HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—Just across from the Huntington Beach Pier several people walked April 27 over the hand and feet pressings of surfing legends.
As part of the city’s “Surfers Hall of Fame,” the impressions have grown from their initial location in 1997 at the entryway to Huntington Beach Surf and Sport shop and now reach the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street as more than seven dozen iconic surfers and surf industry professionals have been added.
This year, Brazilian professional surfer Ítalo Ferreira, local surfing journalist Laylan Connelly, and the founder of Reef Brazil sandals, Fernando Aguerre will be forever immortalized with imprints during a ceremony in August.
“They are totally stoked and excited!” Taylor Pai of Huntington Beach Surf and Sport said of the inductees. “Along with humbled and honored.”
According to Pai, there is an adventurous spirit in all the surfing icons who have been inducted.
“They’ve charged mountains of water in remote places around the world, beyond what was once ever imagined,” he said. “They’ve broken barriers, broken world records, and in some cases even broken bones, along the way.”
It was Pai’s father and owner of the shop who came up with the idea for the tribute based on a childhood visit to Hollywood’s iconic Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
He loved the idea of being able to put one’s hands and feet within the imprints of the movie stars and knew such would be a way to share surfing with the world.
“[He] thought it would be a fun way to honor surfing’s legends,” Pai said.
“The Surfers’ Hall of Fame started as a fun way to give tribute to our surf icons—a way to gather and honor the pivotal people who have shaped our culture and made surfing the greatest sport in the world.
“But more than just a nod to their contributions, the inductions have evolved into something much more through the years. They’ve become a collection of the world’s most influential surfers who have created crafts and innovations that have helped countless others experience the pure thrill of being one with the ocean,” Pai said.
Over the years, more imprints were added. But after running out of room, the Huntington Beach City Council in 2002 approved expanding the imprints to nearby sidewalks encircling a large, bronzed statue of Duke Kahanamoku, the Hawaiian early 20th century Olympic swimmer who is considered to be the “father of modern-day surfing.”
The Surfers Hall of Fame is the first and only of its kind in the United States.
