SURFING IS NOT A PASTIME FOR THE WEAK HEARTED. Case in point:

The summer of '39 a typhonic, massive, hurricane slammed into Southern

California. invading the little fishing camp at Pescadoro San Onofre.

One of the campers coughed up two bits a night for to sleep on the

sand near the churning, boiling ocean, a trough on the way, barometric

pressure was dropping like a prom dress at 28.13. Hidden in the weeds

near the sandstone bluff was his Kook Box, eleven feet in length polished

monkey wood. Our camper, Pops Legree, handcrafted it himself over

an eight month period, bringing it to Pescadora San Onofre for her maiden

voyage. Awakened by the rumble of growing surf, "Pops" peeked from

his cozy mummy sleeping bag and couldn't believe his eyes. One after another

15 footers rolled in 200 yards out side of the Phantom's Reef, now descibed

in the 2000's as Old Man's (Ouch!). Okay, Sweetheart, let's try you out.

Pop's pulled from his belongings a 25' clothesline, attaching it to the Kook

box stern, swung it to his left shoulder, shuffled to the swirling berm,

plopped her in the sea, tied around his right ankle a death knot, and

the other end a shankshead, secure as can be he paddled to the

Phantom's Reef (Old Man's). It took nearly three hours of hell but Pop's

finally reached his destination. He sat gulping for oxygen, clearing his salt

filled lungs. Sitting alone, he felt a new found courage, just in time to witness

the biggest set of combers in his 39 years on the planet. The Kook Box floated

him real good as the mammoth sucked him up the face to the peak, high

above the trough. He had a good feeling as the monster catapulted him

through the green water, towards a beach 250 yards away at close to

40 knots per hour. Descending the face he attempted to stand, but

it was futile, the surface chop bumped Pops from is board, shooting

25' into the sky,stopping abruptly when the clothesline reached the limit.

With Pops beneath the surface, the Kook Box returned to sea, broaching the

the 25' of boil caught a path shoreward. The 95' Kook Box was like

a runaway freight train towing s helpless Pops 3' beneath the water,

where he never made it in alive. Three days later the fishmonger

found Pops lifeless in the water still attatched to the clothesline, 25'

in length. The first surfing death ever at Pescadora San Onofre.

TUBESTEAK/LEASHLESS