Thursday, January 24, 2013

2012 Beach Photo Potpourri...

Who doesn't like photos of and about the beach?...  dare we say no one amongst our readership.  So here ya'all go.  Enjoy!


































 






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(All photos by & Copyright Will Maguire 2012.  All Rights Reserved.)

Until next time.....


"County Recurrent" News
http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com



Service • Training • Commitment

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DISCLAIMER: County Recurrent is not affiliated with nor sponsored by LACOLA or LACoFD.

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Friday, January 11, 2013

"WHO AM I? #3", by Cal Porter



                                                       WHO AM I?
                                                              #3  

Photo by Don James. Courtesy of Cal Porter.

Old timers should not have much trouble in guessing the identity of this legendary lifeguard, surfer, and all time waterman of yesterday.   For younger guys it may take a bit longer (unless you’ve been reading the works of Professor, Lifeguard, Art Verge lately).  He is seen here reshaping my own Pacific Systems, balsa-redwood surfboard (or one just like mine) in the late 1930’s or early 40’s, over seventy years ago.  Twice during those years he had me bring it to him at his workshop under the pier to “reshape it a bit and make it faster”, he said.  That board that I bought from County Lifeguard, Chauncey Granstrom in 1939 is now bolted to the wall in the Zuma Headquarters where it has rested for fifty years or so with all our names engraved on it.   


Cal's trophy board referenced above in text. Photo by Will Maguire.

He was an idol of mine and many others from the time I was a teen-age, high school kid, lifeguard in the old Venice Salt Water Plunge that was on the beach where the present day skate board park is.  He would often come to the plunge in the late afternoon after his beach shift along with a few lifeguard buddies for a workout swim in the warm salt water that was pumped into the pool from the ocean.  He had become a lifeguard when his section of Santa Monica Bay first organized its beach force in 1932.  During his over thirty years of service he invented the yellow, inflatable rescue tube with a snap hook, line and harness in 1935; it was named for him ever after.  He created and built lifeguard rescue dories and rescue paddleboards, and also built surfboards of all kinds: fiberglass hollow boards, foam boards, plywood, balsa and redwood boards.  He was the premier waterman of his era; he could do it all, swimming, diving, surfing.  One of his contemporaries summed it up best:  “He was muscular and lean, but didn’t look like anything special, but when he got in the water he was the best”. 

Most old guys have guessed by now, but for others: 

He was the four-time winner of the Pacific Coast Surf Riding Championships in 1932, 1936, 1938, and 1941.  Nobody else won more than one.  He was recognized as the best surfer in the United States at the time and was inducted into the International Surfing Hall of Fame in 1966.  He won almost all of the tandem surfing contests he entered, and with many different partners, even well into his fifties including the 1966 world championships when he was 53 years old.  He was a master paddler setting marks in all categories from 100 yard sprints to 26 mile open-ocean marathons; this was when paddleboard racing and lifeguarding were closely allied.  He was part of the first wave of surfers to go to Hawaii in 1932.  He was the first to paddle from the mainland to Catalina, and he paddled the 30 miles from Anacapa Island to Santa Monica.  His photo was the first ever publicized of a surfer riding a wave at Malibu, the photo appearing in the Los Angeles Times in September, 1934.  He was in great demand in Hollywood movies for many years as the best aquatic stunt man around, and he starred in short documentary films featuring his aquatic exploits.  This lifeguard was the consummate waterman, he could do it all, and better than any. 


Photo by Tom Blake.  Courtesy of Cal Porter

Cal

---

("Who Am I? #3" Copyright Cal Porter 2013. Published here with permission.)

*** Many Thanks to Cal for another great story about this 20th Century Lifeguard-Waterman Extraordinaire ! ***

And lest we forget, our readership is again encouraged to contribute stories, photos, rescues, etc. from their lifeguarding days to share with their colleagues.  To those of our readership who have contributed we say "Thanks Very Much!"  

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Until next time.....


