Surf historian on the death of a Hawaiian who "knew all the secrets."
On Monday, the great Hawaiian surfer, shaper, pioneer of board design and big-wave surfing, George Downing, died at home in East Oahu. Read his obit here.
I knew a little about George. He was the contest director for The Eddie. Could handle a planer and had the surfboard biz Downing Hawaii. Was one of the first guys to push ’emselves in big Hawaiian waves. One kid won the Eddie, another made it to the finals of the Pipe Masters.
For a little perspective, I got Matt Warshaw, surf historian, met Downing a few times, onto the keys.
BeachGrit: Son of a bitch, that fifties big-wave era is almost gone. George Downing. Yeah, he was old, but he’s taking a piece of the sport with him. Pioneered some of the heavier spots on the North Shore, was heavily into surfboard designand so on, yes?
Warshaw: If you ask Billy Kemper and Shane Dorian who their main big-wave surfing influence was, then ask THOSE guys who their main influence was, and so on and so on, at the end of the line you end up with Buzzy Trent and George Downing. They started big-wave surfing, along with Wally Froiseth. And Buzzy absolutely bowed down to George. George was the master. He was the first to go all-in. Downing put a fin on the hot curl board and invented the big-wave gun. He was the first surfer of note to geek out on weather maps and swell forecasting. He invented the pin-drop bailout. And he had a beautiful, smooth, high-line style. Downing was quiet, smart, ambitious, creative, and kindly, but in a powerful mafioso-don way. He had a lot of juice.
Born and raised in Hawaii?
Yes. I’m not sure what happened when he was a kid, but I believe George was pretty much raised by his uncle, Wally Froiseth.
If you ask Billy Kemper and Shane Dorian who their main big-wave surfing influence was, then ask THOSE guys who their main influence was, and so on and so on, at the end of the line you end up with Buzzy Trent and George Downing. They started big-wave surfing, along with Wally Froiseth. And Buzzy absolutely bowed down to George. George was the master.
Y’ever get to talk to him?
A few times. He was great friends with Steve and Debbee Pezman, and when I lived in San Clemente I’d drop by their house often, and when Downing was in California he’d stay in the guest room. I was nervous around him, but he was always friendly. Watchful guy, kind of reserved, dry sense of humor. We faxed back and forth a couple times when I was doing Encyclopedia of Surfing. He’d never done a profile piece in a surf magazine. There was no information out there about him, or very little. It took some convincing from Pezman to get him to play along with EOS, and he make me sign a agreement that the biographic information he gave me would only be used in that book. But once we got that out of the way, he was right into it. Answered all the questions, came through in a big way.
How did he end up being called The Guru?
Downing just knew more about surfing than anybody, or surfing in Hawaii at least, and if you knew how to approach him he was really open about sharing his knowledge.
Tell me about his relationship with Waimea Bay. Pioneer, first. And, later, Eddie contest director.
No, I don’t think George liked surfing Waimea. Or rather, he didn’t like it near as much as Makaha, which was his heart and soul. Downing was a finesse surfer, he was slender and kind of slippery with his line. Waimea was better suited for Greg Noll; big, thick, grunty guys. Waimea, you want to be a sledgehammer. Makaha, at size, you want to be an arrow, like George. For the Quik contest, though, Waimea was the right call. Waimea was Eddie’s wave, and it breaks more often, and the spectating is better there than Makaha. George wasn’t all that stoked to surf it, but he knew Waimea was what Quik needed for the event.
You can even credit him with the removable fin. True?
True. The other bit was, he had these templates from the 1950s that were magic, and when Barton Lynch won the world title he was riding a board George made him, from those same templates.
He asked Nat Young not to include him in his History of Surfing. What happened there? Was he a salty bastard?
