Hermosa Beach’s Greg ‘Da Bull’ Noll was a no bull guy
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by Mike Purpus
When I was a 12 year old surf grom my friends and I hung out at The Greg Noll shop after school and passed around “The Thumb.” It was a human thumb in a block of resin sitting next to the cash register. We didn’t know who’s thumb it was or where it came from. The people that worked at the shop refused to talk about it but they let us pass it around for 30 minutes and then kicked us out of the shop.
by Kevin Cody
Five of the six inductees in the inaugural 2003 Hermosa Beach Walk of Fame ceremony were surfboard builders from the ‘60s Golden Era of surfing. Individually, and collectively, they rank among the most influential figures in the sport’s history.
“It just goes to show that if you live long enough and you tell enough B.S. surf stories, at some point, everyone will believe you because there’s no one around to dispute you,” Greg Noll, then 66, said during his acceptance speech.
The other board builders inducted that day were Hap Jacobs, Bing Copeland, Rick Stoner and Dewey Weber.
Becker, Eaton shaped surfing
SHARE Mike Eaton (far left) and Phil Becker (in straw hat) with fellow Peninsula surfers, Eddie Clark, Ricky Burns, Richie Clark, Jared Eaton and Frankie Shinn at the end with the zinc oxide nose. The picture was taken at Bluff Cove by May Clark, Eddie’s wife, around ‘54 or ‘55, according to the Eatons’ sister Ann (Eaton) Medve. Photo courtesy of Steve Mangiagli
Phil Becker and Mike Eaton grew up on the Peninsula to become two of the most prolific and influential surfboard shapers in surfing history
by Kevin Cody
Phil Becker and Mike Eaton grew up on the Peninsula, across the street from one another, and retired near to one another on the Big Island of Hawaii. Between those periods, during the Gold Era of Surfing, the lifelong friends became celebrated surfboard shapers.
Phil Becker (in the straw hat) and Jared Eaton holding up their $5 Tom Blake kook box. Others in the photo are (left to right) Mike Eaton, Eddie Clark, Ricky Burns, Richie Clark, and Frankie Shinn at the end with the zinc oxide nose. The picture was taken by May Clark, Eddie’s wife, around ‘54 or ‘55, according to the Eatons’ sister Ann (Eaton) Medve. Photo courtesy of Steve Mangiagli
by Kevin Cody
Phil Becker was the most prolific and most under celebrated surfboard shaper in history, by his own design.
Becker used three Rockwell planers, all bought in 1965 and periodically rebuilt, to shape over 130,000 surfboards. The closest other person to shape that many boards was Hobie Surfboards’ Terry Martin, who shaped an estimated 80,000 surfboards before passing away in 2012, at age 75. Channel Islands’ Al Merrick is thought to have shaped 45,000 surfboards.