Journalist catches big waves to Surfers' Hall of Fame

As ever, Laylan Connelly has an idea.

This one is about the writing and reporting for this story, a story that Connelly, who for 20-plus years has covered beach culture for The Orange County Register — a sister news organization — is not writing or reporting.

“I’ve got the headline,” Connelly said. “Also, you have to include the other inductees. That’s important. It can’t be just about me. Because it isn’t. Also…”

For the record, the other two named this week as 2023 inductees into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame — Ëtalo Ferreira and Fernando Aguerre — are worthy of being inducted with Connelly. Ferreira, a Brazilian, was the first man to win an Olympic gold medal in surfing. Aguerre, co-founder of La Jolla-based Reef Sandals, led the push to get surfing recognized as an Olympic sport.

So those guys share the Olympics thing, which is part of why Hall of Fame founder Aaron Pai wants them in. But they’re also key players in a bigger trend — in which surfing and surf culture are becoming a positive touchstone for people around the world — that Pai is keen to celebrate.

And Connelly, a relentless, creative, unabashedly surf-smitten reporter, he said, is part of the convergence.

“People like Fernando, Ëtalo; they’re using surfing as a tool to bring the world together. Different nationalities, different races. In surfing, these days, we really are all one. And they help make that happen,” Pai said.

Connelly does the same thing, Pai said, except the people she brings together live in the multiverse known as Southern California.

“There are so many more people than just surfers, people who live all over the place, who love to read

Laylan’s stories about the ocean and the coast. They enjoy reading her magic,” he said. “And that’s super important.”

Connelly, 44, who grew up in Lakewood, didn’t surf as a kid. The first time she tried to surf — in her 20s, on a cold, crummy day in Newport Beach — the experience was “pretty disastrous.”

But the second time, during a surf lesson in Costa Rica, she stood up. And in that moment, she felt her board and her body sync up with an unimaginably powerful, untamable ocean.

Her old life, she said, was gone.

“It’s just so addicting.” At the time, Connelly worked as a reporter for the Irvine World News, covering Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. She noted that the beach was host to a lot of events — volleyball tournaments, surf contests, cleanups — so she started a column to tell readers about those happenings.

After landing a daily reporting job with the Register, she continued to write about beach events for the paper’s former OC Outdoors section. And, as the internet was a new tool for journalism, she also wrote a beachcentric blog.

By 2005, the paper made it official, moving Connelly to be the full-time reporter for a new beat, Beach Culture. The thinking was that the beaches of Orange County were (and are) a unique community, with locals and businesses and rules, official and unofficial, pertaining only to the beach. The thinking also was that readers would want to know about that community.

Few ideas at news organizations last. Coverage of beach culture has. Connelly has been the Register’s only reporter on that beat and she’s never strayed from that original idea.

“Laylan is a fabulous reporter and writer,” said Frank Pine, executive editor at Southern California News Group. “Her stories highlight a part of Southern California’s culture that is quintessentially local.”

The trick might be Connelly’s wide view of what is and isn’t “culture.”

Connelly has written exhaustively about beach regulars and beach visitors. She’s also written about sand erosion, sea creatures, dangerous waves, little kids, sharks (and the people who’ve been bitten by them), tragically heroic lifeguards, religious leaders, oil spills, the tricks to getting a campfire spot, parking woes, homelessness, inventors, publicity stunts…

And surfing.

As Connelly began covering surfing, the sport was a tweener, sometimes popping up in the sports pages, but given relatively little coverage beyond big contests. Given that surfing is something a lot of Orange County residents actually do and love, the patchy coverage was problematic.

Connelly — who surfs pretty much whenever possible — fixed that.

“Surfing is tricky. If you don’t explain it in ways that are genuine, the people inside that world know, it’s apparent to them. As I became a surfer, I understood things in ways that help my storytelling.,” she said. “These are fascinating people. I just tell their stories.”