In the early editions of Nat’s “History of Surfing,” Nat had this brief Afterward saying that Downing asked to be left out of the book. Nat complied — which is like doing a book on NBA centers and leaving out Bill Russell. Was Downing a salty bastard? He had a temper, and didn’t suffer fools. I’m guessing in his younger days he was a scrapper, and a good one, but none of that as far as I know carried into adulthood. George had an almost visible aura of power, though. When Vince Collier died, people were calling him the Godfather. But George was the godfather. Wise, helpful, generous; a guy who’d seen it all, done it all, knew all the secrets, could get things done. There isn’t a replacement for George Downing.
George Downing, 1930 – 2018 from ENCYCLOPEDIA of SURFING on Vimeo.
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George Downing – is actually George Lautherboren. His dad was born Lautherboren ( From Denmark) but his mother remarried and the kids took his last name (Downing) . His mother is Querubina Emilia Furtada Silva, born in Portugal. His sister is Pearl Downing, who married Wally Froiseth. Another funny story, Wally’s real name is Fluckinger. His mom left Los Angeles with Wally and his brother Jean and went to Hawaii and married Bernard Froiseth. The boys took his name, he is their step dad. The family did not know this until last week! Ancestry has really proven valuable!
does this mean very few Americans are Americans, just locals?
that encyclopedia of surfing video. See how he finesses the waves. With “those” boards. I’ve ridden “those” boards. I cannot surf them, hence I just ride them. And riding is letting the ocean do the work and hanging on. If I can catch one. But he is awesome.
2:10 at the encyclopedia of surfing video, Mister Bean is his doppelganger.
The Hawaiian thing . . . maybe a Hawaiian can say if George is one? But its a catch 22, what defines a Hawaiian is being debated but it takes a Hawaiian that really knows the ins and outs of being Hawaiian and then they must qualify for “True Hawaiian” vs “poseur / actor / actress Hawaiian” . Regardless, George will have my respect. For a master he is, and he was a waterman, surfer, shaper, meteorologist swell predictor, stylist . . .
Fuck you really are that guy aren’t you.
Would it have been more accurate, you think, to call him Hawaiian-born? As in, the white American, but Hawaiian-born, surfer, designer etc?
This is true. He isn’t of Hawaiian ancestry. He did marry a Hawaiian woman and had three Hawaiian kids.
Filipino, actually – not Hawaiian. Hawaiian is an ethnicity.
His wife was Hawaiian and Chinese.
That’s what all Filipinos say! 🙂
how many wives does he have?
Does that work with Aussies and Americans too?
I assume that George was integrated into Hawaiian surfing culture ,so does the fact that he was a white American make his contribution to Hawaiian surfing any less valid?
Are you Hawaiian?
what if you’re third-generation born and raised but your ancestry is pure japanese, are you hawaiian?
what about if you’re mixed between japanese/chinese/filipino? like gerry lopez (i think) surely that makes you hawaiian, no?
but somehow everyone born in hawaii is hawaiian except for the haoles?
dubious logic.
No disrespect to George, but isn’t Laird the godfather?
George knew more about the Hawaiian waters than Laird will ever know.
But no one knows more about the crimson tide than Laird
Not even da wimmins.
Laird is Hawaiian.
The opposite of mixed is inbred so let’s let them choose.
“contest director for the Eddie”?
Does this mean he only had to show up for work once every 8 years?
I think that you meant to say, “Those people don’t play.”
especially in economy class after a few too many beers and a rugby win. not too many places too hide from an angry samoan you just called a Tongan, 30 thousand feet above the Pacific Ocean in a flying tube of contained flatulence.
It’s an interesting posit. By that rationale, what does that make the Ho’s? Mason, Mike, Coco, Dez? Chinese? Or the Florence kids? Jersey Americanos?
or, to pick the most obvious example, eddie rothman?
Aren’t the blood Hawaiians Tongan/Chinese though? You will find most people have a few different blood types. I was devo when I found out that I’m part Syrian because I’ve never even railed a Muslim chick. I’d love to unwrap her like an Easter egg and show her the work of Satan. Wiggolly say: he who take pride in race, he be most racist problem. RIP tho Georgey boy. Dying sucks the ding dong.
Syrian? You and Kelly have more in common than just being weird bastards?
Greetings, my brother
Salam matey
You’re like a poet