Southern California #8, Huntington Beach: A Search for the Fun in Life

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

Huntington Beach, America’s Surf City, is a lot more than an old-fashioned day at the beach, There is so much more going on in this city that lies 25 miles south of Redondo Beach. City? It is indeed a city, about three times larger than its neighbor, a comparison of about 200,000 population versus around 68,000 for Redondo but despite its larger size Huntington Beach readily captures the feel of Small Town America. And its label of Surf City, USA surely doesn’t hurt.

Everyone here seems to know everyone else especially if they are all surfers, the Royalty in this town. Tom Blake’s hollow 1930’s paddleboard, for example, hangs on the wall above Reception at the Waterfront Beach Resort so if you’re not a surfer and have never heard of him –and believe you might get your room upgraded by the attractive young surfer at the desk if you showed surfer interest perhaps you should Google Tom Blake before you check in.

If the mammoth 14 foot board doesn’t tell you this is Surf City, wander out on to the patio and stare across the Pacific Coast Highway. The famous 1970’s “Ultimate Challenge” statue by artist Edmund Shumpert really catches the almost-ballet like skills of Man riding the Wave. Walk a few minutes north to the corner of Main Street. Shumpert did that statue, too, in front of Huntington Surf and Sport. The figure is the acclaimed Duke Kahanamoku presiding over the Surfers’ Hall of Fame.

So are we done with all this surfing stuff? After all, we’ve heard Rincon bragging about its mid-coast surf in California and Oceanside about its museum -- and we’ve read about the great places in Hawaii, Fiji, Indonesia, Australia and the East Cape in South Africa. So, are there other things to talk about in Huntington Beach? Not until we’ve paid our due to this heritage of surfing because it is so well done here and it does give a buzz of collegial friendliness to the whole community.

Although the museum has future plans to have a larger building near the pier, the present International Surfing Museum is located in a former doctor’s office. The outside wall bears a colorful 1996 mural by D.J. Mac; the inside is a rabbit warren of twisting passages and you can well imagine patients going from one room to another to get their different services. Inside the door the Silver Surfer rides the wave. Made of 550 lbs of fiberglass he was created by Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics in 1966 then used for a Fox Studios’ Fantastic Four movie in 2007. His use over, he ended up on an eBay auction. The successful bidder mounted him on the roof of his trailer but other trailer park residents objected so he was finally donated to the museum by Jonny Quest Wall Prokell.

Real surfers might regard this as kitsch (as they might also the whimsical statue of a surfing dude standing around the corner with thick sunscreen on his nose) but this museum is fun. It’s a museum that smiles. But it has its serious side, too. Tributes to the greatest surfer of all time, Duke Kahanamoku, line one wall. The bust was mounted originally at the base of the Huntington Beach Pier but was removed for safety after a destructive storm in 1989. The music offerings of Dick Dale and the Del Tones, and the Beach Boys recall earlier times even as displays show the development of the surf board and film clips the history of the sport. The guest book shows an entry from one Robin Z of Long Beach: “See what makes surfers do the wild and crazy things they do even while being astronauts, physicists, doctors, lawyers, fighter pilots and bums like me.”

Surfing is far from “wild and crazy,” says Larry Lyford, a docent. “Surfing has three benefits for its enthusiasts. First, it encourages physical fitness: you need good health to swim in the ocean. I’ve been surfing since 1956 and I have drowned twice at the age of 60! Second, it makes you love the ocean. I’ve been working all my life to save it. It was surfers who stopped the freeway development that would’ve ruined Trestles at San Onofre State Beach, one of the premier surf breaks in the United States. Three, surfing makes you face the challenges in life. One wave is never the same as the next. This is better than any ride in an amusement park – and it’s free!”

And as the bumper sticker says: Surfers Rule!  

In this city so do simple walkers. The downtown is quite compact. A wander around the downtown area should start at the 100 year-old pier; 1853 feet in length, it’s the longest municipal pier of its type in the state of California. Henry Edwards Huntington, the railroad millionaire who developed the Los Angeles street railway system, brought his Pacific Electric Red Car line here in the early 1900s when promised the town would be called after him. This initially helped the town grow but by 1905 progress had stalled.

