Daily News (Los Angeles)

Trio make lasting impression during ceremony

Big-wave rider Peter Mel, explorer Martin Daly, local restaurate­ur Michele Turner receive honors

- By Laylan Connelly lconnelly@scng.com

They left words of wisdom to inspire surfers and fans who will pass the concrete slabs in days and years to come.

Big-wave surfer Peter Mel shared a message that “presence is a gift.” Surf explorer Martin Daly inscribed just two words: “Let's go.”

And restaurate­ur Michele Turner, the sweet “surf mom of Main Street,” wants to remind people to “always be humble, kind and giving.”

Those messages were set in wet cement by the newly-inducted Surfers' Hall of Fame honorees, who on Friday, joined the elite group who have left their mark in front of Huntington Surf & Sport, across the street from the Huntington Beach Pier.

Huntington Surf & Sport founder Aaron Pai — who created the Surfers' Hall of Fame, modeled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame — kicked off the morning with a rededicati­on ceremony. Attendees included four generation­s of the Pai family, from his 95-yearold mom to 10 young grandchild­ren, who sang for the crowd.

“All inductees of the Surfers' Hall of Fame have contribute­d greatly to advance the sport of surfing, whether through their talent, innovation and, or contributi­ons to our surfing culture,” Pai said. “This place becomes more special with each induction, every month and every year that goes by. After we are all gone, our kids and their kids will be able to come here and experience a little slice of our surfing culture from years past.”

Surf champion Corky Carroll talked about helping Pai take the first set of concrete slabs to a trade show in Long Beach to find surfers to honor.

“From then on, it's grown to this beautiful thing,” Carroll said, recounting how one of those early years he accidental­ly stepped in the wet cement.

Mel was the first to be inducted Friday. He spoke about how his father, John, who founded Freeline Design Surf Sports in Santa Cruz, introduced him to surfing, while his mother would regularly take him to the beach.

Mel is a well-known fixture in the surf world, a legendary charger of the largest waves around the world. He's won many contests over the past three decades, including the 2012 Big Wave World Championsh­ip and the 2013 Mavericks Invitation­al. Most recently, he was awarded the 2021 Red Bull Big Wave Ride of the Year for a massive wave at Mavericks, not far from his home in Santa Cruz.

Mel talked about being inspired by his fellow inductee, Daly, who he's spent time with at sea searching for surf.

Daly, originally from Australia, has spent his life exploring the coastline off Indonesia searching for and discoverin­g uncrowded waves.

“It becomes pretty addictive, once you actually realize you can discover something,” Daly said. “I just made it a mission, a lifetime mission, to do the entire Indonesia coast, which I've done.”

Daly left his hometown as a teen to explore the world. He worked on dive and salvage boats in Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippine­s before purchasing his own boat with the proceeds from his recovered undersea treasure.

Since the 1980s, Daly has run boat charters that help other surfers chase their dream waves. He also gives back, providing relief aid after tsunamis in Indonesia and supporting coral health programs and research on nuclear debris in the Bikini Atoll.

“I think the most important thing I've discovered is that if you are prepared to get off the couch and get on a plane and go to the most remote parts of the world, there are still more waves than you can imagine that are perfect,” he said. “They are breaking right now and there's no one surfing them.”

Surfwear icon Bob Hurley, who has chartered many trips with Daly, talked about first meeting him in 1999 during a 12day trip.

“I was immediatel­y struck by his passion, wonder, curiosity and sense of exploratio­n,” Hurley said.

He noted that he never asked Daly where they were going, knowing only that they'd wake to a new surf spot each morning.

“What a blessing to live your dream and fantasy and inspire others . ... I'm just struck by your innovative approach to exploratio­n. It's mind-boggling. I'm consistent­ly impressed,” Hurley said. “And I gotta get back on the boat.

“Please.”

Pat O'Connell, a former pro surfer who was featured in the film “Endless Summer II,: remembers a life-changing trip in 1996.

“What a great business you are in, making people happy and giving them the time of their lives,” O'Connell said. “Congratula­tions . ... Let's go somewhere else.”

Turner, longtime operator of the Sugar Shack restaurant in downtown Huntington Beach, was the last to put her hands and feet in the wet cement. Fellow surfer Brett Simpson described her as a matriarch to many who brought the community together through the years, and said he remembered eating countless free breakfasts, courtesy of Turner, when he was on the Huntington Beach High School surf team.

“Every time you go there, it feels like home. That is because of this lady right here,” Simpson said, pointing at Turner. “If you can't find your friends at the parking lot or in the water, they are probably at the

Sugar Shack.”

Turner talked about how her parents, Pat and Mary Williams, opened the Sugar Shack in the late 1960s and by the time she was 13, she and her sisters were working at the eatery.

“You have to work hard and you have to be nice to people,” she said.

At the time, the Sugar Shack only sat 26 people. At one point, they were barely making ends meet and all the daughters would put their tip money back into the register.

“We went home with nothing,” she said. “But we learned that you don't give up. Never give up.”

She told a story about a big-wave day when a surfer — who shall remain unnamed — told her one of her sons was skipping school and was instead surfing.

“I stopped the whole restaurant, had my apron on,” she told the crowd. “I ran down the street like this mad lady. I ran to the pier. I said, `Get out of that water right now.' He never did it again.”

She wouldn't say whether her school-skipping son was Timmy or Ryan, both wellknown surfers and also Surfers' Hall of Fame inductees, but both sheepishly smiled at the memory.

Carroll, one of the best surfers in the '60s and '70s, talked about coming out of the water freezing, looking to warm up over coffee and pancakes at the Sugar Shack.

“Every big-name surfer in the world comes to have breakfast at the Sugar Shack,” he said, including the world's best, such as world champions Kelly Slater and Tom Curran. “I've eaten there twice this week. I was going to eat this morning, but no one was there.”

Instead, they were all at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony to support and cheer on Turner.

“We have a big city, but really it's a small town,” Turner said. “We all take care of each other.”

 ?? PHOTOS BY PAUL BERSEBACH — STAFF PHOTOGRAPH­ER ?? Surfers' Hall of Fame inductees Michele Turner, Martin Daly and Peter Mel, from left, attend the ceremony on Main Street in Huntington Beach on Friday.
PHOTOS BY PAUL BERSEBACH — STAFF PHOTOGRAPH­ER Surfers' Hall of Fame inductees Michele Turner, Martin Daly and Peter Mel, from left, attend the ceremony on Main Street in Huntington Beach on Friday.
 ?? ?? Surfers' Hall of Fame inductee Peter Mel puts his imprint in concrete during the ceremony on Main Street in Huntington Beach on Friday.
Surfers' Hall of Fame inductee Peter Mel puts his imprint in concrete during the ceremony on Main Street in Huntington Beach on Friday.

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