Editor’s note: the following story originally appeared in Easy Reader in April, 2019. Hap Jacobs has shaped his last surfboard. The board is a clear glassed…
Hermosa Beach’s Greg ‘Da Bull’ Noll was a no bull guy
SHARE
by Mike Purpus
When I was a 12 year old surf grom my friends and I hung out at The Greg Noll shop after school and passed around “The Thumb.” It was a human thumb in a block of resin sitting next to the cash register. We didn’t know who’s thumb it was or where it came from. The people that worked at the shop refused to talk about it but they let us pass it around for 30 minutes and then kicked us out of the shop.
by Kevin Cody
Five of the six inductees in the inaugural 2003 Hermosa Beach Walk of Fame ceremony were surfboard builders from the ‘60s Golden Era of surfing. Individually, and collectively, they rank among the most influential figures in the sport’s history.
“It just goes to show that if you live long enough and you tell enough B.S. surf stories, at some point, everyone will believe you because there’s no one around to dispute you,” Greg Noll, then 66, said during his acceptance speech.
The other board builders inducted that day were Hap Jacobs, Bing Copeland, Rick Stoner and Dewey Weber.