Local pols hit waves to push surfing as state sport
Local Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi and Mayor Jeff Duclos take off on a party wave last Saturday at the Hermosa Pier. Muratsuchi recently authored a pending bill that would make surfing the official state sport of California. Photo
Bob Hurley, CEO of surfing apparel brand Hurley, has seen surfing evolve during his 40-odd years in the industry: not just in the maneuvers and the equipment, but in how it is perceived by landlocked society.
“Surfing went from counterculture to subculture, to action sport, to extreme sport. And now it’s just a sport,” Hurley said, citing the International Olympic Committee’s recent decision to incorporate the sport into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. And if a bill proposed by local state Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) is signed into law, it could go further still.
Muratsuchi, Hurley and a host of local officials gathered at the Hermosa Pier on Saturday for a rally to promote AB 1782, which would designate surfing as the official state sport of California. Speakers stressed that although surfing was all about fun, the law could have a real impact on the state’s approach to coastal issues. Then, they went surfing.
“Designating it will be an opportunity to aid our environment,” said Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon (D-Whittier) who recalled a childhood spent traveling up and down the coast for National Scholastic Surfing Association contests. He then backed it up with a couple well-ridden waves in knee-high conditions, taking advantage of some enduring offshore winds.
Calderon worked as a rep for Hurley after college, a job that took him to surf shops up and down the coast, including Hermosa’s Spyder. Spyder founder Dennis Jarvis described Hermosa as the perfect place to launch the campaign. He recalled that Hermosa was home to many of the pioneers in surfboard manufacturing and that by making surfboards widely available, they were instrumental in growing the sport’s popularity.
“This rich heritage of California surfing: Hermosa made it universal,” Jarvis said.
Muratsuchi and Calderon were joined by Jeff Duclos, Amy Howorth and Bill Brand, the mayors of Hermosa, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach, respectively. Brand, an avid surfer, moved with his family from to California from Texas as a child, recalled some of the past development efforts in the state that would have threatened famed surf spots, including a liquid natural gas plant at Cojo Point in Santa Barbara County. The idea that surfing has inherent value to the state, Brand said, would influence similar decisions in the future.
“It sounds hokey, but when these things are discussed in the state legislature, they can say, ‘Hey, it’s the official sport of California,’” he said.