Wave goodbye
Newport celebration honors pioneers of Oregon’s surf scene
Celebrate Oregon Coast surfing culture and history with Oregon's pioneer surfers, Agate Beach Surf Club members and current local surfers this Friday and Sunday, July 15 and 16.
The party starts at 6 pm on Friday in the parking lot of Ossie’s Surf Shop in Newport, with visitors from Hawaii, Washington, California and around Oregon. The party is open to all surfers, their family and friends. The public will have the opportunity to meet and mingle with some of Oregon's pioneer surfers from the ’60s and ’70s. The Tastee Tiki food cart will be selling Hawaiian food and adult beverages. A small area will be roped off for a beer garden, and the rest of the lot will be a gathering place with some tables and chairs for visitors. Bring a portable chair if you have one.
On Saturday, the day will start at 1 pm in the paved parking lot below the Agate Beach Motel with a proclamation from the City of Newport naming the area from Otter Rock to South Beach as the, “Home to Oregon surfing past and present.”
Next will be the dedication of the Agate Beach Surf Club memorial. Two of the three founding fathers of the club, 'Ohana (Rick) Baley from Washington and Larry Tucker from Hawaii will be the main speakers for the dedication. They, along with Scott Blackman, formed the club in 1965.
“From 1965 to 1968 the club was thought to be the most active, longest-running surfing group in the Northwest," said Sandy Blackman, widow of Scott, who died in 2018. The memorial is located overlooking Agate Beach alongside the steps that surfers and visitors use to walk down to the cove.
The final part of the ceremony will honor 63 Oregon surfers who have caught their last wave with a prone paddle-out beginning at 2:30 pm from the Agate Beach cove. This will be a traditional ceremony with leis and flowers.
Blackman and fellow surf club member Jack Skriver thought that there was a need to recognize surfers in the same way the fishing community recognizes their members during the annual Blessing of the Fleet.
"There has been a tremendous outpouring of interest in this event from widows, mothers, daughters, brothers and siblings for our brothers and sisters in the surfing tribe,” Blackman said. “It is an honor to hear their personal stories about their loved ones and we are planning for the paddle out to be a yearly event every summer at the Agate Beach cove."
Spectators will only be able to view the paddlers from the Yaquina Head Natural Preserve at Quarry Cove parking lot.
“This event was inspired by my husband, Scott Blackman, who always called the cove 'Mother Agate' because it gave birth to surfing for him,” Blackman said. “As Scott was dying, Mike Cavanaugh helped to make Scott's vision of memorializing surfing at Agate Beach a reality. Starting in January 2019 with the help of the City of Newport, the City’s Arts Committee and private donations we were able to raise over $5,000.00 for the [surf club] Memorial.”
Ossie’s Surf Shop is located at 4900 NE Hwy. 101. For more information, including photos and stories of surfers who will be memorialized on Saturday or to submit names for future events, go to the "Oregon Surfing Past and Present" page on Facebook.
Vets get wet
Ossie’s Surf Shop is partnering with Dr. Jaimie Lusk of the Salem Vet Center to offer seven free surfing events for veterans through September. The next two sessions will be at 10 am on Friday, July 22, and Sunday, July 24. Wetsuits, boards, lessons and lunch are all included.
The ocean is a place where veterans can challenge themselves while remaining fully present. Ossies has partnered with the Salem Vet Center on four previous veteran surfing events with outstanding results. Veterans were matched with volunteers and experienced play in the water as well as camaraderie with each other and the civilian volunteers. While many veterans live on the Oregon Coast, there is no vet center and VA services are limited. The goal of these events is to help build a veteran community in Newport and connect veterans to available mental health services. For more information, email Jaimie.lusk@va.gov.