“WSA 4A at the Hollywood Bowl,” by Don Kremers, SURFER, June 1972

Hollywood-by-the-Sea, in spite of its name, definitely is not a glamorous California beach town. No pier or Orange County people-mass to make it like Huntington. No perfect point or LA-people-mass like Malibu. Just a common stretch of beach with trash cans and jetties at each end and a small boat harbor entrance—Hollywood-by-the-Sea. When was it that someone first noticed that when Huntington, San Diego, and Malibu were nothing but one-foot ankle snappers, that Hollywood could be glassy, smooth, and overhead?

A strong five- to eight-foot northwest had been working for several days; somewhat inconsistently but improving with age. To the 4As gathered on the beach for the Hollywood-by-the-Sea competition it was obvious that wave selection was going to play an important part in deciding the winner. Brisk morning offshores were holding the peaks up and providing plenty to work with. These were good contest waves and despite a sun that rarely showed its face, everyone was stoked—it was the first strong swell of the new year.

Cold wind, playing the usual morning role, blew offshore until 11:00 a.m., then switched to onshore. Victory at sea conditions prevailed for the afternoon go-outs. But everyone kept smiling—particularly the many dogs running loose on the beach. Corky’s dog ran off with another and it was two weeks before he finally got her back.

The lefts had the best shape, making it a goofyfoot contest for eventual finalists Corky Carroll, Jon Van Ornum, Tim Wirick, Brad McCaul, and David Nuuhiwa, plus Roger Adams—the only regularfoot finalist in the lot.

For all contestants, the Hollywood-by-the-Sea 4A Pro-Am proved a tiring full-on surf-out, due to the wave size, shifting peaks, and difficult paddle-outs. This proved particularly true for Van Ornum, McCaul (who was sick with the flu) and Wirick who surfed their way up from the bottom of the eliminations—each surfing five or more go-outs per day for three days.

As usual, contest director Dr. Scott had it together. The event was run with efficiency and smoothness—except for the 15-minute heats, which were two short with the surf conditions being what they were. With such short heats, losing your board just once, or getting caught inside, made it nearly impossible to score enough waves. Consequently, many heats had to be extended 5 to 15 minutes.

Even on Monday, with the swell fully matured (30 m.p.h. offshore winds were holding up the large faces), half-hour heats became standard, and even so the length of heats was still limiting. David, for instance, being the most outstanding contestant up to that point, failed to find a third wave in the finals, resulting in him settling for a 5th-place tie.

Corky, who came prepared for the cold winds and water with a fullsuit, boots, gloves, and hood, surfed consistently well, picking off the biggest waves for the longest rides.

Jon Van Ornum, getting completely covered on some of the bigger waves, surfed aggressively, carving beautiful tracks on wind-streaked walls; stalling high, then dropping straight down the face in almost free fall form; getting completely tubed, and causing a lot of hooting on the beach. Even the judges were smiling, who are quite serious people, ya know!

Wirick surfed radically; taking the most chances by playing games with the waves. He surfed many clean waves but not the biggest.

Brad’s surfing was excellent, but slightly off because of his bout with the flu. Roger Adams, surfing backside as well as anyone, scored high point rides but failed to find the better waves.

Corky’s consistent wave judgment and positioning ended up giving him the win with 28,550 points; a win which moved him into the number one slot in the WSA 4A circuit.

1972 Hollywood-by-the-Sea AAAA

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