First responders found George Trafton staggering down the side of PCH, “severely burned and most of his clothes incinerated.”
In a sad postscript to my story, “Ode to the Palisades,” Jim Ganzer, Lance Carson, and George Trafton, three of the Palisades “elders” I mentioned in the first paragraph, lost everything in the fire and are now homeless.
Ganzer’s rancho up Los Flores Canyon burned to the ground along with his art and surfboard collection. When I spoke to him two days ago, Ganzer did not talk about what insurance would cover, rebuilding, or his loss. Instead, he apologized for letting “Old Yeller,” my favorite Robbie Dick longboard that I kept at his house, burn.
In addition to losing his house on the Pacific Coast Highway and everything inside it, first responders found George Trafton early last Wednesday morning, staggering down the side of the Pacific Coast Highway, “severely burned and most of his clothes incinerated.” Although he survived, Trafton is now at the Grossman Burn Center undergoing skin grafts on much of his body.
Lance Carson has not been allowed back to the Palisades. He does not know what remains of his home of fifty years, but he knows that it is uninhabitable.
In many ways, Ganzer, Trafton, and Carson defined what their old friend, iconic West LA surfer and H2O Magazine publisher, Marty Sugarman, best described as Southern California’s “Waterfront Culture.” While Jim Ganzer is known for his surf wear company Jimmy Z, he is a polymath.
In addition to pioneering surfing in Costa Rica, he attended Chouinard Art Institute with Chuck Arnoldi, Laddie Dill, Ron Cooper, and worked closely with Larry Bell. Ganzer’s art has been shown all over the world.
Ganzer starred opposite Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas in Ed Ruscha’s film Miracle.
Although his on screen film career was brief, the legendary bon vivant had quite an impact on Hollywood. He provided the inspiration for the character “The Dude” in the Coen brothers film The Big Lebowski.
Anyone who knows Jim Ganzer will attest to the fact that the movie’s most famous line, “The Dude Abides,” was his.
When it came to surfing Malibu, nobody rode the nose better than Lance Carson.
Different from Miki Dora’s smooth, narrow-stanced, trimming style, Lance’s technique was a more upright, bob-and-weave approach. He is known for his tail block stalls and cross stepping sprints to the nose. The Malibu icon provided the inspiration for the characters “Lance,” and “Matt Johnson” in his friend John Milius’ films Apocalypse Now and Big Wednesday.
After shortboards replaced longboards and Carson’s surfing star began to fade, he focused his energy on building surfboards. Today, most surfboards are disposable, machine-made pop outs, but Carson’s are hand-shaped, meticulously glassed and some of the finest in the world.
George Trafton, son of NFL hall-of-famer George “The Brute” Trafton (center on Knute Rockney’s 1919 Notre Dame team, Chicago Bears player/coach), turned his prodigious athletic talent first to skateboarding and then to surfing.
People have lost sight of the fact that skateboarding’s true ground zero was Pacific Palisades.
More than a decade before Dogtown, George Trafton and others were doing unthinkable things on the town’s steep hills with only clay wheels. Instead of seeking a career in pro surfing, he became one of California’s greatest underground surfers. Trafton summered at Scorpion Bay, wintered at The Ranch, and spent so much time in the tube that he earned the sobriquet “The Mole.” In addition to his feats in the water, Trafton also had a Mick Jagger side, and was the lead guitarist for the Malibu surf band “Blue Juice.”
While money came and went, properties were bought and sold, Ganzer, Carson, and Trafton were Dionysian men of action. For better or worse, they chose sensual action and experience-filled lives over material ones.
None of them have Santa Barbara beach houses, Sun Valley ski houses, much less $1000 a night White Lotus-like resorts they can retreat to.
They will now have to start over.
I head a small nonprofit called Fainting Robin Foundation. In short, we help people who need help. From persecuted professors and journalists, to the families of murder victims and POW/MIAs, to veterans trying to get the VA to honor their commitments, to civilians on the frontlines of wars, we help.
Fainting Robin has a very small budget, no office, or staff other than my wife Annabelle Lee and me. We have made a $1000 donation to each man. Anyone who wants to make a donation to Jim Ganzer or Lance Carson can make it through the GoFundMe links below
I could not find a GoFundMe Account for George Trafton. If you would like to make a donation to him, Fainting Robin can deliver it. Unlike GoFundMe, Fainting Robin will not skim a penny. All donations are tax deductible. Please note who you would like your donation to go to. www.faintingrobin.org.
Many other Waterfront Culture icons are equally deserving of support. Kathy Kohner Zuckerberg, the original Gidget, Dogtown Lord Skip Engbloom, and many others lost their homes.
Even more tragic, lesser known Malibu surfer Randy “The Crawdaddy” Miod died with his kitten in his arms while trying to escape his beloved “Crab Shack” on Pacific Coast Highway.
I am at a rare loss for words.
