Jack Haley goes surfing into the sunset

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- A surfing legend who celebrated life to the fullest,

Jack Haley passed away Saturday after a long struggle against cancer. He

was 65.

The Seal Beach native spent much of his childhood dominating waves around

the Huntington Beach Pier, culminating with his win in the first-ever

U.S. Open surfing championship in 1959. The skill he showed on a long

board was matched in his later years with a knack for spotting business

opportunities. He ran a thriving restaurant, Captain Jack’s, in Sunset

Beach.

“It was this community, this beach and the water that defined him,” said

his daughter, Sondra Haley.

When Haley began his surfing career in the 1940s, the sport was still in

its infancy. But with talent and charisma, Haley helped boost surfing’s

appeal, said resident Bob Bolen, who used to paddle out with the man

nicknamed “Mr. Excitement.”

“When I was growing up, Jack was one of the guys we looked up to,” said

resident Corky Carroll, a three-time international and five-time national

surfing champion.

Haley’s triumph at the U.S. Open was sealed when he twice pulled off a

move known as “shooting” the pier. He weaved around the pilings and then

turned back and dodged them again. The move left a lasting impression on

Carroll.

“[Haley] shot it, then he unshot it,” he said. “In 1959, that was kind

of, like, unheard of.”

Haley’s good natured wild side spilled onto dry land, when he tried to

rob a train while partying in Tijuana. He recounted the myth shortly

before he was inducted into the city’s Surfing Walk of Fame in July.

The Huntington Beach High School graduate was enjoying more than a fair

share of tequila with a group of surfing rabble rousers, when one of them

bragged about knowing how to start a train. Before the train could pick

up enough steam, locals spotted them.

“We could see cars and people coming after us,” he had said.

Haley escaped capture by running as fast as his drunken legs could move

him, he said.

“He was something else,” said Carl Warren, owner of Sam’s Seafood, near

Captain Jack’s. “He did things on impulse.”

Through various business ventures, Haley became a wealthy man who bought

large chunks of real estate along Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach.

As his standing in the community grew, so did his sense of duty.

He reached out to help people, which earned him the title of unofficial

mayor for the unincorporated town. In the early 1980s, Haley organized

the construction of the marina off Broadway Street near the highway. He

also co-founded the Sunset Beach Community Business Assn.

Despite his good fortune, tragedy struck Haley in late 1996, when he was

diagnosed with cancer.

“He probably had another 20 years of surfing if he didn’t get the big C,”

said Natalie Kotsch, founder of Huntington Beach’s International Surfing

Museum, which has an exhibit dedicated to Haley.

There were times when chemotherapy weakened him so much that he couldn’t

move out of bed, but then he would bounce back, regaining some of that

old spirit, said his son Tim Haley.

“It was a roller coaster,” he said.

The ride finally ended.

In private ceremonies, his ashes will be cast into the ocean off Seal

Beach, Cabo San Lucas and Maui, where he lived part of the time, his son

said. A public ceremony is being planned in which his friends and family

will honor him according to his wishes -- with a mariachi band and tiki

dancers.

“No tears,” he said. “He wants people celebrating his life. He doesn’t

like the word ‘funeral.”’

Haley is survived by his wife, Jeannette; his three children; a

daughter-in-law; two grandchildren; and his mother, Virginia Haley.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the

University of Southern California’s Norris Cancer Center.