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Avuncular regularfoot surfer from Los Angeles, California; Malibu trendsetter in the mid- and late 1950s; model for the "Kahuna" character in the book and movie versions of 

. Tracy was born (1935) and raised in southwest Los Angeles, and began surfing at age 15. In the summer of 1956, he lived in a palm-frond shack on the beach at Malibu where, as surf journalist Craig Stecyk recalled decades later, he "held court with humor and ruled with a velvet-shrouded iron hand."

Tracy later claimed he was nicknamed "Tubesteak" because he worked at a Malibu restaurant called Tube's Steak and Lobster House. Surf lore holds that Mickey Dora owned the waves at Malibu, while round-bellied Tracy owned the beach; their composite Malibu style, in turn, was exported up and down the California coast and across the surfing world. It was Tracy who looked at Kathy Kohner, a 16-year-old Malibu newcomer, and nicknamed her "Gidget," short for girl-midget. Teenage surfers flocked to Malibu in the late '50s— 

 was published in 1957; the movie followed two years later—and Tracy, overwhelmed both by the crowds and the new Los Angeles County Lifeguard beach restrictions, dropped off the surf scene for 25 years.

In 1985, encouraged by the longboard renaissance and a new interest in the sport's past, Tracy co-produced the 

, held at Malibu. Five years later he appeared in a nationally aired Nike ad, along with a few other late-middle-age surfers, all of whom were interviewed and photographed for "Endless Summer," a 

 that he hadn't surfed for years, but still lived by a surf-inspired code: "You can have a pressured Mercedes life, or you can get from A to B in an old Ford and die of natural causes."

, and was featured in the 1987 documentary 

. In the late '80s and '90s he wrote surfing articles for 

Tracy died in 2012 of complications from diabetes, at age 77. In his 

 obituary, Tracy was described as "an anti-authoritarian sage in Wayfarer shades and Madras shorts who made bumming on the beach the essence of cool." Tracy was married to the same woman for 54 years, and had seven children.

Tracy, Terry "Tubesteak"

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

Videos