"County Recurrent" News

http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com

*** Keeping the County Recurrent "in the loop"..... whether he/she likes it or NOT ! ***

DISCLAIMER: County Recurrent is not affiliated with nor sponsored by LACOLA or LACoFD.

*** PLEASE forward to other Recurrents, past and present, so that we can add them to our mailing list. ***

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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

"Who Am I #2", by Cal Porter

Drum roll........


   WHO AM I ?      
#2
                                


The Clues

My daughter will probably have no problem identifying this dashing, young Los Angeles County Lifeguard who worked the local beaches some years ago since she had quite a crush on him.  Lucky for me she was only ten at the time otherwise I would have been in big trouble.  He was a fine surfer and is seen above in one of his favorite positions, a squat or crouch of sorts that had a name like semi-quasimoto or something.   This could be Rincon or maybe Little Point Dume where he lived and surfed most of the time.  One day I was surfing there with a friend when further out we saw him disappear under cover of a nice-size tubular wave.  As he emerged from the tunnel and shot out into daylight we heard him scream with unconcealed delight, “I’ve Been Born”!  Ah, now there’s something new I thought, but my friend said, "oh he hollers that all the time."  And I’ve heard this shout from others since but I like to think it originated with this popular, outgoing, mystery lifeguard who spent many a summer at Zuma Beach, and was even at Tower 4 during the infamous beach riot of 1961.

Besides my daughter has anyone else guessed yet?

There are many stories to be told about this prankster, surfer, lifeguard and the one to follow I believe to be true and not just apocryphal.  It was at the Malibu Surfing Association’s participation in the Huntington Beach paddleboard relays and surfing contest, 1964 or 65.  It was a pretty rough day and our lifeguard and friends were standing on the berm watching the competition on the south side of the pier.  A young girl was suddenly caught in a lateral current and being dragged inexorably into a nasty riptide while the local guard appeared unaware.  With incredible reaction and speed, our hero grabbed the guard’s red rescue tube, raced into the water, and proceeded to affect the rescue of the girl in front of the large group of spectators there for the contest.  After he safely released the girl on the beach he returned the rescue tube to the local guard with this retort, “That rescue was courtesy of the Los Angeles County Lifeguards”.                                                                                            
Well there are many other tales that could be told about this lifeguard, but if his identity is not yet apparent the following should just about wrap things up.  His uncle, with the same name as his, who was a fine surfer and longtime Santa Monica Guard, moved to Hawaii long ago and started his internationally known and successful company, Surf Line Hawaii, Ltd., turning out the first pair of “Jams” on December 25, 1964.  His nephew, our mystery lifeguard, moved to Hawaii some time ago himself and lives there happily to this day with his wife and family.  And for you who know him and just happen to be on his e-mail list you know that this guy sends you about two dozen or more e-mails a day mostly about surfing and the beach but also about all kinds of other crazy but interesting stuff from around the world.  And his name is ---------.

 ---

(Copyright Cal Porter 2012.  All Rights Reserved.  Photo courtesy of the subject mystery man.)

*** Many Thanks to Cal for another installment in his new series, "Who Am I".  And thanks as well for the consent of our mystery featured lifeguard.


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Until next time.....


"County Recurrent" News
http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com

Will Rogers State Beach, Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. Photo by & Copyright Will Maguire 2013.




















Service • Training • Commitment

*** Keeping the County Recurrent "in the loop"..... whether he/she likes it or NOT ! ***

DISCLAIMER:
County Recurrent is not affiliated with nor sponsored by LACOLA or LACoFD.

*** PLEASE forward to other Recurrents, past and present, so that we can add them to our mailing list. ***

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Sunday, January 6, 2013

JD's Vintage 1965 "Zuma Pedigree" VW Bug

Here's a real treat!  Check out this 1965 VW Bug (aka, '65 VW Type 1) that Section Chief, JD Moryl (Ret.), recently restored!

