestles that parallel the ocean. To wave riders, Trestles represents seven of the primo surf breaks in the world.

Your article (July 22) on proposed cuts in county lifeguard coverage did not articulate a major beach issue. The reality of seeing the dagger-like point of a surfboard bearing down upon you as you stand in the waves gives you a broad definition of "public safety." A close second, as a risk to life, to any riptide is the inconsiderate surfer. Eliminating lifeguards will effectively close the ocean to bathers. The photo with the story, showing a lifeguard warning surfers from a swimming area, does raise the issue, and perhaps suggests a solution.

Many surfers who ride waves at beaches in the Santa Monica Bay will tell you they don't think about sharks. But photos shot this week by a longtime local surfer have created a buzz about "Jaws" in the lineup. The photos, taken Saturday morning by Randy Wright, apparently show a large white shark jumping out of the waters off Sunset Beach near Pacific Palisades. "It was like, 'Oh my God,' " Wright said Wednesday. "I was really stoked. . . . It was definitely a fascinating experience."

I was introduced to Todd Chesser a year ago, an hour before sunup at a Baja California toll gate on Mexico 1 near Ensenada. He and a few fellow surfers had rendezvoused there before catching a boat to Todos Santos Island, Baja California's answer to Oahu's infamous North Shore. Chesser had taken a redeye from Hawaii, arriving at 3 a.m.

Two 18-year-old surfers remained hospitalized with neck injuries Tuesday after hitting the ocean floor in separate accidents earlier this week. The accidents--one at Will Rogers State Beach on Monday and the other at Zuma Beach on Sunday--occurred as the men went over the front of waves on boogie boards and slammed head first into the ocean bottom, county lifeguards said. Mark Fugleband, who was injured on Monday, was listed in critical condition at UCLA Medical Center.

SAN FRANCISCO - For decades, surfers, smelt fishermen and picnickers flocked to Martin's Beach - a crescent-shaped haven south of Half Moon Bay, backed by stunning cliffs. They paid a small entry fee to the family that ran the property for a century, and their good times were memorialized in bucolic postcards. Then in 2008 a new owner came along and barred the gate, spurring protests and a spate of litigation. That battle intensified Tuesday when a suit was filed on behalf of the Surfrider Foundation, alleging that the limited liability companies that own the land - with a Silicon Valley billionaire behind them - are in violation of the California Coastal Act. Helping to litigate the case is former Republican Rep. Pete McCloskey.

A disagreement over a well-known slice of the Southern California coast is threatening to drive a wedge between Marines and surfers, groups that had recently set aside differences and become political allies. At issue is the 2.25-mile stretch of surf and sand known as Trestles, between the San Onofre nuclear plant and the San Diego County-Orange County line. The name comes from two train trestles that parallel the ocean. To wave riders, Trestles represents seven of the primo surf breaks in the world.

The gig: Steve Pezman and his wife, Debbee, quit key roles at Surfer magazine in 1992 to try to create a National Geographic for wave-riding grown-ups. As other surf pubs focus on big-bucks competitions and apparel ads, the Surfer's Journal still runs long stories and lavish photo spreads celebrating surf history, lore and lifestyle. Published six times annually, sold in surf shops for $15.95 a pop and to subscribers for $63 a year, the magazine runs just six ads in each 128-page edition.

I told myself I had only come to look at the surf, but who was I kidding? Powerful head-high waves reeled off the rock jetty that marks the northern end of Manhattan Beach's El Porto surf break. A light but steady drizzle had fallen hours earlier; now an offshore breeze groomed the sea like corduroy. In my car, perched along the bluff, I gazed longingly at the half a dozen surfers circling in the lineup, all jockeying to latch onto a feathering wave. Wave riders in L.A. welcome winter storms, which open a narrow window of good surf created by strong swells, favorable winds and new sandbars.

It was a stormy fall day a year ago when I met my friend Dave for coffee. He in turn had invited another of his friends to join us. The two men had just returned from a European trek, London to Croatia. I was surprised by Dave's friend. He was about 33, an incredibly handsome photographer with charm and confidence that made it clear he came from money. We matched wits with one another, an exchange that ended with seductive eye glances. After we left, I told Dave I was interested.

“The world's most dangerous wave. Seven seconds of sheer terror. A force of nature.” With that prose, the Oahu 's North Shore Chamber of Commerce invites visitors to share in the thrill of surfing's biggest event of the year, the Van's Triple Crown of Surfing . The event is actually three contests along North Shore beaches. The action gets underway Monday at Alii Beach in the town of Haleiwa and continues through Dec. 20. Admission is free. The surfing action began shifting from Waikiki northward in the 1960s as new, shorter boards prompted surfers to chase the faster, hollower waves (tubes)

A 30-year-old surfer died last weekend after he apparently suffered a seizure while sitting on his board off the Manhattan Beach coast, lifeguards said. Lt. Wally Millican said Kenneth Hull, a resident of Manhattan Beach, was spotted Sunday morning sitting on his board beyond the surf line. Sometime later, at about 11 a.m., several surfers and a lifeguard noticed an unattended board in the water with the man's body floating nearby.

When the earthquake hit last weekend, this surfing hamlet was hosting a competition from its signature point: the rock of San Pedro, splashed with a colorful mural of a surfer and partyers on the beach. A week later, young Chilean volunteers and environmentalists from the United States arrived in Curanipe, unified in their passion for surfing and a yearning to help this ravaged stretch of coast. "We're surfers, but we left our boards and our wetsuits behind. We've come here to help," said Joshua Berry, environmental director of the Save the Waves Coalition, a California-based nonprofit that seeks to protect surf spots across the globe.

For "Chasing Mavericks," Grant Washburn taught Gerard Butler everything he knows about surfing - and even more about wiping out. In the film from 20th Century Fox, which debuted Friday, Butler plays surf legend Frosty Hesson, who teaches teenager Jay Moriarity (Jonny Weston) to take on Mavericks, the point break where waves crest at upward of 60 feet near Northern California's Half Moon Bay. And he relied on Washburn, a pro big-wave surfer, to make him look the part. VIDEO: Critic Betsy Sharkey on 'Chasing Mavericks' Washburn, 44, fondly remembers surfing Mavericks with Moriarity, who died at age 22 in a free-diving accident in the Maldives.