ROLF AURNESS: STRAIGHT TO THE TOP, THEN GONE

Three amazing things about Rolf Aurness. First, of course, he won the 1970 World Surfing Championships, in Victoria, Australia. That was 44 years ago today. He won it unanimously, in excellent beachbreak surf at Johanna, up the coast from Lorne. Aurness was just 18 but collected and poised beyond his years, and he beat the finest, most progressive surfers from Australia, California, and Hawaii, in...