1963. I had sold the Rusty Miller shot to an ad agency some months before and more or less forgotten about it. Then one morning I was driving by the corner of Venice Blvd, and Overland and there it was. I came back with my longtime dental secretary, Madeline Parks, and she took this photo.
Spike is a one hundred year old homarus Americanus who weighs 18 pounds and resides in a polycarbonate tank in the foyer of Gladstones 4 Fish, a restaurant located at the terminus of fabled Sunset Boulevard and the Santa Monica Bay. Actress Mary Tyler Moore recently attempted to buy Spike for a thousand dollars so that she could “return him to his birthplace off the coast of Maine.” The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in turn picketed the eating establishment in protest of the lobster’s “captivity.” Media pundit Rush Limbaugh subsequently doubled Ms. Moore’s purchase offer while claiming he wanted Spike to be the centerpiece entree of a lobster thermador feast. The gentleman invited MTM to be the guest of honor so she could “observe first-hand the proper treatment of a lobster.”
1943, Laguna Beach. Murray Zimmerman (we called him “The Lung” because he could hold his breath for three minutes) and I got these bugs, a couple hundred yards off where the Coast Inn is now at a hole we called the Judge’s Chamber.There were always two big 15-20 lb. bulls sitting in there. We’d get ’em and the following weekend there’d be two more.
Simultaneously to the exploitation of hapless Spike’s plight, a box sat unnoticed in the closet of a nondescript office building situated at 10100 Culver boulevard. Culver intersects the Pacific Coast Highway just a couple of miles south of aforementioned diner. The top photograph in the container depicted a young man holding a 20-pound California spiny lobster. Both the hunter/captor and prey/captive are indigenous species. Ironically the native son pulled the large crustacean out of the waters adjacent to where Gladstones 4 Fish would eventually be established scores of years later. Doctor Donald James was the occupant of the office as well as the subject of the photo described. “All the excitement over the lobster is odd. Back then we never thought about it…it was just a good-sized bug. Later we discovered that this big bulls had been alive when the Chumash Indians were still there. The bottom was covered with lots of them, this photo shows what you could gather in about a half hour. The differences in attitude really make you think.
“I’ve never really done anything extraordinary, maybe I happened to be where things occurred a few times, maybe I happened to do a couple of things first.” Such introspective self-analysis and humility typifies the mind set of this man who has documented the surf lifestyle from the 1930s to the present.
To properly place James’ work in perspective, all one has to do is to ponder the scope of his archive. In truth, no one else can touch it in terms of amount, length of continuity, technical command, innovation or style. Further, Dr. James possesses direct lineage to surf photography’s very originators, and he has carried their genius forward. “When I saw Blake’s photos in National Geographic that was it. We’d go to the library and stare at Tom’s stuff. My dad had an old Kodak folding camera and I grabbed it and started taking photos. In 1935, there were hardly any kids who surfed. Our group hung out at the Del Mar Club in Santa Monica and we worshipped the older guys like Bob Butts, Pete Peterson, Bill Moore, Paul Stater, Chauncy Grandstrom and Johnny McMahon. We were the only teenagers around. I began shooting pictures to show our parents and teachers what was going on. You know, ‘Hey mom, look, it’s not so bad, it’s actually neat!’ In the 1930s, the concept of riding a wave while standing on a plank was completely alien to everyone. There were little groups of people who surfed and they didn’t necessarily know of one another yet. All together there were probably less than a couple of hundred guys in the entire state.The photos were a way to let people know that we were involved in this great activity and totally stoked up. I guess there was a little ego gratification involved also. It was a good deal to display them and get a pretty girl impressed. At our high school we were the only kids like us, everyone else played football.”
For six decades, Dr. James has attempted to expand the boundaries of his art. “The early equipment was really crude. People rode big waves in the thirties, but no one could get close enough to photograph them. I was lucky to meet Blake eventually and to work with him. One day I saw Doc Ball out shooting at Paddleboard Cove and thought, oh, so that’s how you do it. In time I was shooting right alongside of Doc. There was no competition amongst photographers then, everyone helped each other out. I worked with Pete Peterson on the Pete Smith movies and go to build water housings with him. Over the years I would envision an angle or shot and then search out a way to get it.
1939, ‘Nofre. Me, Ed Fearon and Bud Rice were the only three surfers at Santa Monica High at the time – everybody thought we were crazy. We dreamt of Hawaii; when we’d hear someone was going, we’d ask them to bring us flowered trunks from Lynn’s in Waikiki. We ended up joining the Navy R.O.T.C. on the chance a summer cruise would take us there, but by 1940 our country was too close to war for it to happen.
