THE VERDICT -- Robert Gardner

In the days before Boogie boards were invented, bodysurfing was a very

popular art. No less a wave man than the great Duke Kahanamoka

bodysurfed. Unhappily, with a Boogie board and a pair of fins, any idiot

can push himself into a wave and end up on the beach, a big smile of

gratification on his face -- meanwhile, ruining the ride for all the

serious bodysurfers on that wave. But back in the pre-Boogie board 1950s,

George Arthur was king of the local bodysurfers. He could do anything on

a wave except dance the polka, hence the name Surfin’ George.

He was so good that when we heard there was a bodysurfing contest at

Laguna Beach, we decided to show up our neighbors to the south and enter

George. Down we all drove with our champion only to discover that the

contest was limited to residents of Laguna Beach. Nothing daunted, we

went up and down the streets until we found a mailbox with a name on it,

and in our own case of identity theft, we put up all our hard-earned cash

(an unforgettable line from “Mack the Knife”) and entered George in the

contest under the name and address on the mailbox.

As we expected, George won the event and accepted his prize -- a

six-month subscription to the local Laguna Beach paper -- under his

assumed identity. It must have come as some surprise to that person to

open his paper the next morning and discover he had won the Laguna Beach

Bodysurfing Contest.

I lost track of George after that, which is probably just as well

because he had a bad habit. He liked to sit at the bar, not a bad habit

in itself, but if he was talking to someone and his girlfriend happened

to interrupt, he would backhand her off the bar stool and onto the floor.

Definitely not good form.

Today, bodysurfers are an endangered species, but some habitat has

been preserved for them at The Wedge, and if you want to see

practitioners of a lost art, that’s the place to go.

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.