Ocean protector: Glenn Hening strives to keep selfish out of surfing csmonitor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from csmonitor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Localism at the Manhattan Beach pier triggers racial reckoning for surfers
SHARE Gage Crismond and Justin “Brick” Howze at the Manhattan Beach pier during Sunday’s Peace Paddle. Photo by Kevin Cody
Gage Crismond and Justin “Brick” Howze at the Manhattan Beach pier during Sunday’s Peace Paddle. Photo by Kevin Cody
by Kevin Cody
On President’s Day morning, a middle-aged, white surfer hassled two 24-year-old Black surfers in the line-up at the Manhattan Beach Pier. He told them to go surf in El Porto. Then, more pointedly, he told them to go surf Bruce’s Beach, a Blacks only beach in the 1920s and more recently, the site of Black Lives Matter protests.
Print
David Matuszak has been surfing the waters of San Diego County for more than 40 years. One of his favorite spots is San Onofre State Beach on the northern tip of Camp Pendleton.
About eight years ago, he got the idea to write about the memories of his friend Wally Duesler, a pioneer surfer who first surfed San Onofre in 1937. He envisioned a 50- to 100-page booklet. But before he even began his research, Duesler told his surfing buddies about the idea and they wanted to share their memories, too.
“From there the project became a runaway train. What I thought would be a six-month project became an eight-year odyssey and labor of love,” Matuszak said.