A Hawk gets his wings

Multiple generations of Huntington Beach’s surfing community gathered Friday morning outside Huntington Surf and Sport to induct Chris Hawk, who is suffering from throat cancer, into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame.

About 200 people stood outside the surf shop on Pacific Coast Highway as Hawk pressed his hands and feet and inscribed a message in a slab of wet concrete. After Hawk had completed the message, which read simply “Peace — Love — Surf,” surfer Peter Townend presented the inductee with a trophy.

“Chris Hawk, welcome to the Surfers’ Hall of Fame,” Townend said as the crowd burst into applause.

Hawk, who won renowned in the 1960s and ‘70s as both a surfer and a board shaper, attended the ceremony with his wife and son. He wore a bandanna around his neck and spoke only briefly to the crowd, but said afterward that being inducted into the Hall of Fame had been a lifelong dream.

“It’s the ultimate for me in my life,” he said, holding up his trophy. “This is it.”

The Surfers’ Hall of Fame, which launched in 1997, typically inducts four members per year.

The hall hosted its last induction July 24, but Huntington Surf and Sport owner Aaron Pai said the overseers decided to hold a special induction for Hawk.

“Chris Hawk has been on our inductee list, and once we heard about his cancer, we moved him to the head of the list,” Pai said.

In a speech to the crowd, Pai said he and his friends had grown up idolizing Hawk.

“We were in awe of the guy. Back in the ‘70s, ‘80s, this guy was the Gerry Lopez of Huntington Beach,” Pai said, referring to the famous Hawaiian surfer and shaper.

Mayor Keith Bohr, who attended the ceremony in a lei and sunglasses, presented Hawk with a city proclamation.

A number of Hawk’s peers also took the microphone to share their memories of surfing with him and using his boards.

“You kind of picked him out of the crowd and said, ‘I want to surf like that guy,’” said Mike Downey, a longtime surfing coach in Huntington Beach. “Because he was so smooth.”