Circa 1939, Pete Peterson, Sunset Pier, Venice, CA. Pete had this funny, relaxed style, he was Mister Cool on a board. He had this mannerism with his fingers like he was holding a tea cup. He had tough feet too. He would just stand there, firmly planted. Plus, Peter never used wax, he was so agile, so adept – he just felt he didn’t need it.
Circa ’38-’39, Pete’s shaping my board at his garage on 17th St. in Santa Monica. I was standing there urging him to hurry so we could get a couple of coats of varnish on it cause the surf was coming up.
1938 abalone dive near Calafia Street in San Clemente, CA. That’s Tommy Smith and Charles “Doaks” Butler (an M.D., Doakes went on a destroyer as Medical Officer and was killed during the War). In those years the abalone were thick. In eight feet of water you could get all you wanted. This was the year before find (Churchill’s) first came out.
1938, ‘Nofre. Barney Wilkes (San Onofre Club founder) and Bruce Duncan were strumming while a gal named Eleanor did an impromptu hula. The mystique of Hawaii was prevalent. Sam Reid would come back and tell stories of huge Castles and going backside at Cunhas, and of the air all through Waikiki being filled with mist and spray from those waves. We heard these stories and got charged up.
Food fight at San Onofre, circa ’37.
That’s Jack Quigg (Joe’s older brother) with my first car, a 1925 Hudson that I bought from my uncle for $25 and nailed 2 x 4’s to the roof for board racks.
Jim Bailey, Hermosa Pier. Jim was a barber right on the Strand. He’d get so stoked, he’d grab his board and run out, leaving his customer in the chair.
The caps were worn to help keep warm during California winters. Part of the paddle board’s appeal in this days was you could paddle out high and dry versus being half under water on a plank. Riding a pintail paddle board required a pronounced style.You could catch waves easily but they were hard to control, they’d fishtail and you couldn’t get them lined up. But Bailey (shown here turning with a hand in the wave) and Adie Baer were the two best paddle board experts of that time.
Pete Peterson on a huge west swell day during the Winter of ’39. He tried for an hour to get out and never did make it. Here he’s caught in the backwash – trying to ride it out.
December 26, 1954 (my first trip to the islands), the day after Christmas at the start of the five-mile Diamond Head Race.
Take the Rusty Miller at Sunset Beach shot for example, it took me years to be able to capture that angle because the equipment didn’t exist yet. I’d always try new camera that I’d find out about. Sometimes I’d go too far. I went over the falls at Laniakea on a fifteen-foot day with a new Hasselblad and housing which weighed 21 pounds. If it had hit me in the had, that would have been it.” As previously alluded to, Don has little desire towards making claims of preeminence in his field. For the public record, we will briefly list a few areas which the good doctor either pioneered or greatly advanced the usage of extreme telephone lenses, large format, micro-mini formats, extreme wide angles, camera boards, water housings, tubal perspectives, gyroscopic mounts, single lens reflex systems, motor drive sequences, helicopter perspectives, boat perspectives and telephoto water shots.
George Downing congratulating Tommy Zahn at the finish. Zahn had been trying to beat Georgie for 3-4 years and he had finally won, which he largely attributed to this Quigg “Stradivarius racing board,” build of balsa with ribs and paper-thin skin like an airplane wing. That’s Bud Browne filming Tom Volk in the background.
From the effortlessly effervescent, idyllic lifestyle reportage of the thirties and forties to his trade make ultra-cinematic, pushy detailed, hyper-real, participant’s eye-view perspectives, James’ approach has consistently revealed the most integral aspects of the surfing experience. Interestingly, Dr. J’s images have become those particular known icons by which the sport is identified, both within and outside of the culture. A claim can be made (which Don won’t even allow to be discussed in his presence), that he is the best known surfing photographer of all time. The widespread replication and mass distribution of his graphic images nevertheless support the assertion. Covers of Life, Der Spiegel and numerous contributions to other periodicals like Time, The Saturday Evening Post, Honolulu and Sports Illustrated, appearances on the nationally televised show You Asked For It, billboards, Bank of America Eddie Aikau photo checks and a Kodak International Photo Prize at the 1964 World’s Fair are evidence of the prominence of Don’s work.