JD and his '65 VW Bug; Before Restoration

We asked Jon to share a bit about this classic bug and here is what he wrote:

"This was my father's car (note the original yellow on black plates) and I made him a promise before he passed away that I would have it restored.  It is a European model VW with a locking steering wheel and yellow tipped red tail lights.  After being driven in Germany and other countries in Europe for a driving vacation, it was shipped to LA Harbor to remain in the U.S. for good.

I have pictures of this car in the Zuma parking lot (behind Tower 5) during the late 60's and early '70's, as that is the beach I grew up on when I was a youngster. The sight of a lifeguard decal - usually the old CSLA decal -  in the rear window of any type air cooled VW in the '60's and 70's was simply iconic, as many, many lifeguards back then drove them.  VW's were so plentiful that you could buy a used one in very good condition for only $300...that is what I paid for my '63 in 1972.  They were only $1799 new. At a Barrett-Jackson car auction in Orange Couny a couple of years ago, a mid-60's Type 2 (Samba Bus) sold for $265,000, and was the number one seller for that auction!

Remember the Lifeguard VW dune buggies at Zuma 40 years ago?  They were air cooled of course and I remember that the engines were pretty dirty...oil attracts sand very easily.  I mused at what the carburetors must have looked like after I saw the engines. I had occasion to drive one of them once as a young recurrent County Lifeguard in 1973 on an early morning patrol, and was I stoked!  (I think there were only two of them.)  You had to be really careful, as they were not 4-wheel drive, and easily got stuck in soft sand.  I think it was Dan Culbert who warned me not to drive it on the back of the beach.  I didn't!

I spent the first three months of my retirement working on this car just to get it running again, and it is the 4th air cooled VW I have owned."

After Restoration

Sweet!  Love the LACo Lifeguard Decal too!...




Best Regards,

JD

---

(Text and Photos by & Copyright JD Moryl 2013. All Rights Reserved.)

*** Thanks JD!  We really appreciate you sharing your restored VW Bug with all of us, including its Zuma Beach Pedigree !  And here is something else that most people are not aware of with respect to JD's lifeguard background.  As he mentioned above, 1973 was his rookie year, but here's the kicker, as it were...  JD took both the L.A. County and L.A. City tests, went through two rookie schools, and worked for both agencies until the merger in 1975.  And since he lived in WLA at the time, he was on schedule with L.A. City at Ave 21 during '73-'74, and worked his requisite days for LACo.  ***

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Until next time.....


"County Recurrent" News

http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com

Service • Training • Commitment

*** Keeping the County Recurrent "in the loop"..... whether he/she likes it or NOT ! ***

DISCLAIMER:
County Recurrent is not affiliated with nor sponsored by LACOLA or LACoFD.

*** PLEASE forward to other Recurrents, past and present, so that we can add them to our mailing list. ***

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Thursday, January 3, 2013

Animal House: Zuma Edition - Final Version


"Animal House: Zuma Edition". Photo courtesy of Spike Beck. (fyi, per Cal Porter, this photo is from the Summer of 1947)


Upstairs, side of House/HQ. Photo courtesy of Tom Viren. Used here with permission.


Side of house/hq.  Photo courtesy of Tom Viren. Used here with permission.  Tom thinks that is either Burnside's or Jack Campbell's Porsche.   Photo date, circa 1970.
 
LACo Perm, Tom Viren, in photo above, circa 1968...  Per Tom:  "I am guessing on this.   I went permanent in March of 1966, and that is our old 1960 Ford Call Car.  I think my dad came up to see me and he took the pictures, since I got them from a bunch of slides I processed into .jpg s of all my dad's photos.  So I sold the green bug in 1969 after I got the Squareback.  So it is between 1966 and 1968.  Best Guess, closer to 1968."  Photo courtesy of Tom Viren.

Recently, we've enjoyed some great back and forth musings from some Zuma Guards, circa 1960's and early '70's, both recurrents and permanents, reminiscing about the good old days when recurrents could sleep at the old Zuma HQ (Beach House) in a bunk room and some of the antics and fallout leading to the eventual eviction of recurrents and the beginning of what we now now as "The Village".

