We recently came in contact with one Harry Graham, a virtual treasure trove of memories
from the Golden Years of surfing in Goleta. He shared some great photos and better stories.
Initially, he wanted us to do a feature on one of his friends he has photos of, but there were
just too many good images of everything, so we’re calling it Harry Graham Remembers.
Here is the man, camping at Big Sur in 1973.
In his own words…
“I met Tom Linker and Marc Woerfel in the third grade when we moved from Veronica
Springs Rd. near the Pit. From Adams school to hope school. Marc and I started surfing
around 1960 in the 7th grade at La Colina. I think Tom started a little earlier. We surfed
Goleta pier the first summer we started. It was pretty decent then. I have not personally
seen it any good since then. We also surfed Campus a lot. You could drive right to the
bluff top above the point and park there. My uncle started me surfing and took me to
Campus, Leadbetter Pt. and Refugio in his 1948 Woody. In hind sight it would have been
cool to have a camera ready in those days.”
Tom Linker at College Point 14 yrs old. Surfer Mag “A day at College”, photos and article by
Dewey Sherman. “When my friends and me saw the article we were pretty stoked, after all
we were only 14. But the very next weekend, went to College and it was the crowdest I’d ever
seen it. And there was hardly any surf! The article being done probably months before. Even
at 14, we must have realized that we weren’t this isolated place north of LA or Ventura.”
Tom Linker at Stanley’s Diner. The highway goes through there now. Was a really good spot. Saw
a lot of the top guys back in the day, Miki Dora, “No Pants” Lance Carson, and tons of SBar and
Ventura surfers. When my dad drove me to Camp Pendleton when I was being shipped to Vietnam
we stopped at Stanley’s Diner and had a few drinks before continuing on south. ”
Just like now, C Street could get real crowded. There was a sewer pipe that went out right at
the break and you could always smell this shitty smell. Tommy had this great goofy foot bottom
turn. Remember those boards were heavy compared to now, up to 20- 25 even 30lbs, so
powerful surfers would consciously try to make these moves look easy. He actually got that
move from a good surfer in the Hope Ranch surf club named Steve Neal aka The Hog.
Unfortunately, as a Marine he was one of the first people from SBar to lose his life in Vietnam.”
We all surfed Haskell’s a lot. At times we parked behind a chain link fence, but in the
60’s we could drive right to the sand almost. In the winter we would park on the side of
the highway, but it only had space for maybe two or three cars, and there was a path
that took us to another cove. We would go from Hope Ranch, More Mesa, to IV,
Depressions, Sands, Haskell’s, to El Cap beach breaks,where there were a lot of wind
swells going on. And of course, all the point breaks in winter and Naples.”
Were there more waves back then, or are we just more picky today?…
Tommy Linker throwin’ a peace sign at Haskells, 1965.
When I was in Marine Corp boot camp in San Diego in 1967, my girlfriend sent some sand
from Haskell’s in a letter to me cause it was our favorite beach. When I opened the letter
the sand and some tiny sticks fell out onto the drill instructor’s spit shined shoes. I
thought, “oh shit”! He grabbed me by the collar, lifted me up and hung me by the back of the
collar on the corner of an electrical box on the wall, my feet dangling a foot above ground.
It was actually a funny moment. Haskell’s forever!”
Tommy Linker
taken by Bob Hansen.
Tom, 65, or 66, not sure, but still in high school. We graduated SMHS 1967. The peace sign was a new
thing and a lot of surfers gave it when on the tip or in the tube.”
Tom Linker moved to Maui 2 or 3 years after High School about 1970. He went to Maui
Community College, came back here once or twice and lived a short time but eventually moved
back there around 74 or 75. He started teaching part time and from Maui he would go once a
week to Molokai to teach a night class. I don’t remember what he taught then. That is where he
met his future wife Lulu. She was one of his students. She was born on Molokai and became a
nurse at the small hospital on the island. Even the Dentist came once a week from Oahu. A
beautiful place, I lived there for two years 1984 to 86. Tom and his young family traveled the
South Pacific and went to places like Pohnpe in the Eastern Caroline Islands, Aitutake,Cook
Islands, Moorea,Tahiti. He started a small consulting business where he would go to these
places and show them how to handle tourism, how to make Polynesian homes into way cool
bed and breakfast type places,etc. He showed a lot of rural poor folks how to make a living
diving for fish, and harvesting taro, coconuts,etc. to give travelers a real taste of Polynesia. He
eventually came back to Molokai. He continued his education in Hawaiiana and got a masters in
the field of Polynesian studies. ”
He eventually became a lecturer at the University of Hawaii, Manoa on Oahu. That’s where
he was when someone snapped a few pics of him around south shore Oahu. Sadly,he
passed away around 2007. He had always had problems with his heart. These are all
things he told me or Lulu told me. He knew all about the Polynesian navigators who could
travel thousands of miles accurately by the stars, different swell directions,wind current
etc. We remember when Eddie Aikau paddled his surfboard to get help for the Hokulea, a
big double hull canoe that was foundering in bad weather. He was never seen again.
