The first man to do an air on a surfboard is awaiting trail in Santa Cruz.
Who is the first man to ever take to the sky on a surfboard? Michael Ciaramella? Martin Potter? Christian Fletcher? Larry Bertlemann?
No!
All wonderful surfers, each a pioneer, but the first man to regularly and purposefully launch is named Kevin Reed and he lives in Santa Cruz. One of his punts can be seen gracing a 1975 issue of Surfing magazine (above) and can you imagine how difficult it would be to do on a weird heavy mid-1970s single fin?
Kevin, it appears, fell from the scene, changed his name to Kevin Callaghan and was living on the beach in Santa Cruz where he has just been convicted of murder. Let’s read in San Jose’s Mercury News.
Kevin Callahan, 58, known for most of his life as Kevin Reed, was arrested early Sunday morning, not far from the body of Steven Lee, 52. The two men had both been living near the seawall along Beach Avenue, according to police reports.
The allegations against Callahan came as a blow to friend and local surf legend Bob Pearson, owner of Pearson Arrow Surfboards on Mission. Pearson said that he still considers his friend Kevin “one of the most famous guys in the world.”
“He was the first guy to do the aerials. That’s a fact, and he did it five years before anybody else,” Pearson said Monday. He acknowledged that he had heard the murder allegations against his friend and hoped that they proved incorrect.
Pearson went on to say:
“You drive by homeless, you hear it a bunch of times: Don’t judge the people, you don’t know who he is, who she is, where they’re from, what happened to them and what’s going on in their life,” Pearson said. “I’m sure he has been judged wrong by a lot, a lot of people. It’s unfortunate, some people just fall through the cracks.”
And ain’t that the truth.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Wow, crazy. He’s homeless too? Damn.
But the “Secret Island”! Love the old days with all the discovery shit.
Really? I can’t find any info!
http://www.santacruzsentine…
At least he [K.”C”.R.] got “three squares and a cot” for 24 hours, good outcome.
awaiting trail…
Don’t reckon that air was an air or a make.
Also just goes to show that thinking airs are important leads you to a homeless life on the beach and murder.
True! Which begs the question: Has our friend at the Inertia Mr. Dunn seen this?
Bob Pearson saying that Kevin Reed was one of the most famous guys in the world is the most Santa Cruz thing ever.
Ha! So true!
looks like he’s released now. No evidence.
Steve Price was nipping at his heels too. Original aerial pioneers
The Canterbury-Bankstown second-rower, or reactionary right-wing shock-jock?