Looking out at the flat, calm ocean in Long Beach, good surfing is the about the last thing that comes to mind. But the area was once a hotbed for wave riding.
Before man-made changes calmed the waves, Long Beach drew some of the best known early-era surfers and hosted a national surfing and paddleboarding championship that drew thousands of spectators back in 1938.
Though Long Beach’s days as an epic surf destination are long gone, a stretch of beach was approved Friday, April 21, for a California Point of Historical Interest nomination by the state’s Historical Resources Commission for its rich surfing past. (The commission also discussed federal historic status for the El Segundo Woman’s Club, which was founded in 1922 to promote civic, educational and philanthropic interest in the community.)
Before the designation is finalized, the recognition needs to be officially signed by the director of California State Parks, according to Michael Blum, director of Sea of Clouds, a San Diego-based nonprofit that helps coastal resources receive state and federal recognition.
“As a surfer, you would hear about what it was like in the old days, in Long Beach’s case pre-war. You look at a spot and you look at a surf guide and there’s no reference of surfing at all,” Blum said.
Being called a Point of Historical Interest is 28.5 acres where there was once a surf break between the former Long Beach Municipal/Rainbow Piers and The Pike amusement zone.
The surf break was destroyed as the population boomed and development took over, with sand filling in the surf zone through the years and a 2.2-mile breakwater built in 1949 blocked swells and waves.
But still, in its short life, Long Beach’s surf scene was something for the history books.
The National Surfing and Paddleboard Championships was Los Angeles County’s first surfing and paddleboarding competition billed as a national event, an event sponsored by the city.
“The event was both a successful visitor attraction for the city and a notable contest for Southern California surfers and paddleboarders during the pre-war period,” according to a report submitted to the state.
The area was bordered by two attractions since demolished as part of Long Beach’s waterfront development – the former Rainbow Pier, a 3,800-foot, rainbow-shaped driving and pedestrian pier, and The Pike amusement zone, an entertainment area.
“Waves conducive for surfing broke in between these attractions and this unique location offered spectators an opportunity to watch swimming, surfing, and paddleboarding from either the Rainbow Pier or Silver Spray Pleasure Pier, which was part of the Pike,” according to the report.
“Multiple surfers were often seen riding waves together, and each being in a favorable position to continue their ride,” the report reads. “While the contest’s exact paddleboard course is not known, its start and finish areas are within the nominated area.”
At the time, Long Beach was competing with other beach towns up and down the coast to lure real estate investors and visitors, building tourist-based coastal developments such as amusement and fishing piers, bath houses and exclusive beach clubs, and holding surfing exhibitions and contests.
Hawaiian surfer and lifeguard George Freeth, recognized as introducing surfing to Southern California, performed a diving exhibition at the 1909 opening of the Plunge bath house in nearby Redondo Beach and also put on surf shows in Huntington Beach.
In 1913, Duke Kahanamoku, the Hawaiian surfer and Olympic-champion swimmer, gave a surfing demonstration in Long Beach where “thousands of people enjoyed the exhibition and cheered his work,” the report reads.
Surfer Bryce Leisy, a Surfrider Foundation Long Beach chapter volunteer who was part of the historic designation effort, said he was fascinated by stories his grandmother, Patricia Marr, told of jumping off a pier structure to brave big waves bodysurfing.
As a surfer, Leisy said he wondered what happened to the waves that once drew legendary surfers of the time.
He created a short documentary, “Lost But Not Forgotten,” exploring the surf break once called the “Queen of the Coast,” interviewing longtime surfers who recalled the bustling surf scene.
Bob Ole Olson was a former Long Beach lifeguard and a surfboard builder interviewed in the film, remembering the “slow rollers” that would come into shore. He remembered borrowing big paddleboards from neighboring Seal Beach lifeguards to ride the waves.
“That’s what we first surfed on,” he said.
Leisy, who still calls Long Beach home and is also the coach of Wilson High School surf team, said his fascination with Long Beach’s historical surf led him into conversations about how to educate others about what once existed before the stories are forgotten.
“I was just chasing these stories my whole life, just to hear what it was like when there were waves,” he said.
The surf and the lure of the waves helped the city grow in its early development, he said. “The coastal space and recreation in the ocean and on the sand was a very big selling point in the early 1900s, as far as real estate is concerned. They set up the red line to bring people to enjoy that space.”
Contest footage from that time shows people shoulder-to-shoulder, with thousands coming down to watch, even a marching band with elephants.
“It was a big deal,” Leisy said. “Then, the port got built and it was the more economical means for the city to grow – so it kind of went that route.”
Leisy said he learned of the Long Beach coalition surf team that existed in 1938 and all of the surf icons who grew up in his hometown, such as women’s champion Jericho Poppler and surf journalist Steve Pezman. In the ’70s, legendary champion surfer David Nuuhiwa was on the Long Beach Surf Team.
More recently, Long Beach surfer Nolan Rapoza has become a standout, rising star pro surfer.
Once in a while, a swell comes in at just the right angle to produce surfable waves in Long Beach, but Leisy said they are more like “novelty” waves.
“You can surf it,” he said, noting anytime waves show up, he’s compelled to paddle out. “But there’s probably somewhere better.”
For a decade, the Surfrider Foundation pushed to have a portion of the breakwater taken out to allow waves to once again break in Long Beach, but ultimately a federal anchorage there for a naval ship during an emergency scenario wiped out that plan, Leisy said.
“We’re excited about this nomination because of this idea of commemorating something that was lost as part of the larger story,” Blum said.
His group also helped Malibu in 2018 receive a designation in the National Register of Historic Places for its contribution to the growth of surfing. In 2019, Santa Monica’s Bay Street Beach, also known as the Inkwell, was recognized because it was a place of recreation and beach access for African Americans and Latinos during the Jim Crow-era.
The historic recognition programs are important, Blum said, because they are recognizing important places or connections people have made in their communities.
