Surf History
My surfboards always represented my heritage of being Korean and Irish.
OakFoils Design
My 2025 New Model
Thanks Wayne!!
Dosan's Famous Words: Love Oneself, Love Others. His name Island Mountain is in Chinese on the left.
The old Korean Flag is way cooler than the current one. Also a Shamrock and matching green fin, thanks DT.
The Munoz Models
Fritz Bensusan and Randy French gifted me a 12' Surftech Mickey Munoz Glide board.
What a great gift and the solid start of the "Size Matters Era"!
For some reason, people didn't feel comfortable watching me join the line up on the 12 footer. I was just there to have fun. Taking off further outside was strategic. As years went by people finally saw the fun in riding a giant surfboard. You had to figure out how to work the 143 volume!
With Mickey Munoz at the United Surfers Association Malibu Nose riding Contest in 2004.
Munoz surfed in the first Nose Riding Contest in Ventura, CA at C Street created and organized by Tom Morey in 1965.
Siheung Wavepark. The front board is the one I rode May 24th 1991 at Jungmun Beach on Jeju Island. I was the first person to surf in Korea, ask Grant Shoemaker from Maui, he was with me. When I arrived at Kimpo Airport the Korean Custom's Officers took our boards. They had not seen boards without sails!! It took 2 days in Seoul and a lawyer to get them back.
DT Nat Young Models 91' (left) 95' (right). The board on right I rode at the Rabbit Kekai International Longboard Contest at Bocca Barranca in Costa Rica in 95'. I got 2nd place. You can see "glass-on" fins were the technology before small fin boxes. DT was the master shaper and Nat Young was the master rider. Grateful to meet both legends.
Red Bull 5X Women's Nighttime Surf Contest 2005 Malibu First Point. I brought in the lights, built the contest site, and pulled more permits for this contest than usual. Shut down one lane of the PCH in front of Surfrider for 12 hours. The contest had only 5 women competing. Everyone thought it was amazing so they didn't complain about PCH traffic.
Organizing contests at First Point with Malibu Boardriders Club in the 1990s. and United Surfers Association in 2000s. Going over security issues. There were some interesting episodes needing professional attention. Always grateful for the services of the L. A. County Sheriffs and Lifeguards!
Margarittaville Women's Longboard Contest 00' & 01' at
Malibu First Point. This was part of the very first Women's Longboard Pro Tour.
I helped organize this contest and the rest of the tour.
May 1995 Rabbit Kekai International Longboard Contest - Boca Barranca, Costa Rica.
Surfed with legends Rabbit and DT during this contest. I took second place. Al Gee to my left, first place. Rabbit was beaming with Aloha. Donald Takayama placed third. Richard Osborne came in fourth place. DT backed off a set wave in the finals giving it to me. Super long left. Rode it all the way to the beach. Rabbit was a lot of fun. He told so many jokes and stories.
DT was magic in the shaping room. DT was amazingly talented on a surfboard.
"Call to the Wall" - One of the top events for the Coalition of Surfing Clubs contest season. There were 17 clubs and thousands of members. The Malibu Boardriders Club put on this contest to support a beach day camp at Leo Carrillo State Beach for kids with cancer. We worked with Ronald McDonald House Charity - Camp Good Times for 15 years.
Judging
It is a unique experience up in the Judge's Tower. It was hard to argue with any of the 3 guys who wrote the Judge's Training Manual for Coalition of Surfing Clubs. We reviewed rules from the ASP rule book and NSSA rules. We conferred with Surfing legend Nat Young from Australia. Longboard Competition needed improved rules. Our program trained 83 judges. Our aim was to be fair at every step of the competition. It took the kindness of many volunteers to run these contests for the benefit of hundreds of competitors from different surfing communities all over California.
Somebody took this photo of me when a competitor was complaining about the judging. As you see complaining wasn't going well for him. I excelled in explaining what an interference call was. I listened to so much BS. Regardless, once the contest started I was the captain of the ship!!
I am in the back as Head Judge at the Swamis Classic Contest in Encinitas. This group was an exceptional group of awesome judges. Pencil and paper in those days. The commentary inside the judges tower was so funny. Priceless experience.