Gordie Duane built more than 46,000 surfboards. He also helped build the legend of Huntington Beach as “Surf City.”
Duane died recently in the city he loved at the age of 80. Gordie Duane’s friends, family and fellow surfers gathered to remember him Thursday at Huntington Beach’s Surfing Walk of Fame.
Duane surfed with The Hole in the Wall Gang. It was a ragtag group of talented surfers from the seventies who hit the waves before it was cool. Thursday, the surf team got a star on Huntington Beach’s Surfing Walk of Fame. Just a week after their friend Gordie died.
"The love of surfing brought us all here together and this something we’ll all have and our families will have and we really appreciate it. We’d like to thank you very much," said Duncan McClane, another member of the Hole in the Wall Gang.
The guys and gals from the Hole in the Wall Gang looked at a large photo of Duane proudly holding one of his surfboards and cheered their friend.
McClane said Gordie Duane shaped boards and shaped the trajectory of surf culture in Huntington Beach."Well, Gordie was a pioneer of surfing," he said. "He started a surf shop down here in 1956. He was an old mold maker from the Navy. He learned how to shape on the beaches of Oahu."
Back in the 1950s, kids would hang out at Duane’s shop and keep an eye on the waves, and the police would keep an eye on them. The city fathers in Huntington Beach tried to take down truancy by banning surfing after 10 a.m. The story goes that Gordie Duane enjoyed being the first surfer arrested for breaking the ban.
Duane’s daughter Sheree Curoso said her father was "cantankerous and opinionated," and often swam against the current.
These fierce opinions helped Duane push through new surfboard designs. When boards moved from balsa wood to polyurethane, Duane was one of the first to strengthen the board with a stringer. That’s a strip of wood down the center. He also made removable fins, all knowledge that surfer Duncan McClane said Duane passed on to other shapers.
"I mean he is responsible for at least half of the guys who are shaping today…they learned from someone he taught," McClane said.
Duane’s granddaughter Cristin Hurley stood next to her mother. She remembers her grandfather as someone committed to keeping surf culture alive in Huntington Beach. "He loved the city," she said. "He was really proud to be the first surf shop down here and help create Surf City."
Curoso said her father finally got the recognition that he deserved. "I’m just glad he finally got the recognition. Since the ‘50s down in Huntington, this didn’t look anything like it does now," she said.
Back on the Surfing Walk of Fame, the guys from the Hole in the Wall Gang looked at their and Duane’s star and cheered their friend.
Then over the loud speaker the announcer said, "So I can imagine that a few beers might get drunk later in the day in honor of Gordie. What do you reckon?"