We will start with the first entry followed by the other guards that piped in. It is Classic!  It is Hilarious!  Enjoy!  Oh and Happy New Year!

---

It all began last Friday on Dec. 29, 2012, when Zuma recurrent (ret.), Larry Loganbill (circa 60's/'70's) asked innocently:

    "What was the last summer that lifeguards bunked in the Zuma house?"

---

Date:     December 29, 2012 6:25:16 PM PST
From:     R G DEGREGORI

65 or 66

RD

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Date:     December 30, 2012 3:54:08 PM PST
From:     Bob Burnside

(editor's note: This is where it starts to get personal, er, fun!...    :-)  )

"Well... I cannot verify the year... But the story has more to it than one may wish to accept.  As a matter of history... here are a few points you may have forgotten.

Besides "those nasty little recurrent's coming in at all hours and raising hell"..there were the issues like:
1)  Half the beds had crabs in them from "some" recurrent's sleeping with some very tacky ladies.
2)  Then there was the refrigerator!..  Spoiled old food... and some "tacky" recurrent's  "borrowing " others month old food... and getting "trench mouth".
3)  Then, of course... there was enough sand in the bunks to have a beach volleyball championship.
4)... And finally, after too many years... the downstairs had rats running across the floor... which at one point, I believe, one of you clowns brought a 22 rifle to headquarters and started having shooting matches to see who was the best marksman....not to mention the cockroaches!!

...Yes, you were all just little angels... (Give me a break)

But all was forgiven... When we threw your asses out of the house and "condoned The Village"... LONG LIVE THE VILLAGE!!!

Bob

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Date:     December 30, 2012 4:30:34 PM PST
From:     Larry Loganbill

Smartaleck Quote:

"But Bob...don't you have to allow for some human error?"

Out of the pie hole of Tom Landis... Summer of '62.
After Bob Burnside had given an hour long Castro-like speech to the entire Northern Division on a Sunday morning...... on how filthy the Zuma HQ was and how we needed to keep it pristine. I was in charge of giving oxygen to Bob to calm him down after that comment.

I next was going to say..."But Bob we didn't all attend the pristine prestigious Black Foxe Mllitary Institute like you did.  We are all from Dogpatch.  Except for Pork Chop Barron we have all been
brought up in a pig sty."   But when I saw how red Burnside's face had gotten I shut up...I didn't want Bob to blow a chamber. 

We did become more culturally aware and health food aware cooking in the Zuma kitchen. Manny Weiss only ate Loma Linda vegetarian foods including canned veggie hotdogs. Mark Lozano taught us what chorizo was all about.  Sheridan Byerly taught us how to cook a can of beans on the manifold of the lifeguard truck.  

Too bad Wally Millican didn't come up to Zuma until 1966... he could have taught us all a few things about keeping the place clean. Oh yeah... I almost forgot... we all learned never to work a lifeguard tower the day after Tom Landis or Larry Hanes had worked the same tower.

LL

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Zuma HQ, circa 1960's, per Cal Porter.  This is a print from a painting by Vi Allen.  Bob Burnside owns the original painting.  This print is courtesy of Tom Viren.  Per Bob:  "Vi Allen It was a very famous Malibu Artist.  She painted the old Sheriffs station, the Catholic Monastery above the colony, The Rindge Estate on the point at Surfriders... and 
The Malibu pier... All were displayed in a big Art Festival in 1956... She was a dear friend of my mother and me."

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Date:     December 30, 2012 4:49:33 PM PST
From:     Tom Viren

What about the year Ken Benfield's cabinet doors were removed by the hinges and all the paper labels were removed from his summer stash of about 100 cans of food.  That certainly assisted in the tidiness of the kitchen, and ken had a summer of surprise every time he opened a can for his nightly meal.   Just to make sure no food stayed around and spoiled we helped ourselves to (can't remember the name but he was from South Africa) frozen cheese cake, and then replaced it with sand and shaving cream.   

