Images of El Capitan
Dave Ziemer has surfed a lot of waves in Goleta. Fortunately for us, he also had someone on the beach taking pictures a lot of the times. Mr. Ziemer was kind enough to share some of his collection with us. As you could imagine,we were stoked to get a fat email full of beautiful shots of waves from days gone by.
This is were it started. 1966, El Capitan beach break.
Dave got a hand-me-down John Bradbury board from Bill Mueller to learn how to surf. Bill and his son Jim helped Ziemer learn and he was hooked.
Before long, Dave was locking into the slot on the machine like waves of El Cap point.
Here he is, were you want to be, in 1972.
The more old school Goleta surfers we talk to, the more we keep hearing about how the ultimate was to get in the tube. Dave Ziemer had a VIP pass into the green room.
1971, El Cap beach break.
Nope, that’s not your favorite rock band from the seventies, those are Goleta surf rats, descending upon their favorite point break, El Capitan, 1976.
Rod Herman, Phil Breuman, Dirk Brantz, Kenny Edwards, Eric Knudsen and Dave Ziemer.
1973, El Cap Point.
In the yellow circle, notice the Greenough fin. Dave tells us that this fin was the beginning of the transition from longboard to shortboard. Most of the Goleta boys were riding a “Pocket Rocket” with a Greenough fin. The “Pocket Rocket” was a John Bradbury designed mid size
board, around 8’6″, with a narrow tail and a round nose, like a funshape, but gunnier.
1972. Check out the beaver tail and the lack of a leash.
1972, El Cap beach in the tube, again.
Dave hung out at the Doug Roth Surf Shop in old town Goleta. Some of the surfers he
looked up to were John Bradbury, Cappy Pettersen and George Greenough.
1979, El Cap.
Crowds were not allowed in the lineup back then. Dave and his buds kept a tight crew.
Some of the boys were the Galtes Bros., the Taggerts, the Glasbys, the Talleys, Pete
Bowker, the Forsyths, Tommy Chamberlin, Norm Graziano and Eric Knudsen.
1981 El Cap.
Dave has ridden ONLY John Bradbury surfboards. The last board John shaped before he passed away was for Dave. Dave gave it to John’s son Josh Bradbury, but before he did that, he had it scanned, so Bradbury’s shapes will live on forever.
Dave with a Steelhead he caught in the Gaviota creek.
1977
That’s a good sized wave, eh? El Cap point, picnic tables.
1977
1975
Hopefully, we’ll be seeing more of Dave’s photos. He has a healthy collection of pictures taken by his friends like Jan Furnel, Shar Lockerby, Jeannie Dewey, Henry Schulte and Rodney Miller.
Thanks much Dave.