Aloha, Eddie. ”
Tom with visiting SBar friend Berry Coltrin. Tom’s house, Molokai.
Tom, wowing the boogie girls, Old Man’s, Waikiki.
Ben Aipa and Tom Linker, early 2000’s. Aipa did a lot of volunteer stuff at U of H where
Tom was a lecturer. They became friends. In longboard and earlier short boards days
Aipa was a powerfull surfer at Sunset, Haleiwa, etc.”
Tom, Waikiki, a few years before he passed, around 2004.
My brother, a friend and me checking More Mesa from bluff top 1970 .”
Marc Woerfel on a small day at Goleta pier.
“We’ve all seen Goleta Pier big once or twice. I certainly have never ridden the pier huge. More
power to the gutsy person who does! We surfed it like the first year or two we started. There were
guys like Ray Mata, Frank Casaris, Joey Moreno, and others.These guys that ripped campus Pt.
with power and style. Old school. Every young, stoked surfer likes to say that they will surf forever
until they can’t anymore. I would say most don’t but the ones that do meant what they said. They
are not as limber, take longer to paddle out, but nothing has changed inside whatsoever. When the
day comes when age keeps them from surfing anymore, just remember that old guy sitting on the
cliff at Campus Pt. watching the action. Give him respect. He was once a young guy ripping the shit
out of the inside section on a 6ft. Day 40 or 50 yrs before. If your as stoked as he is maybe you will
be telling your grand kids how you wowed the chicks at the poles when there was actually poles
there,or the lines were stacked to the horizon that great day at El Cap.
COWABUNGA! ”
Marc Woerfel at inside College Point from bluff top.
Howie Aquistapace and his Volvo.
My brother Jim, early 70’s Wilderness board.”
I knew Mike Haskell but we called him Ed. He was a really good goofy foot in the 60’s, also
was in the Hope Ranch surf club. Anybody in that club was a real good surfer. Something
like 3 members had to propose you, but the top guys were the ones that ok’d somebody.
I haven’t seen him for years,but he had a cool little house up the road past those few
houses behind the beach. You would go past this small reservoir and then down to his
place. Very isolated. At one time he had a wild boar as a pet named Hershey, that would
sleep on his bed! Some farmer shot it though because wandered freely.”
OK, this boar story was too good, so we had to get more info. We asked Mike Haskell himself
about this pet boar and here’s his response.
“Hershey was a feral boar piglet that George Greenough found on Santa Rosa Island,
apparently a hunter shot the mother. He was a little guy when I got him but he got huge with
big tusks and got a pretty aggressive so me and couple of friends tied him up and castrated
him. He remained moody and finally tried to break into the feed room at the Tecolote Ranch
next to our ranch and they shot him. George named him Hershey because they fed him
Hershey bars on the boat trip back from Santa Rosa. The sleeping in bed thing isn’t true
in fact it was a constant fight to keep him out of the Ranch house, we had to smack him with
a broom stick.”
Unbelievably awesome stuff.
I probably had 4 or 5 new Yaters through the years and Renny was always in the
back shaping and other stuff. Like today, there was usually some good surfer, male
or female that worked the front. but I think I actually talked to him about this
particular board. At the time, the majority of boards had hard rails from nose to
tail. But I wanted the popular hard rails only down about 2 thirds from the tip. The
rest was rounded. I believe we talked about where the round rails would start. The
board was called a pocket rocket. There were different designs of pocket rockets
through the years. I think the idea of these boards was to haul ass while trimming
through sections like at Rincon, El Cap etc.”
$100 for a brand new Yater….
Marc Woerfel paddling out, Harry riding, More Mesa 1972.
Harry’s riding the Yater from the receipt above. Taken by his girlfriend, Lorraine Head.
My brother Jim when we were up at Big Sur, 1972. Funny to us because ther were hundreds of
Hippie types there who had hitch hiked from everywhere and a lot of them were rather dirty.
That was a little store or restaurant. We used to go up there a lot in those days cause of all the
great swimming holes and rivers. Plus no one wore clothes around these water spots and it
was like heaven to us young guys. When you hear the term “free love” that’s just what it was.
Had “fun” with more beautiful college age girls than people. I heard David Crosby say it best,
‘We had this window between when the Pill came out and the Aids scare'”.
Brother Jim with his William Dennis.
Look at the width of that tail!
This is me at 12 or 13 yrs. old. That’s my third board, a Velzy-Jacobs. The sticker was
a business card. Saw a pic of the card in a Surfer’s Journal a few years ago. The
board was old when I got it. Don’t remember who from.”
That board would be worth a few bucks today.
This was my brother’s car around 1973 with his Wilderness on Aloha racks at More Mesa.
We parked right on the bluffs, although at different times we got to More Mesa through a
hump like a small levee from Hope Ranch, then later from Mockingbird Lane where there
were a couple of nurseries, then from Patterson Ave.”
Tommy snapped this after just walking up path from More Mesa.
Same 6ft 10in Yater from receipt.”