The magnitude of Dr. James’ accomplishments and the comfortable, rustic trappings of his current Montecito lifestyle imparts the impression of a glorious Pollyannaish rags-to-riches fable. Scenario: The barefoot boy triumphs over Depression-era poverty, as a lifesaver rescues scared flatlanders from the ominous ocean, performs, adeptly in motion pictures, survives the war to end all wars, becomes an international sports figure and prosperous Angelino celebrity dentist who settles into the seductive aura of the sun, surf and sand of Camelot-by-the-sea. The unglossed reality is no less dramatic. “Life in the Depression was hard, but it encouraged us to appreciate what we had and to live simple lives. My dad scrambled to keep us afloat. On the good days, we’d eat off the nickels he’d gotten from his pinball machines. On the bad ones, the power would be turned off or we’d have to move because we could’ make the rent. It was never too bad for me because there was always the beach to turn to.”
Don’s cinematic hero countenance did land him a gig doubling for Cary Grant in Mister Lucky, and roles in films like Back to Bataan and The Moon is Blue. The Doctor discounts any infatuation with Hollywood princesses. “I don’t remember the names of most of those films, they were just a way to earn money, they gave you $35 to start and with salary adjustments for stunt work, you could pocket 100 bucks a day.”
Action in the Makaha shore break, Winter, 1957-58. Johnny McMahon and I were renting a house on the point (we were out of the Quonset hut stage by then). Surf photography was a hobby for me at the time and there was a lot of good stuff going on right there in the shore break in front of our house.
1956, George Downing in Makaha point surf. Downing, Woody and Wally were the top big wave riders.All the California guys would follow them around and get advice. This was before Waimea had been ridden and Makaha was the premiere big wave, the ultimate goal.
Joe Quigg, Walter Hoffman, Hobie and Billy Ming at the 1955 Makaha contest, all classic water guys. Few of today’s kids realize that Hobie was a great surfer as well as a manufacturer.
Waimes Bay, November 7, 1957, the first day it was ridden. This is probably one of the first waves. That’s Mickey Munoz on the far right, Del Cannon to his left finally making it to the bottom – Stang and Curren were out there too. (Mickey recalls that Seal Beach surfer Harry Schurch might have caught the very first wave ridden that day.) I was driving by the Bay on the way to Sunset and noticed some guys standing there on the point watching it so I pulled over. Pretty soon a few of them paddled out and started catching waves, it was simple as that. I was taking pictures and Bud (Browne) was standing next to me filming. The waves were mostly in the 15’18’ range with a couple of twenty footers. In hindsight, it was not that huge, but the psychological hurdle was immense because of the Woody Brown-David Cross incident back in ’46.
Buzzy Trent with experimental camera rig. I kept trying new angles and thought of this helmet setup. I did a casting out of acrylic resin in my dental office to hang the camera on, it was a tiny spring-wound Tessina that would take twelve shots with a single wind. The cable release was embedded in a mouthpiece, activated by “dental power” of which fuzzy had an ample supply.
It turned out to be awkward and not a wide enough angle for framing.
(top) Greg Noll and (above) Jose Angel, Waimea Bay, Winter 1962-63. According to Greg, this was his first wave from getting off the plane and going right to the Bay. He landed on his board, hurt his shoulder and says he can still feel it to this day, almost thirty-five years later. Jose was noted for riding deeper than anyone. He was out alone the day he caught this wave. He traded me a giant turtle shell for a color print of the photo.
Candy Calhoun, San Onofre, Summer, 1963. Like her mother Marge (1955 Makaha Women’s Champ) Candy was an all-around water woman, a good swimmer, diver, board surfer and body surfer.
(sequence) Butch Van Artsdalen (through a lupe it looks a lot like Hakman-Ed.) in front of Johnny Fain at Haleiwa, 1962-63. Fain was a big deal hotdog at Malibu and I remember thinking it took a lot of guts for him to ride some of the waves I saw him catch that winter at Haleiwa and Sunset.
Phil Edwards on the first day Pipe was ridden, 1961. Phil was very quiet, really talented, had the best style and grace. Everybody admired him. He was tall and skinny with huge feet – I always figured that probably helped him.
The Second World War exposed the young medical man to the misery of forward area military morgues. It also allowed him to freely roam through the streets of theForbidden City of Peking and to personally record the surrender of Japanese troops on the battlefield. “Hell, I was only a dentist. The only time I got shot at, I was free diving on a sunken Jap ship off Okinawa. The water looked good, and I needed some exercise, so I swam out. Suddenty the air around me started buzzing and the water surface was splashing. Jesus, I thought, these are bullets. After dark, I swam back in. I knew the Marines were still fighting the enemy, but I thought our sector was secured. Some place up there in the trees there were some snipers I guess. That’s what it’s like when you’re a surfer, when the conditions are right, everything else recedes into the background and you just go.”
