By: Bob Wightman

Bob Wightman — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:15:45 +0000

Hi, My name is Bob Wightman. I went to Venice Hi School along with Bob Cooper and surfed Malibu at the same time as well. I started surfing in 1955 and we would buy our beautiful balsa boards from Velzy-Jacobs, right down in Venice by the oil wells that were still pumping. A good used board sold for around $39 and a new one for $75. We would see Velzy and Jacobs when surfing at Malibu which was the only place I surfed back then and till Aug. of 1964 when I moved to Santa Barbara and began my teaching career which lasted 41 years. I know Bob came up to Santa Barbara and worked for Yater for awhile after graduating from high school. Another one of our classmates who surfed Malibu was Hugh Foster, otherwise known as ” the Jaw”. He was a character and was a new arrival at Venice Hi in his senior year. Another one of our classmates who surfed was Mike Martin who went on to teach at the University of Colorado in Boulder. We would always love to see Bob Cooper in the surf movies at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. I still have surf bumps just under the knee joints from so much knee paddling at Malibu which I felt was necessary to gain good vantgage when taking off on a wave because of so many other people trying to get into it as well. I still have the board I made back in 1961 from a Dave Sweet foam blank that was a reject and that I bought for $20. I took it home and did some shaping and sanding, glassed it ,and rode it for years. These days I mainly surf my Ocean Kayak Scramblers. I remember our days from the 50′s at Malibu and nobody wore wetsuits back then either. It was a great era. I sure wish I’d kept a couple of those balsa boards. The new ones are beyond expensive. ‘Bye, Bob

Comments on: Bob Cooper interview

By: Bob Wightman