SUNDAY JOINT, 10-27-2024: ROCKAWAY BEACH COMES TO WINTER GARDENS

Hey All,

Last week's Joint on the UAE and Kelly's wavepool and surfing's ongoing move toward a chlorinated, less-democratic, rich-guys-ride-first future, was a surprise hit. My inbox lit up and wow you bunch are just as pessimistic as me, and that feels . . . great? Comforting, is the better word. We are going down, but we're going down together, and righteously, and if there was thread of sadness connecting your emails, so too was there a general appreciation for how wonderful and devouring and unique surfing was and still is, and many of you further made the point that while the sport can be bent and deformed around the edges, the core act of riding waves—in the ocean, free of charge—is in fact a constant, lasting, immutable source of pleasure.

Before moving on, last week's remark that we "no longer have an independent non-satirical surf media" was wrong. Swellnet and the Inertia both provide thoughtful and nuanced takes on surf-related topics of all kinds, even difficult and-or political ones, and in fact Ella Boyd at the Inertia beat me to the UAE story by nearly a week. Shame on me for not even knowing her article was up. Double-shame, because Ella is part of the EOS team, and I just need to pay more attention to surf media today.

And now, our elegant drop-knee turn to cheerier subjects, and few things are more cheerful than Vicki Williams, who reached out after the recent Malibu Joint starring Les "Birdman" Williams and the invention of the cutback. Except, and this was new to me, it wasn't known as a cutback in 1950. "We called it a dip turn," Vicki says. "And I used the mechanics of it for my kinesiology term paper at UCLA!"

Williams—then Vicki Flaxman, the original pace-setting female surfer at Malibu, already dip-turning like nobody's business—put on a bathing suit, stood in front of a full-length mirror, and slowly moved through each dip-turn phase, start to finish, taking notes as she went. "I got an A-plus on the paper and an A in the class." That's Birdman, top, getting the dip started; and that's Vicki directly above in the white zip-up sweatshirt, beer in hand, I'm gonna say celebrating her A-plus paper.

The David Nuuhiwa Joint also triggered a small flood of email replies, and somebody asked about David's cameo in the 1971 counterculture mega-flop Rainbow Bridge. Those of you with the highest possible tolerance for adenoidal hippy blather can watch Rainbow Bridge in Its entirely here; see how far you get before skipping ahead to the Jimi Hendrix footage at the end—which is poorly recorded but moving nonetheless, as Hendrix died less than two months later. I wish I had better things to say about the surfing part. It's okay, not great. Mike Hynson was involved with making Bridge, but nobody really seems to be in charge. The curly-haired woman sitting on a red cushion in the opening scene says, "Chuck's making a cosmic surfing movie," referring to director Chuck Wein. "You're going to film the surfers. Not just them, but, I mean, the cosmic surfers." Nobody in surfing could out-cosmic Nuuhiwa in 1970, so he gets nearly all the wave-action screen time. We're off to a good start as David aces a small windy peeler at Maalaea while riding switchfoot, and a minute or so later we see him do a freaky little fin-pop side-slip, then a skeg-first takeoff—but there's nothing that causes me to rethink what I said in the Joint, that David was grace incarnate on a longboard but overrated on a shortboard. And let's deduct some cosmic points for him being an apex once-in-a-generation wave-snake. 

Finally, I left some fantastic stuff on the cutting room floor while making the Great Britain Joint a few weeks ago, so let's correct that. Here is Taking Off: the Sport of Surfing in Britain (1982) narrated by doomed English near-royal Ted Deerhurst, and I'd Rather Be Surfing, a charming 1983 short for the beginning surfer. Both were filmed in and around Newquay, both were made by all-in Cornwall surf legend and entertainment mini-magnate John Adams, who for 20-something years ran the Winter Gardens dance hall, a stone-fronted, sweat-soaked, 800-capacity venue located on the beachfront promenade in Penzance. All you Cornwall geezers out there are tearing up with nostalgia, and well you should be. From the mid-'60s to the early '80s, "the Wints" was the beloved if far-flung southwesternmost stop for any up-and-coming band touring the UK. Pretty Things, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Yes, Queen, Thin Lizzy, Slade, Mott the Hoople, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, AC/DC, Squeeze, U2—all did raucous, tight-packed, ecstatically-received shows at the Gardens. One rock historian recalled that Adams "always treated the bands well, and had plenty of respect for John and his venue. Many who played in the early days of their careers would return to the Winter Gardens at a later date as a 'thank you' when they could be playing much larger venues."

Point being, despite what San Diego surfer-organizer and renowned grump Scott Bass says, not all surfers are "the worst." John Adams belongs in the very-much-not-worst category. John would comp you a pair of tickets to the Elvis Costello-Rockpile show and find you a place to doss down after. He'd sort out your ride the next morning, Penzance to Newquay, then ring Nigel and Tigger to see where the sandbars are, and wish you luck as you gunned off for the A30.

Adams died in 2021, at age 81. He was toasted by Boomer-age surfers, punks and progheads, from one end of Cornwall to the other.

Thanks for reading, everybody, and see you next week!

Matt

[Image grid, clockwise from top left: Les Williams, 1951; Elvis Costello and the Attractions play Winter Gardens, 1978; David Nuuhiwa, switchfoot at Maalaea Bay in 1970, as seen in Rainbow Bridge; beginning surfers in John Adams' short film I'd Rather Be Surfing; detail from vintage kinesiology poster; surf coach giving instructions from I'd Rather Be Surfing. Les Williams at Malibu, photo by Joe Quigg. Vicki Flaxman and friends at a 1950 beach party. David Nuuhiwa, no mercy at Lahaina Breakwater. Joey Ramone, left, at Land's End, near Penzance, just before the Ramones played Winter Gardens in 1977. John Adams, surfing Porthleven. Sex Pistols show at Winter Gardens, also in 1977.]