This is in the tract right next to San Marcos HS. My folks house. On the left my bro’s friend
Howie Aquistapace in his cool little Volvo. Right, my 51 Chevy I bought from Marc Woerfel when he
was going to Jr college in north county San Diego. Zoom into license plate, says Encinitas, which
was and is a way cool little beach town. I was still in the Marine Corps and back in North
Carolina. My brother borrowed my car and I think he didn’t check the oil enough and it blew!
Could have killed him! Think that’s his Wilderness on top.”
Me at Honolua Bay, Maui. Winter of ’75 -’76.
First time on Maui was 1973 just doing the waiter-surfer thing like tons of other haoles from the
mainland. Second time, 1975, Tom Linker talked me into getting GI Bill and I did two semesters at
Maui Community College. Plus, by then, I had more guts to get some real Hawaiian powerful surf.”
That looks heavy….
Harry with his summertime quiver,Maui 75.
“That Pancho Villa stick I got from Jaime Arreola, a guy from San Diego who spent 30 yrs. on Maui,
then became a restaurantuer .
One board was called a Mud Shark made by Jimmy Lewis, very popular boards on Maui at the time.”
Graham spent 4 yrs in Marine Corps.
From June 1967, 3 wks out of high school, to June 1971.
I’ll start by saying that I was in the Marine Corp Air Wing, got initially sent to North Carolina. The
base was about 15 miles from the ocean. Naturally I wanted to see if there was any surf. I’d never
seen the Atlantic Ocean. When I first went down there, there was a local bunch of surfers out in
the water. Pretty lousy waves, but rideable. When I asked one of them if I could borrow a board I
got a flat out No! Being a service guy with really short hair, they probably thought I was some guy
from Nebraska or something. As soon as I said I was a surfer from Calif. 2 or 3 guys offered me
their boards. Next thing you know I’m sort of in the “In crowd” of surfers. This is Atlantic Beach,
NC. Now just as a lot of Calif. surfers want to go to Hawaii, those east coast surfers wanted to go
to Calif. As a matter of fact I saw more than one Calif. license plate on somebody’s wall. But they
were a bunch of pretty cool guys. 2 or 3 were as good as anybody here. I felt sorry for them cause
they had never surfed a point break. One guy came to SBar after I got out and visited me. It was
winter and lucky for him there was a strong consistent swell about 4 to 6ft. All the points were
going off. He was a pretty good knee boarder. So I took him to El Cap. It was really going off. We
were out in the water and he kept taking off and immediately pulling out. Where he came from, a
wave that lined up like that was a close out. I told him on the next wave he caught to just totally go
for it. He did, and I could hear him screaming all the way in.
He totally got tubed for the first time in his life. That was a cool thing to see.”
I got sent to Vietnam in August of 1969. I really don’t want to talk about that place but I will say I
spent about 3 weeks right near the ocean which was the South China Sea. I ran into two friends I
knew. They were from Orange County. One was a really good body surfer and had a couple of pics
of him at huge Newport Wedge. They sent to Australia for a foam blank and scrounged the glass
and resin from a Navy guy that had the best job in Nam. He ran this little shack on China Beach,
where he checked out fins, those little rafts like Greenough rode. And he had some boards from
Australia. All 9’6″ to 10′. They looked like rejects. But they were surfboards. We made this little
board. We foiled the fin ourselves. It came out OK. We didn’t know anything about short
boards(when we went into the service, long boards were the norm). It was kind of squirrelly,
so I used the long boards.”
One day the waves were really fantastic, about an honest 6 to 8ft. My friend got
up in a guard tower about 30ft. high. He had a 35mm SLR camera with a huge
telefoto lens. I went out and really got some all time waves in this beautiful
turquoise water. When I came in all stoked I asked him if he got some good
shots. He told me he did. But he had borrowed the camera and didn’t know
much about it. While I watched he accidentally pulled the film out into the sun.
I could have killed him!”
Harry’s brother Jim, on the Hope Ranch side of where they used to get to More Mesa.
Beautiful.
Chris Boys in early 70’s. With Francisco Torres in back, that would be Fortuna in IV
where my bro and friends lived.”
Mike Johnson, Tom Makowski, Jim Graham, Bob Fletcher, and Howie Aquistapace,
all school pals and good surfers.
I asked my brother why these guys didn’t have long hair because everyone did at the time.
He reminded me that at San Marcos HS at the time there was a dress code.
Definitely no long hair. 1969.”
So that’s probably how DP got it’s name, Hippie High.
DIY ding repair, in the front yard.
Check that fin out…
Brother Jim, chillin’ with Harry’s 1951 Chevy fastback.
Jim waxing up in house he used to live in by my cousin Steve Donnel’ place,
somewhere around Brandon School off of the frontage road. He’s using
paraffin wax. There wasn’t any surf wax in those days. A box had like five
pieces in it and you would break one in half and use that.”
Before Mr. Zog came along….
Also, check out the croquet set on the left. What happy home didn’t have a
croquet set?
Brother Jim riding the whitewater on his raft at Refugio, 1960.
These brothers grew up in a time unlike any other, and it looks like they
enjoyed it to the fullest.
Harry has a bunch more great photos we hope to share soon.
