by Kevin Cody During the Catalina Classic Paddleboard Race pre race meeting last month, at Buffalo Park on Catalina Island, race director Buddy Bohn asked for a…
Becker, Eaton shaped surfing
SHARE Mike Eaton (far left) and Phil Becker (in straw hat) with fellow Peninsula surfers, Eddie Clark, Ricky Burns, Richie Clark, Jared Eaton and Frankie Shinn at the end with the zinc oxide nose. The picture was taken at Bluff Cove by May Clark, Eddie’s wife, around ‘54 or ‘55, according to the Eatons’ sister Ann (Eaton) Medve. Photo courtesy of Steve Mangiagli
Phil Becker and Mike Eaton grew up on the Peninsula to become two of the most prolific and influential surfboard shapers in surfing history
by Kevin Cody
Phil Becker and Mike Eaton grew up on the Peninsula, across the street from one another, and retired near to one another on the Big Island of Hawaii. Between those periods, during the Gold Era of Surfing, the lifelong friends became celebrated surfboard shapers.
Eaton’s passing follows fellow shaper Becker’s, by just 7 days
SHARE Mike Eaton lines up at the start of the 2006 Hennessey s U.S. Paddleboard Championships in Hermosa Beach. He is paddling a Tom Blake kook box, like the board he learned to surf at Bluff Cove in 1950 . Photo by Kevin Cody
by Kevin Cody
Pioneer surfer and surfboard shaper Mike Eaton passed away at his home from a stroke on the Big Island of Hawaii last Thursday, at the age of 86.
Eaton’s death came just seven days after his childhood friend, Big Island neighbor and fellow South Bay surfer and shaper Phil Becker died of cancer, at the age of 81.