“I was in their way, a buoy that had to be surfed around,” Kampion said.
During the American craze over surfing in the 60s, Kampion was waiting in line for waves with name surfers like Micky Dora, Jon Severson, David Nuuhiwa, Rolf Arness and Phil Edwards. All these surfers and more would eventually become the characters in the stories Kampion tells about the sport and culture that hatched near his adolecent home.
In May, Kampion republished his “Stoked! A History of the Surf Culture,” which sold out in two months when it originally debuted in 1993. He’s currently waiting for his latest, “The Way of the Surfer: Living It, 1935 to Tomorrow,” to hit store shelves.
The books are living history, told by an author for whom getting wet was at least as much fun as writing about it.
“When I first started, the icons of the 20th century where still out in the water,” Kampion said.
Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, Kampion was fueled by the sounds of the Beach Boys, was one of hundreds standing in line at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for the premier of “Endless Summer,” wore his hair shaggy and always had a sun glow.
Now 60 and still catching waves, he has lived in Langley for the past 12 years with his wife, Susan, and two children — Alex, 19, and Alana, 16. He also has become one of the most well-known authors in the world on the subject of surfing and other board sports.
“His writing is very authentic. He knows what he’s writing about because he’s lived it,” said Golden Otter Book Store owner, Geri Galpin. “So many times in researching, people read other writers’ books to get the background, but he was out there on the waves living it.”
Galpin should know. She and Kampion are able to talk shop at her Langley book store about more than just books. Galpin herself was a teenage surfer during the 1940s in Waikiki, Hawaii.
“My surfboard when I was 14-years-old took two strong men to carry it down to the shore,” Galpin said. “I always like to joke with him that he’s writing about surfers I met and knew when I lived in Hawaii.”
Kampion has been working for surfing magazines, in some form or another, since 1968. During that time he was an editor for “Surfer,” “Surfing,” “Wind Surf” and “Wind Tracks” magazines, and was even an editor for “New Age Journal.” He is currently the American editor for “The Surfer’s Path,” an international surf-adventure publication that is the world’s first green surf magazine.
At the same time, he was surfing. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., he moved to California in 1959. While honing his writing skills in high school, he became aware of the waves hitting the shore.
“Growing up in the San Fernando Valley on the outskirts of LA, I was superficially aware of two significant subcultures: greasers and surfers,” writes Kampion in the introduction to “Stoked!”
It wasn’t until a post-high school girlfriend started riding waves that Kampion bought his first board — a 9-foot 6-inch Roberts that had broken almost in half and then was glassed back together — for $50 in 1962.
Since grabbing his first wave, Kampion has surfed throughout California, Oregon, the Carribean, Baja Mexico, Hawaii, Australia, Guam, Puetro Rico and other tropical locales.
“Surfing is magic,” he said. “I’ve never been athletic, but it’s something I can do as an individual. There’s something about paddling out into nature and being out with the waves — it’s a transforming experience.”
In addition to his surfing-related credentials, Kampion’s was an editor for a California architectural and engineering firm during the 1970s, and was editorial director for Patagonia during the 1990s. On Whidbey Island, he was one of several people who worked together to start The Island Independent, an alternative fortnightly newspaper published 1993 to 1996.
His books include “The book of Waves: Form and Beauty on the Ocean,” “The Art of Lassen: A Collection of Works from Christian Riese Lassen,” “Stoked! A History of Surf Culture,” and the soon to be released “The Way of the Surfer.” He is currently the editor of a number of low pressure surf and snowboard guides, including “The Stormrider Guide to North America.”
A collection of Kampion’s published surf stories, “The Lost Coast,” will hit the shelves in the spring, “Waves: Echoes of the Storm is predicted to be seen as early as fall 2004, and a book about beach houses is in the works.
In addition to his personal surfing background, he continues to maintain a strong environmental bent.
“Seventy-five percent of all the reefs in the world are experiencing bleaching,” he said. “People have to keep in mind that the waves depend on the health of the reef, and the health of the reef is truly reflective of the health of the rest of the earth. ”
To help spread this green awareness, he is also on the national advisory board for Surfrider, the international surfer based environmental organization dedicated to protecting our oceans, waves and beaches.
Kampion’s his undeniable link to surfing is evident. In the introduction to “Stoked!” he writes: “Even today after 35 years of surfing, the smell of warm neoprene and a good sniff of a bar of coconut surf wax are all the aromatherapy I need to get focused and back into perspective.”
Right on, dude.