Marjorie Scott with a story “Out of the Past” in Orange Coast Magazine in December 1989 tells a fantastic account of how two local men sold copies of 16-set Encyclopedia Americana at a discount if customers also bought land cheaply in the newly-named Huntington Beach. The lots were 2 ½ miles from the beach in gullies and canyons that were considered worthless -- until 1920 when Bolsa Chica oil well No. 1 came in with “a roar that could be heard for 15 miles.” Then the intrigue started but some of those who had bought encyclopedias just so their children could learn more ended up rich. (Finding the magazine article online at Google books is involved and some links are broken but it’s really worth a try.)

Says writer Chris Epting, author of “Huntington Beach, Then & Now,” standing with us on the Pacific Coast Highway and pointing at its junction with Main Street: “A payphone once stood at that spot that had the largest use and was the most profitable in the United States. It was used by prospectors calling in their oil claims.” It now has Fred’s, a Mexican restaurant.

Epting strolls around his town giving his impressions. We pass the Community Bible Church across the street from the Beach Court bungalow where, say guide books, Judy Garland came to wrestle with her fame and dry out. The church lot was donated by the Prestons family who had hoped in vain that oil might lie below. There were so many places of worship here that Orange Street was once called Church Row. Around the corner lies a run-down brick property. “This is what happens when a sleepy coastal town brings in oil,” says Epting. “Here we have the old town jail.” A sign above the door reads Farley’s Expert Locksmith and gives a local telephone number. One of our group calls the number. It is unexpectedly still a working number. “He says he’s retired,” she declares. “I was going to say I was in the jail and ask if he delivers?”

It would be a shame to be locked up in this feisty, bouncy little city. It offers so much from simply sitting under an umbrella on the beach and meditating about life to more active activities like Segway Tours with Jack O’Brien, owner of GW Segway Tours, or Stand-Up Paddle Boarding lessons from Rocky McKinnon, or Surf lessons at Toes on the Nose Waterfront Adventures -- or even recapturing your childhood with Sandcastle Building lessons from Marc Africano and his wife Michelle at Dig It!

Asked how long he’s been building sandcastles professionally, Marc replies, “Let’s see. My child is now 16, so I’ve been at it for 15 years.”

“How did you get started?”

He grins and says, “I was building a sandcastle with my little one. A woman went past, stopped and said ‘How much d’you charge for a children’s party?’ I looked up and said, ‘A hundred dollars an hour.’ ‘Done!’ she said, ‘I’ll take three hours!’ And ever since I’ve never had to advertise!”

The thing that charmed us in Huntington Beach was how active the locals were – and all those persons we saw seemed more like residents than tourists. And that’s a contrast with our San Diego. It was as if the people of Huntington Beach had decided it made sense to live the good Californian life in their own town – and boy! were they busy, jogging, surfing, playing sports on the beach. And laughing. This sure was a happy place.

Classic places to eat in Huntington Beach would include lunch at the aforementioned Fred’s Mexican Café at 300 Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), or across the street at Sandy’s Beach Grill at 315 PCH. Both use fresh local produce. There once was a Sandy but there never was a Fred!

We stayed at the Waterfront Beach Resort and with some guests took advantage of an excursion to the Beach Farmer’s Market with executive chef Jeff Littlefield. With him we selected fresh vegetables and fruit then returned to the hotel for his cooking demonstration using the produce we had selected. Later on the patio we enjoyed the appetizers he’d created from our market trip. Cool! Our hotel concierge also arranged a Surf City Bonfire and Dinner with long-established Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, the finale being when we were handed roasting sticks and more to the point (no pun intended) marshmallows, chocolate and Graham Crackers. A harpist, Katrina Saroyan, played softly in preparation for somebody’s wedding as the sun sank surprisingly fast into the pewter Pacific Ocean

Indeed life seems simple for surfers in this fun, frisky little city. A self-confessed surfing dude walks past but stops to let us photograph his message for life. We record it below: Eat, drink, surf, repeat.