Honoring the legends

In the 1960s, the black ball flag was introduced to Huntington Beach, much to the dismay of local surfers who previously enjoyed surfing whenever a swell hit, regardless of what time of day it was.

Enter Bob “The Greek” Bolen, a local surfer, shaper, fin developer and — after today’s ceremony, which will land him a spot on the Surfing Walk of Fame — a local hero.

After looking into the language of the black-ball law, which initially outlawed boards longer than 5 feet, he said, The Greek answered with a board of that length.

Huntington eventually volleyed with a code change, which said surfers couldn’t use a board longer than 4-foot-10, he said, and Bolen returned with a board that size. And so it went until Bolen created a 4-foot-5-inch board.

“The guys still got out there and ripped,” he said.

Soon after, Surf City banned hard boards of any kind from the water while black ball was up, he said.

Forty-some years later, Bolen still hits up the pier, and although his attempts at avoiding black-ball rules may not be the only defining characteristic of a local surfing hero, it’s one example of how Bolen has tried to continually innovate the sport.

“Back in the days, he had The Greek surf shop on Pacific Coast Highway, right there where Jack’s is today. It was an institution,” said Surfing Walk of Fame board member and local Peter “PT” Townend, who is emceeing the event. “He’s an original in the Huntington Beach surf culture. That’s what made him get the ‘local hero.’ He’s been part of the surfing culture of Huntington Beach for five decades.

“The Greek’s great, and he’s been close to being inducted for … the last 10 years. Every year he gets second or third, and finally he got the majority of the votes this year.”

Bolen still shapes boards, but only on weekends. During the week, he runs Huntington Beach Realty from his office on Main Street, which doubles as a surf memorabilia museum. He’s developed the Turbo Tunnel fin, which forces water to flow through a hole in the fin and creates more stable noserides on a longboard. Bolen joins surf pioneer Mickey Munoz, L.J. Richards, the champion who won the West Coast Surfing Championships in 1963, surfing culture icons Walter and Phillip Hoffman, who supplied Billabong and Quiksilver with fabric for the companies’ clothing, and six-time world champion Layne Beachley, in the 13th class of inductees.

“I think that one of the things that’s really cool this year is that, except for Layne … the entire list is all the old-school people, who sometimes go unnoticed,” Townend said. “It’s the beginning of surf culture. Every one of those guys in that category are from an era, which established what we enjoy today, and I think there’ll be some real storytelling [at the ceremony].”

Jan Gaffney, who owns Jan’s Health Bar on Main Street, was chosen as the board’s Honor Roll recipient.

“I’m just in awe of the whole thing because when I surfed, I wasn’t good enough to join those ranks,” she said of the professional surfing world. “Now, through hard work in another realm — through my sandwich making, my smoothies and pride in my business, I get to join them in another way. It’s a real thrill for me.”

Gaffney has been serving up sandwiches and smoothies in Huntington to surfers for about 35 years, including Kelly Slater, who she said, likes to sneak in when he’s in town.

Gaffney was the only honoree chosen by the board. A strict set of rules guides the voting for the rest of the categories.

A list of nominees is sent to around 200 people every year. Voters include past honorees, various international surf club members and surf industry news media representatives.

Beachley trekked from her native Australia to Main and Huntington Beach streets for not one, but two such honors. She is being inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame and the Surfing Hall of Fame across the street.

“We’re lucky enough to have Justin Brown, the consul-general from Australia who is going to be down for the ceremony,” Surfing Walk of Fame chairman Don MacAllister said.

On Friday, Beachley, pro-surfer Rob Machado, surf fashion great and Hurley International owner Bob Hurley, and big-wave legend Greg Noll will immortalize their hands and feet in the Surfers’ Hall of Fame outside Huntington Surf and Sport.

Aaron Pai, owner of Huntington Surf and Sport, helps choose the inductees, and this year he couldn’t leave out the man who had a hand in inspiring Pai to surf. The image of big-wave pioneer Noll as he rode Pipeline in his striped shorts has never escaped Pai’s mind.

“That was one of the first pictures that really had an impact on me personally and a lot of my friends,” he said. “Seeing a surfer tell the whole story — this guy was going to out in that stuff and he was probably going to die, but he was going to raise the bar and ride big.”

Noll said the adrenaline of dropping in kept him charging some of the biggest waves in the world as a young man.

“When we were young and going to the North Shore and riding challenging and a little bit bigger surf, we were complete fun hogs,” Noll said. “We had no idea anybody would make such a big deal out of it later.”

Noll, who now prefers bodysurfing and shaping to surfing, keeps the surfing spirit alive through his surfboards, his sons and the young surfers he surrounds himself with. He still finds it hard to believe how the surfing world has evolved and become so mainstream.

“It’s come a long way,” he said. “When I was a young guy surfing in Huntington, the cops wanted to throw your butt in jail, and now they want to put your hands in concrete…. I thank Aaron [Pai] for treating us so well. It’s really a first-class job.”

An icon in the surf apparel industry, Hurley started out surfing, but after it became apparent he was not as good at surfing as some of the other guys, he said, he started shaping boards, something he did become good at with practice.

From there, he became a United States licensee for the Australian company Billabong. In 1999, he launched Hurley International, spawned from the Costa Mesa surf shop where he sold his boards. Hurley, who now lives in Newport Beach, humbly credits his success to surfers and shop owners who encouraged and helped him out along the way.

“I’ve been involved with surfing for 30 years at a professional level, although I’m not a pro-surfer,” he said. “I was able to pursue the lifestyle and I’m just so thankful that everyone let me play.”

Honorees for the Surfers’ Hall of Fame are chosen by Pai and a few other individuals who want to pay homage to some of surfing’s greats.

“It’s nothing fancy, it’s just a bunch of surfers who love the sport of surfing,” he said.