‘Surf’s Up!’ Eagle Rock Native to Talk About the Evolution of Surfing

Fred Guapo was 16 years old when he was driving with three friends to Ventura for a day of surfing. Suddenly, the driver turned around and taunted Guapo. “You have no experience and could never be as good as me,” he said.

The year was 1962. Guapo, who didn’t own a surfboard at the time, resolved to get one—along with a car. “It was like a challenge,” he said. “I never forgot that personally. The ocean was also a challenge.”

After buying a 1950 Chevrolet and a Joe Quigg surfboard, Guapo took his buddies to Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, and Malibu all summer. He also began devouring every issue of Surfer magazine until he could imagine himself riding the ocean waves just like the pros on the pages.

Today, Tuesday, at 7 p.m. at the , Guapo will deliver a lecture about his 20 years of riding the waves in Southern California. Titled “Surf’s Up!” the talk is sponsored by the Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society, for which Guapo has long volunteered as vice president. The talk is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Guapo will discuss the evolution of the sport since 1907—the year when, according to him, surfing first arrived on the shores of California from Hawaii. With the help of PowerPoint images from past issues of Surfer Magazine—he collected 120 issues from 1963 through 1979—Guapo will illustrate the changes in surfboards that helped revolutionize the sport.

A realtor by profession, Guapo has lived in Eagle Rock since 1959. He went to Franklin High School, where, like other neighboring schools, surfing was part of the local subculture. “Almost every kid was surfing, it seemed,” he recalls.

Guapo stopped surfing in 1982, when he had a child and turned his attention to family responsibilities. “It was hard for me to go to the beach, as much as I wanted to,” he said. “My wife would say, “Oh, you’re going to the beach again? Great!”

Surf’s Up! Tuesday, April 23, 7 p.m. Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock.