Of Stan King, who lived by the board

Deepa Bharath

When Stan King rode the waves, it was as if his long board grew out

of his feet.

Surfing defined Stan’s life, his habitat, his attitude and his

personality. He couldn’t fathom a life in which the salty, fishy

smell of the ocean didn’t linger in his nostrils.

Stan was born in Redondo Beach, but grew up in Santa Ana. He

surfed at Corona del Mar State Beach since he was 17. That was soon

after he crafted his very first long board from 4-by-4 redwood posts

smuggled out of miniature golf courses.

He and his friends glued the posts together and varnished them to

create a surfboard more than 10 feet long and weighing close to 100

pounds. Back then, Stan and his friends caught the waves at the bell

buoy and rode it all the way in to the China House.

But to the young men’s disappointment, the long-breaking waves

disappeared after the Corona del Mar jetty was built. They moved

south to San Onofre. He was one of the first members of the San

Onofre Surfing Club.

Surfing was not merely a hobby for Stan. It was a way of life. He

almost believed that he was Hawaiian, and when he surfed, he

pretended he was riding the waves off those ethereal islands.

He was ecstatic when he got a U.S. Navy posting in Waikiki soon

after Pearl Harbor. He spent two glorious years there. After he

returned home, and in the many decades that followed, he never talked

about the war or much of the action on the battle ships. All he

talked about was how he could never get enough out of that ocean.

Stan was a wild child as a teenager, and throughout his life, he

carried with him a little piece of that child and a wee bit of that

mischief. During his carefree teen years, he and his friends would

take some food out of their moms’ iceboxes and head out to the beach

for days. Sometimes, they’d live on cereal and peanut butter. When

they returned home, their parents were more relieved than mad to see

the boys.

Stan never gave up surfing until he couldn’t paddle out any more,

but that was way past his mid-70s.

He was an old-fashioned tough guy, a proud surfer. He talked about

how he surfed on a piece of heavy wood with no leashes or wetsuits.

Stan also enjoyed other sports such as golf, tennis and skiing. He

loved to dive for abalone. He enjoyed anything water-related.

Stan’s other love was his wife, Natalie, who died in 1996. They

were quite the couple. They grew up less than a block away from each

other in Santa Ana and were junior high sweethearts. They were

inseparable. Natalie never really got on a surfboard, but she always

sat on the sand and watched her husband master the waves.

The couple traveled all over the world and across the country.

Stan had the heart of a patriot. His conservative opinions were as

firmly planted in his mind as his feet were on the surfboard.

Stan and Natalie spent a year driving cross-country and venturing

into obscure parts of the country. He loved an adventure on land as

he did at sea and seemed to have a Pollyannaish attitude toward life.

He saw the good in people and didn’t believe anything bad would

happen to him. And it didn’t.

On Balboa Peninsula, he was a good neighbor. He worked as an

engineer for the phone company and retired in 1979. He was diagnosed

with Parkinson’s disease about eight years ago. But he always enjoyed

his community and his neighbors and friends. Stan rode his bike to

the Balboa Pier and had breakfast at Ruby’s at the tip of the pier,

even on days he didn’t feel too well.

He taught his two children to surf and two of his grandchildren as

well. He was a loving family man. Stan had a delicious sense of

humor, which sometimes bordered on the obnoxious. But he was never

loud or boisterous. He just liked to have a good time. Stan also had

his collection of plaid pants and Christmas pants with ducks on them,

which always got a few laughs and double takes at parties and

get-togethers.

When Stan couldn’t surf anymore, he could still sense, feel and

see in his mind’s eye, what he described as “the long, feathering

waves” of San Onofre.

The way they surfed in “Endless Summer” was the way Stan and his

friends surfed.