Since we’ve started this website, and talking to longtime Goleta surfers, a
name that keeps coming up is always The Talleys.
Now we have the pleasure of seeing some of the private photo collection of
the Talley Bros.
Steve Talley, 1965.
Sidewalk surfing on Bradford, when that neighborhood was brand new.
Clay wheels and bare feet, a dangerous combination.
Steve started surfing at Hendry’s in 1962. This photo is 1965 at Haskells, and he was
feeling the stoke. The board was a 9’3″ Phil Edwards Hobie. He looked up to guys like
Shawn Claffy, Hud Cobb, Dickey Fisher and Mark Livingston.
His first summer surfing at Haskells he surfed 82 days! He would stash his board in the
bushes or he would use a “gremmie cart”. Steve’s dad didn’t like them surfing and they
always had to be home for dinner by 5:30, which was a big conflict. Not to mention the
resin on the garage floor…
Kim Whitmore’s mom and Steve’s mom would take them to Campus. Mrs. Talley drove a
1959 Willys Wagon with a no syncro shift. ” The perfect car for the modern surf family”.
photo by kim whitmore
There were only a few of us that surfed the Skull, as most guys surfed Campus or Dev.,
where we later met Randall Stoker and his crew. In the old days, when paddling out, a surfer
would stand up to go over the wave. One time, my big brother stood up, the board popped up,
and knocked out his 2 front teeth.
We had a surfboard shop, where many boards were shaped and glassed within just 2-3 hours.”
Kim Whitmore, 1967.
He won the first Rincon contest on a Yater Spoon.
Kim and Steve Talley would knee paddle all up and down the coast and could have
been the first to surf and name many spots.
We used to surf the pier and even that has changed. We used to jump off that pier
on a daily basis. In 1966, the powers that be brought in a giant machine that tried
to rip out the old pier pilings that we would step on and get cut up on. If you could
get a pic of that monster, it would be something.”
Steve with his brother Jim “Pineapple” Talley, on the right.
Both these boards were stripped down logs. Jim was number 13 in the Western Surfing
Association and was on the Donald Takayama surf team. He took 2nd place behind Pete
Bowker with this board in the Stanley contest of 1967 at the age of 14.
1968 Flash Surfboards.
That was what we were making when McTavish was on an eight footer. We were down to
6’4″‘s and even a 5’4″, and faster shapes (tear-drop) for the really fast and sweet
Haskell’s lines. The shapers Talley, in tune with the short board revolution.”
This was Frank Talley’s car and was a 1959 VW. It was called the “Flash Mobile”.
Nothing worked, not even the brakes!
Except the 8 track tape deck did, and they would listen to Disraeli Gears and Led Zepplin 1.
Eventually the highway patrol shut it down. It was black with green fenders and had surf racks.
No seats in the back, only a mattress, and she was narrow enough to get to sand through all
the barricades and then they’d ditch her in the trees.
Try that nowadays…..
Steve Talley, 1967 at Rights and Lefts. (Submit your complaints HERE.)
This is a water shot by Paul Kiminster, a great surfer as well.
At this time, the Ranch was being sold off in 100 acre parcels. If you went to the office
on Victoria St., you could get a 30 day pass. This shot was taken in March, and they
surfed it every day before the crowds bought in.
School’s out!
Frank Talley, Jim Talley, Bruce Fowler with the book and Steve Talley.
Frank was class of 1968 at Dos Pueblos and then he went into the Navy.
That’s Steve’s 1955 Ford Squire Wagon, it had an automatic push button transmission with
Southbay racks and a Flash surfboard on top.
We would walk to Haskell’s. We never saw Mike Haskell, but there was a mailbox that was there for years.
Back in those days, it was mostly guys from San Marcos and Dos Pueblos. Hud Cobb who is dead, Glen
Vance, Mike Hayes who is dead, Pete Bowker and his bro Al, who is now gone, the Forsythe brothers, of
which 2 just died, Joe Hill who is dead, Richard Lindsey who lives in Placerville, Chris Dodge, class of 68
who lives in Maine, Roland Yarnell, Dave Zeimer, Steve Donell, Charlie Alexander, Mark Connolly, the
Radon brothers, Kim Whitmore, Bruce Fowler, Randy Brannock, Bruce Waugh, Todd Horlacher, Randy
Rodstoker, Steve and David Triplitt, Jeff Cochran, Blake Reynolds, Charley Hall, Bud Hill, the Galtez bros,
Dickey Fisher, Mark Carndog, Randy Madrone who is gone, and a few guys from UCSB like “the Limpit”.
Dennis Pang from Hawaii came for college in 1970 and shaped some really good boards in our shop at
Devereux. Other surfers were Bobby Lore, aka the one eyed sheep dog, Matt Derodeo, Charlene Lockerbie
, Dave Toney, Jess Church who was on the White Owl surf team, Scott Lindbloom and his one legged
brother Marc, Lenny Marcos, Chris Christianson, Paul Nelson from old town Goleta. Charlie Hall, Paul
Copland, Bruce Landecker from Devereux school and one of Rodstoker’s bros.
All of us were hardcore surfers. Resin can still be found on the side of the Talley’s Winchester home,
where many boards were made for Goleta locals.”
Ronny Radon, Don Radon, Steve Talley and Mark Connely at Jalama, 1969.
Mark was Jimmy Talley’s best friend and his dad owned Goleta Lumber which was next
door to the Green room.
They were all part of a Haskell friendly gang, everybody knew everyone else, they weren’t
druggies or drinkers.
Don Radon and I were really good friends. When the boats were being built at Radon’s boat
yard down by the tracks on Garden St., (the building is still there), George Greenough would
come down and watch the methods of construction early on. We all worked at the boat yard;
Charlie Hall, Brian Wilson of Wilson Boats, Jim Talley, me, Mark Connolly,
Ron Radon and Mike Radon the oldest.