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Date:     December 30, 2012 4:53:05 PM PST
From:     Larry Loganbill

Fred Hackett... from Sunnyvale... swam at San Jose St. as a freshman when I was there. I told him to take the test.  He had come from The Netherlands via South Africa.   Fred was very frugal and the 39 cent Banquet cream pie was going to be a real treat for himself that night when he returned from the lifeguard slow pitch game in Hermosa.

LL

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Date:     December 30, 2012 5:27:08 PM PST
From:     spike beck

The last year guards were allowed to sleep in the hq was 1970---and i think it didn't last the whole summer.  I remember this because I was driving to my first year at Zuma from school (colorado state) and specifically remember blasting my 8 track player as loud as it would go to Crosby, Stills and Nash's "Almost Cut My Hair" as i was driving through "downtown" malibu ----because I just did - cut my hair, that is.  I spent maybe one night in the "house" ---but I was in college --it was the 60's (at least in spirit) --i had long hair --and i smoked *hibiscus...  I gave up my long hair, so i figured, why give up *hibiscus too?  Thus, my vw van and I moved to the dirt next to Zuma HQ --- the beginning of the village.  I stayed there for about a month without others --- then jerry heinrich joined me.  Before the end of the summer there were several of us --- and i believe it was howard lee that didn't want us so close to the building --- so he banished us to the parking lot.  And since I have "outed" my probably not too well kept secret --- one thing that may surprise you --- is the first person to join me in my van --- as part of my "relaxation method" was the late Dave Heck.  How about that? I bet not too many people would have guessed that.

I also remember one of my most bonehead things i ever did as a guard was help (at least i thought so) Doc McPherson.  I was the guard at T-1 (with my one eyed dog Tommy --- but that's a different story), the surf was big and Doc was out body surfing.  He got thumped pretty good --- I remember helping him walk up the sand because he just didn't look right --- he had an abrasion on his forehead or nose --- i walked him up to the tower and called for the call car ---------- i don't remember too much after that except that it turned out doc had broken his neck--- or at least chipped a cervical veterbre ----- luckily everything turned out ok ---- but a lesson learned - one that would stay with me for the next 40 or so years.

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Date:     January 1, 2013 10:27:21 PM PST
From:     R G DEGREGORI

Spike was still in diapers and I was permanent in '70. No one was staying in the HQS. I was out of the Army in January of '69, worked that summer. No recurrents were in the HQS that summer either. Spike was smoking too much herb and has lost track of time.

RD

*** *** ***

(The comments and remarks of each lifeguard above are proprietary to each said lifeguard, e.g., each lifeguard retains their rights under U.S. Copyright Law, and reproduction of these remarks is prohibited except with the permission of each author-lifeguard.)

*** Thank you, Gentlemen, for sharing your recollections from "back in the day" at Zuma.  We really appreciate it.  Guards are laughing and enjoying this bit of trivia and history.  There are smiles around the world being shared.  ***

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Until next time.....


"County Recurrent" News

http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

"Sun/Stripes". Copyright Will Maguire 2012. All Rights Reserved.

To all of our recurrents and former recurrents (aka, permanents):

Happy New Year!

We've each got a new book with 365 blank pages in it.  How are you going to fill it?!  2013!  It's a whole new ballgame!

As lifeguards we can commit ourselves to our time tested obligations:

Watch The Water

Stay In Shape

and

Do The Right Thing!

----

We can also continue to "pay it forward" to honor those who came before us and taught us so much.

Best wishes to you and yours in 2013!

10-4

Until next time.....


"County Recurrent" News

http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com

Service • Training • Commitment

*** Keeping the County Recurrent "in the loop"..... whether he/she likes it or NOT ! ***

DISCLAIMER: County Recurrent is not affiliated with nor sponsored by LACOLA or LACoFD.

*****   *****   *****   *****   *****