Still wiping out

Marisa O’Neil

Their music conjures up images of aloha shirts and sandals, big waves

and sandy beaches.

The Surfaris, best known for the surf anthem “Wipe Out,” are

playing Sunday at the American Legion Newport Harbor Post 291 and

Yacht Club for their California Beach Party. Other icons in surf

music -- Dick Dale and the Chantays will also bring their own

versions of vintage, instrumental surf music to the party.

“They were huge in the 60s and 70s,” said John Mouzakis, event

organizer and second vice commander of the club. “We grew up with

this stuff. I remember ending up at the Rendezvous ballroom in

Newport Beach. All these guys played there, Dick Dale, The Surfaris,

The Chantays. It was a big deal.”

Mouzakis is counting on some of that nostalgia to raise funds for

the VA Long Beach Healthcare System veterans hospital and the Bob

Hope Hollywood USO at LAX, a lounge for military personnel passing

through Los Angeles International Airport.

In Southern California, particularly, surf music holds a special

appeal, he said.

Surfaris saxophonist Jim Pash said he’s pushed over the years to

get surf music recognized as an indigenous art form.

“It was invented here, played here and invokes being here,” Pash

said. “It was considered an incidental non-music by rock and roll

historians, except for the Beach Boys. But the music actually played

at the beach and preferred by surfers was instrumental music. They

were a physically fit bunch. They didn’t want to shuffle along to

‘East Coast girls are...’” he said, breaking into Beach Boys hit

“California Girls.”

Pash and guitarist Jim Fuller are the two original members still

in the Surfaris. Drummer David Raven, keyboard player Rob Watson,

bass player Jay Truax and guitarist Paul Johnson -- also of the

Belairs and Duo-Tones -- fill out the rest of the lineup.

Another original band member, Bob Berryhill, splintered off from

the band and plays in another manifestation of the Surfaris with his

wife and two sons.

Pash’s incarnation of the Surfaris still plays the classic “Wipe

Out,” which contains one of the most famous drum solos in music

history. That solo came from a cadence original drummer Ronnie Wilson

played in his high school drum corps with Pash.

The Surfaris will also play some of their other well-known songs,

such as “Surfer Joe” and “Point Panic.”

“We took the liberty of rearranging some of the songs without

losing their original flavor,” Pash said. “But we haven’t lost the

heart and soul. We know how to do surgery without losing the

patient.”

First and foremost, he said, the Surfaris are a dance band.

“I tell people before the show: ‘Begin dancing, dance your heart

out, and you’ll leave smiling.’”