Wayne
Miyata remembered
by Mike Purpus
Wayne Miyata was a good big wave surfer and small wave
hotdogger, a fine surfboard manufacturer and a black belt
in several of the martial arts. He was one of the first
Hawaiians to bring the Aloha spirit to the South Bay and
worked out of the same shop on Valley Drive in Hermosa
Beach for over 30 years.
Wayne
died last Monday morning after a six-month battle with
cancer of the esophagus. He was 63.
I
was just a spoiled surf pup of 15 when I saw Wayne fade
left, arch soulfully and snap his longboard into a backdoor
tube, disappear completely, and get spit out in Bruce
Brown’s ‘66 surf classic “Endless Summer.”
Every gremmie in the sold out Pier Avenue Junior High
School (now the Hermosa Community Center Theater) was
screaming at the top of his lungs. His two waves in that
movie made Wayne a surf star. The wave was called Garbage
Hole because it was a dump spot for Waikiki refuse. Wayne
learned to surf there when he was 11-years-old and rode
it better than anyone else.
Soon
after a small island was built on top of Garbage Hole.
Miyata sadly recalled, “I surfed it on the final
day. Right up until they dropped the final bolder ruining
the spot.”
Wayne
made his first surfboard at 14. He surfed the North Shore
along side Greg Noll, Mickey Dora, Mike Doyle, and Dewey
Weber. He loved Sunset Beach.
“I
love the big drops on a 15- foot day. It is like stepping
into an empty elevator shaft as you freefall down the
face,” he said.
At
17, Wayne got his first job building surfboards for Dick
Brewer on the North Shore. Dick helped Wayne get to the
mainland and get a job with Flarety Surfboards in 1960.
“It
was a small shop that only had two racks. One for shaping
and one for glassing. I hung out with the Windansea Surf
Club and got to know Mickey Dora, Lance Carson and Dewey
Weber. We surfed Malibu everyday. It was like Hollywood
for surf stars. It had its own cast of characters. I loved
the long rights that peeled around the points on good
summer swells.”
Pacific
League Surf Director and South Bay surfing legend John
Joseph recalled surfing with Wayne on a perfect, four-foot
day at Malibu.
“It
was in the early ‘60s. This Terminator-sized local
was mad because Wayne was getting all the good waves.
The local started screaming racial slurs at Wayne. Wayne
just ignored him and kept on surfing. We got tired and
got out of the water. As we were walking up the beach
the angry 6-foot-6, 300-pound local charges after Wayne.
Wayne’s arms and hands were a blur. He flipped the
guy face first into the sand. The guy fell like a fresh
cut redwood. He got up all red in the face and start again.
After about 10 minutes the guy could not get up anymore.
Wayne was Bruce Lee way before Bruce Lee.”
Being
a short, 15-year-old, smart-mouthed, spoiled surf brat
I always hung out with Wayne on the beach. I felt safer
out of the water standing next to him.
One
of the highlights of Wayne’s board building career
was 1969 when he worked for Dewey Weber.
“I
glassed 75 boards a day for $3 dollars a board, and a
buck extra for color or a pin line. Every Friday the tellers
at my bank could not believe a barefoot guy dressed in
old Levi’s, a T-shirt and covered in fiberglass
dust was making more than engineers at Douglas Aircraft,”
he recalled.
Wayne
went on to glass for Greg Noll, Hap Jacobs, Rick, Grant
Reynolds, Mike Collins, Bruce Jones, Rich Harbor, and
Overlin Surfboards.”
Tyler
Hatzikian told the Daily Breeze this week, “Glossing
is kind of a lost art. That’s why I brought Wayne
into my shop, to educate me on the traditional ways of
making boards.”
Miyata
also spent time working with the Japanese American Museum
in Los Angeles, where he was in charge of the sports exhibits.
Miyata was part Hawaiian and part Japanese, but never
visited Japan.
“I’ve
gotten plenty of invitations. But I don’t want to
show them all my glassing secrets. I like it just fine
living in Redondo Beach and working in Hermosa Beach,”
he told me in a 1999 interview.
Aloha
Wayne
Over 100 surfers joined hands in a circle in the water
off of 8th St. in Hermosa Beach Sunday afternoon to say
aloha to longtime Hermosa surfboard maker Wayne Miyata.
On the beach several hundred more mourners cast flowers
into the ocean.
The
mourners included former Miyata team riders Tom Witt,
John Grannis, Gary Prejeant and Dave Stull; surfboard
makers Tyler Hatzikian, and Wayne Rich, who learned their
craft under Miyata’s tutelage; and fellow Hawaiian
surfing legends Rabbit Kekai and David Nuuhiwa.
The
Hawaiian native died March 21 at age 63 of lung cancer.
Miyata was featured in the classic surf film “Endless
Summer” and was known for his big wave riding and
expertise in the now nearly lost art of color glossing
and pin striping surfboards.
Article
reprints courtesy of Easy Reader.