There were girls that hung out with us as well, like Kathy Dunbar,
who always was there on her scooter.”
Frank was in the Submarine fleet (Rescue Ship), when his brothers came down to San Diego to
share some Goleta surf stoke. This pic is 1970 and David Nuuhiwa is just on the other side of
the pier shredding, so he had this peak right on the north side of the pier all to
himself….reminded him of the lefts at Haskells & Sands.
Frank:
“I believe Steve made me this board to cheer me up. What a generous brother! So we had a
great surf that day. Flash Surfboards was our label, We started making boards in 1966. ”
Road Trip 1970.
Richard Lindsey, Todd Horlacher, Stan Davis with girlfriend Karen Ciabattoni, who is the
sister of the famous One Eye Sally, one the best girl surfers of the 70’s. She lost her eye
after being ripped off by a shoulder hopper. This crew and Steve Talley went to Phoenix
and surfed the artificial wave that was new at the time, then they went all the way to
Guadalajara , where they ran into the owner of William Dennis and the guys from
Innermost Limits of Pure Fun. They surfed Matanchen Bay which was thought to be the
longest wave at the time.
Frank sent in these classic shots of Steve surfing the pier, not sure of the year.
We’re also not sure how long it’s been since we’ve seen barrels like this at Haskells.
Awesome. More sand and more pier.
Frank:
” I remember being at (unnamed beach). Huge swell in the winter. Fires going on the
beach…cold and cloudy. We were all watching “Astro Boy”, Jim Talley paddling out. The shore
break reminded us of Waimea. Thick and gnarley as I’ve seen, the kind of day where you can feel
the ground shake. Here comes a big one, looked like a 8′ face to me, sucking out heavy and Jim
is scratching and he’s not going to make it! Every one is hooting as Jim totally eats it. Everyone
was going “oh no!” After an unusually long tumble cycle, he pops up with half his board.
So imagine the force it took to snap the board while he was stomach paddling.”
Steve ran into Miki Dora at Rincon one day…
“As a kid, Dora was the Kelley Slater of the day. The parking lot for Rincon was on the other side of
the freeway. He was checking out the surf and standing next to us. David Nuuhiwa and Mike Hynson
were out ripping and it musta been about 20′ on sets. It was the storm swell of ’69.Grimm’s and I
got the chance to talk to him. I just intro-ed myself and asked if I could shake his hand and he ask
me if I was serious, and I told him absolutely, and he said OK and shook my hand. By this time the
short board revolution was on, and he was kind of a has been, anyone associated with
longboarding was old school. But he was really a cool guy and one of my lookups.”
In the early 70’s, after hanging out with the Radon bro’s, the Talleys scored their own boat
and ventured out to the islands. Photo by Pete Bowker.
Steve:
” Danny Johnson, Jimmy Talley and I went to Santa Cruz Island.
I was riding a single fin, Dave Johnson, 90/10.
90% total control and 10% totally out of control.”
Steve Talley, right where he should be on a Puu board.
1980 something.
Photo by Paul Nelson.
Steve and Jimmy Talley and the tall dude is Mark Carnegie. Photo Don Radon.
This 18′ boat was molded off of Cappy Peterson’s brown boat, that he had for years.
They almost flipped this boat out in the middle of the channel when the wind blew the
boat completely out of the water into a 180. They were completely vertical and when they
came down, the prop caught and corrected them.
El Cap, 1985, riding a Dave Johnson board.
Steve learned how to shape from watching Bradbury when he had his shop in Old Town, Goleta.
Bradbury was really cool and let Steve watch him for hours. This was after he started his new
label “Creative Freedom”, mostly beause Yater would only let him shape the same boards,
over and over.
Left to Right:
Paul Nelson, Charlie Hall, Pete Bowker, unknown girls, and Steve on a Malibu safari in 1991.
Steve:
“What was cool, was that no one was surfing for about 10 years. They were skateboarding.
Stoker got all of us to surf there for several years, making friends and getting…….
point surf in the summer.”
Bet they had some groovy dance parties….
photo by A Tourist
For a while, Stoker was either at Jalama or Malibu. He gave up on Rincon.
He had Steve make the V-Machine for all his friends at the Bu.
Steve making a V-Machine in his shaping room on the Riviera
in 2002 for a Brooks student.
He started shaping as a kid, and continues to do so today.
He’s probably made about 2500 boards over the years.
At the crack is Jeff Cochran, Stoker and the guy with the red Dick Brewer board
is Blake Reynolds.
photo by Steve Talley
This is Kim Whitmore in his Boston Whaler in 1995.
Kim was one of the hot surfers who won the first Rincon contest put on by Jeff White,
of White Owl and Surf’n’wear fame.
pic by Steve Talley.
Jeff Cochran, Dp class of 1975, with a Flash surfboard. Jeff’s an old time Goleta surfer and
good friend of Gary Taggert.
Jeff could live on a dollar a day.
This is Ulu Watu in 2000, where they scored really good surf.
Steve:
“That’s me at the Bu with a new Steve Bigler longboard. I shaped that board in about 2000.
Steve Bigler and I shaped a lot of longboards and this was a typical board. They were always
signd by Bigs. Never had enough of them..”
On a trip up the coast on the new boat “Shadow” by Anderson boat works.
Steve and Pete Bowker had this boat built, that’s Pete on the boat.
” We take all the kids on these surf trips. In this photo, we were stopping to let all the
kids get wet.”
Steve Talley continues to love living in the Goodland, and now
he’s sharing the stoke with the next generation.
