Board maker Pierre Van Swae ("The Fly") on his introduction to surfing in Laguna Beach, the popularization of surfing as an activity, and the importance of observing wave etiquette and preserving the, "aloha spirit."

Recorded for OC Surf Stories; Dana Point Library, Dana Point, California

Transcript:
John Pierre Van Swae, I was born in Belgium. Antwerp, Belgium. I came over here when I was five years old and moved to California. But the fun didn't start until my mom got a job in Laguna Beach for an electronics firm and she asked us, Do you wanna move to the beach? My two brothers and myself just flipped. We go, Oh, yeah. We're on it. So, that was an adventure. And when I saw the ocean, that's when the door opened up. I just - you know, I'd go, Oh! And guys surfing! You know, I was amazed. And, this is too good. TEXT: Wardy Surf Shop There was a local shop in Laguna that was making boards at that time. This was nineteen fifty-eight, fifty-nine. So, I hung around the shop 19til they got tired of me hanging around and put me to work because that was my quest. I figured they'll get tired or kick me out, but the owner, Fred Wardy, hired me and it was just an adventure after that, learning how to make surfboards and surfing. We'd work most of the day but we'd surf in the morning and usually have a surf break in the afternoon. It was just good camaraderie. We'd take trips to Mexico. Surf there before the Mexicans would surf. They didn't know about surfing, so we had the whole place to ourself. It was just so much enjoyment. TEXT: Wave Etiquette Bruce Brown, the late Bruce Brown, they made a movie, Endless Summer and when that came out, it was a major hit. And then all of a sudden, everybody started jumping on the bandwagon. They wanted to be part of the culture. The Beach Boys, they created more surfing than ever. So, all of the sudden, board sales were up, beaches were getting a little more crowded. So then, now you have to understand about wave etiquette. It's something you have to teach. Some people are a little slow, they're a little on the piggy side, you might say. You don't realize that, hey, you're hogging the wave. Let somebody else have a wave instead of muscling in on as many waves as you can. You know, it's just - it's human nature, but it changed things. It did kind of - it's like driving on a highway with a lot of cars and you're trying to jockey around. It's knowing when somebody is taking off on a wave and you see them coming down at you, and you take off in front, you know, what you do is you impede their speed and they'll run right into you. They have a hard time turning and you're wrecking their wave. It's better to let them go and wait for another wave. Wait your turn kind of a thing. I'd always wait for the last wave of a set because all the other people would grab all the other waves and then, the last wave, it'd usually be hardly anybody out there. You'd be by yourself and have the whole wave, and no hassle, and, you know, you'd just laugh. And a lot of the time, it's the biggest wave. On a good swell. You know, I've just tried to keep the aloha spirit alive. I went - in ninety-one, I spent seven years in Kauai, just having one blast of a time. We had - I'd surf in the dark sometimes of there in Kauai. Very early, just before twilight - this is one day - and they burned sugar cane, part of the process. And I'm on the west side of the island and the surf is overhead but you can see it just enough to be able to distinguish the wave. And I remember taking off on the very first wave that morning, you know, semi-darkness and sugar can was in the background and it was on fire and it reflected all the way up the face of the wave as I'm going down and it just, you know, like Dante's Inferno! And I'm all by myself and I'm just, you know, I'm just hooting. Yelling, you know. And I go, This is great! Then it got lighter and the light diminished and the reflection faded, but just for that one wave, you know, it - things that stick in your head that you go, Wow. What an experience. Plus, other time I surfed at Trestles with dolphins jumping out of the waves in front of me. And I'm riding the wave thinking I'm doing really good and then here's these four dolphins. So, they're just leaping out showing me, this is how you do it, kind of stuff. Upstaged me.


For additional information see California Revealed.

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