The Windansea Surf Club emerged in the early 1960's from a group of the most accomplished and free thinking surfers to be found anywhere in the world, and was named for the premier La Jolla reef break frequented by our earliest members. The Club was officially organized in 1962 largely by Chuck Hasley.
The Origin of the Windansea Surf Club
by chuck hasley
"It all began in the summer of 1962. I was working at the Hobie Surfboard Shop in Pacific Beach. One day in the late afternoon Mike Hynson, Skip Frye and Billy Caster came in the store and said the Malibu Surf Club was going to have the last surfing contest in Malibu before they changed the area into a yacht harbor. Surfer Magazine had just come out with the news about the Malibu Club Challenge; the first nine clubs to send in $100.00 would be accepted into the contest. It would be the last chance to ride Malibu for surfers everywhere. However, in order to participate in the surf contest you had to be a member of an established surf club.
I asked Mike and Skip, 'Who are you guys going to surf for?' They said they were going to surf for the North Beach Surf Club in Pacific Beach. And I said, 'Why surf for them? Why don't we start our own club? Why don't we start the WindanSea Surf Club? I knew that there used to be a Wind and Ski Surf Club out of La Jolla. I figured the people up the coast would remember there was a club at Windansea and think it was the same club. I thought it would be a good idea and a good name for a surf club.
I mentioned to Mike, Skip, and Caster we would need someone who could maneuver and knew how to convince the President of the Malibu Surf Club, Dave Rochlin, into thinking we were already formulated. Caster said he knew someone who would be good called Thor Svenson. He was the perfect man for the job and was able to convince Rochlin we were an already established club. Thanks to Thor we were in.
During this period of time Butch Van Artsdalen was working at the Hobie factory in Dana Point where a lot of surfers worked. The word about the contest spread rapidly. I got a phone call from Ronald Patterson and he said his brother Robert wanted to surf for us and another guy wanted to also surf for us by the name of Joey Cabell. I said, ' right on, we want him.' Dave Willingham came through Hobie's up North too.
The same day we decided to form the WindanSea Surf Club, and knowing we needed an official logo ASAP, I asked Butch Cornelius who worked for me at the Hobie shop in Pacific Beach to help out. At that time Butch used to come into Hobie's in P.B. after school to help me silkscreen Hobie's t-shirts. Anyway, I asked Butch to design a logo for the WindanSea Surf Club and he did."