EARLY DANA POINT DAYS
by Corky Carroll
I’m busy right now getting ready for my upcoming art exhibition at the Dana Bay Gallery in Dana Point coming up Oct 10 and 11, more on that next time. I bring it up because I got asked the other day if I used to surf the infamous “Killer Dana” surf spot back in the days before they took it away and put in the harbor. I did, and as a matter of fact had a great affection for that spot. So today I thought it would be fun to reminisce a bit about those early years for me in Dana Point.
“Killer Dana” was the name given to the surf spot at the top of the point in the cove at Dana Point. It got the name due to the great waves that would pour through there on big south swells. There was a very critical take off spot with a lot of big rocks that were ready and willing to do serious damage to your board, and you, if you made the wrong mistake on the take-off. On smaller days it was a gentle and fun break with incredible scenery.
My first encounter came in 1958 when a neighbor’s mom loaded us into her station wagon and headed south down the coast. She had just bought new boards for her two sons from HOBIE, and we were off to Dana Point to pick them up. In the process we drove down into the cove and checked out the surf. It was big and pumping that day and we chickened out. We opted for a good session at Doheny State Park and then an even better one at San Onofre later that day. That was the day that opened my eyes to how cool south Orange County was and how much good surf was down there. From then on, I headed that way every chance I got.
As luck would have it a girl that I had gone to school with in the 7th grade in Seal Beach moved to Dana Point and we fired up a romance. I started hitch hiking or taking the Greyhound Bus down there to visit her and to catch some waves while I was at it. Her name was Theresa Thompson and she surfed too. It was through hanging out with Theresa that I would meet Mickey Munoz, Lorrin Harrison and his family and many more famous surfers that hung out there.
One of the things we liked to do was walk down into the cove and follow the shore, cliffs and tide pools from the pier down to Doheny, where we would surf. It was an incredibly beautiful place and those walks would be nicely romantic.
This is where I learned how to drive a “stick shift.” When I was a Freshman at Huntington Beach High School I had an art teacher named Eddie Droan, (aka “Mooks,” from early surf movies.). He got me interested in painting. He was pals with Bruce Brown. One afternoon he asked me if I wanted to head down to Dana Point to visit, that’s where Bruce lived. I mentioned my chick lived there and said yes.
So, we get to Bruces house about dark and he gives me the keys to his VW bus and says I can go see Theresa and to be back in a couple of hours. Oh Yessssss. This led to us driving down to the cove to do a little bit of “parking.” The Dana Cove was ideal for that. Dark parking lot with beautiful view of the surf and the shoreline looking south. When it was time to go a funny thing happened. Being too young to drive, and having had little to no experience with a stick shift transmission, I had no idea that you were supposed to stay in low gear going up steep hills. I would start up the steep hill that led in and out of the cove and just shift up thru the gears like I was on flat land. Naturally I would stall out quickly and have to roll backwards down the hill to the bottom and start over. I did this about three or four times until a guy in another car saw me and thankfully took the time to clue me in on staying in low gear. Who knew?
A couple of years later I went to work in the Hobie Surfboard Shop and rented a little house that was just up the street from the gazebo overlooking the cove. I lived there on weekends and in the summer until I finished High School in 1965 and moved to Dana Point full time. “Killer Dana” was my surf check spot every morning and I would have countless great surf sessons there.
They started construction on the Harbor in 1966, much to the horror of the local surf community and the glee of most all the other homeowners. This was debated daily at Mac’s Coffee Break (where the Harbor House is now), the local breakfast hangout. I loved it down there and wound up living in the south county area until the early 1990’s when I moved back to Huntington Beach. Those early Dana Point days were some of the best.