To reach Tourmaline Canyon “we” used to walk from Loring Street or use the path from Mission Blvd, down the canyon, cliff side. They had their hut on the beach and you would find someone you know there from 6am to midnight. The hung out all day long. Besides the hut, they also built a clubhouse across the street from the Junior High School out of plywood they collected. That’s where they had their meetings, experienced their first alcohol and girls.

Of course that was forty years ago. And the “we” speak fondly of are the members of the Kanakas Surfing Club. A group that banded together while in Pacific Beach Jr. High School in 1956. They hung out together for several years, went their various ways for thirty years and finally reconnected again in 1990.

Surfing was the magnetic force. It bonded them in 1956 and it reunited them again in 1990. Jim Cerone, recalls he was the first to start surfing regularly again. Then he persuaded Roy Barksdale to join him. Jim’s nostalgia for the Kanakas was so great he decided to print T-shirts with their Kanakas Logo.

Of course at the Club’s high water mark in the 1960 the by then 25 members even had Kanakas Club “fingertip” jackets. They were blue with white specks and came down to the fingertips. They also had a blue hooded sweatshirt with the Kanakas stenciled on the back. (Possibly the first merchandise with logos in California).

It was Bill “Hadji” Hein, a dad of one of the original Kanakas, who thought of the name for their club. Kanaka in Hawaiian means beach boy (Southside Sand Fleas was the club’s original name). Jim remembers that he and Roy approached Bob Hein after printing the new T-shirts. Hein said, “Before I can wear this T-shirt I have to go back into the water”.

As more of the old timers joined the group, they felt like the Kanakas again. A surfing trip to Mexico seemed like the obvious sequel. After all, that is what they had done 30 years earlier, following our high school graduation in 1960. This time around however, they drove for only five hours to Baja Rincon to a place called Shipwreck. They had such a good time they decided to lease a property, buy a trailer and install a 200 gallon water tower. Now they go to Mexico, four or five times a year. And they wont stop here!

All this luxury is a cry from their first trip Mexico 30 years earlier. Jim could only smirk as he described the trip. “In 1960, twelve of us Kanakas piled into a 1950 Ford woody (Roy’s) and a 1954 station wagon (Bill Duncan’s) and drove 1200 miles in 29 hours to Mazatlan, Mexico. We spent two weeks there and managed to spend $60 total, eating out every night. We rented a two bedroom house for $3 a day and the twelve of us split the cost. We would go to the brewery and buy wooden kegs of beer for $4. The Mexicans were great. The only snag was on the border. The police had never seen surfboards before. They thought they were missiles. The police in those days wore sombreros, and strung on their chest was their ammunition. They looked like Pancho Villa’s gang. None of us spoke Spanish. It was an adventure. But otherwise the Mexicans were very friendly. On our first day they all came out to watch us surf. The treat was surfing in 75 degrees water with waves on the average four to five feet. For us it was the first time to surf in warm water in December. We had the time of our lives.”

Returning from their trip, the Kanakas were jerked back to reality. Important decisions had to be taken that would give direction to their lives. Most disbanded. Some went to college, others went to work or into the military.

Steve Husak became a Top Gun Pilot and flew over missions in Vietnam. He is now retired from the navy, living in Florida. Most stayed in San Diego and sent their children to their old, “Alma Mater”, Mission Bay High School. The children grew up together just as they did and became good friends. Today the Kanakas and their children are the soul of the Pacific Beach Surf Club.