The perception of the high rolling D.D.S. was another misnomer. “People would see the Cadillac and the Beverly Hills address and figure I had it made. Actually, I had two ex-wives I was paying alimony to and a family to support It was a struggle to keep it all going, and to take a month off to go to Hawaii to surf and shoot was a financial problem. That’s why I had to start selling pictures. It helped me balance sit all out.”
The semi-official WesternWhite House was close as next door neighbor Peter Lawford’s pad. “Parties at Pete’s, cocktails on the patio, J.F.K. splashing int he shore break, the traffic backed up on the P.C.H. for miles, the FBI in the trees and hundreds of newspapermen swarming all over us was how we lived there. The things that went on around the President were amazing, but no one ever reported them, there was a code of honor. Now there are no secrets, and it seems like every school kid knows about Kennedy’s affair with Marilyn Monroe.”
The complimentary forces of Yin worked along with the active Dr. Don’s Yang. Dualities of existence presented themselves in interlocking sequences. Some triumphs were shadowed by corresponding tragedies. Along the way, social drinking gradually evolved into a major problem. “A bad hangover led to and intensified a particularly long hold-down at Haleiwa. I was overcome by the worst remorse I ever had thinking it was because of too much booze! You’d think I’d have quit then, but I wasn’t quite ready yet. Eventually I went to AA and turned it around. My philosophy now is that I try to remain positive.
Like everybody else, I have negative thoughts; you know, waking up at three in the morning wondering where your life’s going. You can become depressed at different stages of your life when things come to pass that you don’t plan on. For me, it was brought on by a series of failed marriages. Once I realized that I didn’t have control of it all, it got better. Wife number four was worth waiting for, we were inevitable soul mates. It was destined to happen, our fate. If I had given up, I’d never met her. You have to keep on going.”
That’s me soaking some rays
after a San Clemente ab dive in 1943.
Over the years, he has truly kept going on. Dr. James’ fascination with arresting the motion of breaking waves has provided a visual time line of the history of the modern sport of surfing. James has isolated the naive origins of self-invention, the advent of higher technological construction, the high-water mark of the emergent youth culture, and the inevitable coming of age where the realization that the once seemingly limitless ever bountiful seas area in reality but small, fragile ponds.
An inventory of the thousands of subjects that this photography has focused his attention upon yields a list of all-time personalities. Whitney Harrison, the Quigg brothers, Duke, Tarzan Smith, Peanuts Larsen, Nelly Blye Brignell, Fred Van Dyke, Mary Ann Morrissey, Kit Horn, John F. Kennedy, Gardner Chapin, the Cole brothers, Peter Lawford, Rusty Miller, Rabbit Kekai, George Downing, Mickey Dora, Frank Donahue, Mickey Munoz, Phil Edwards, Mike Doyle, June Lochart, Buzzy Trent, Wally Froseith, John Peck, Arthur Lake, Jackie Coogan, Tulie Clark, Doc Ball, LeRoy Grannis, Hoppy Schwartz, Woody Brown, Johnny Weismuller, Johbn Kelley, Joey Buran, Shaun Tomson, Mark Richards, P.T., Ian Caims, Rory Russell, Lopez, etc. An equal amount of impressive pictures of relative unknowns can be found in James’ oeuvre. The diversity of his subjects adds to the intrinsic value of his life’s photo work.
1962-63, Jeff Hakman on the beach at Sunset with his Dick Brewer Surfboards Hawaii gun. Jeff was sort of like the mascot of the beach at the time, but he could really take care of himself. You’d see him on a Waimea wave and think, “God, is this kid for real?”
It was a rare occurrence to see someone go left at Sunset. I remember this guy made the wave. I was sitting in the channel on my board with a medium telephoto. There’s a lot going on in this shot.
1969, Fred Hemmings at Sunset. This was one of the first times I shot from a boat. Jose took me out. I was on the beach at Waimea waiting for him and Jose was out there and really didn’t want to come in. But it was such a good day I kept upping the ante until he gave in. It finally cost me $400 for the afternoon.
Dewey Weber at Haleiwa, 1967. This is one of my first fish eye camera board efforts. I used strips of inner tube to hold the camera to the board. You can see the inside of the lens port in these earlier images. Dewey held a strong with a little block of wood on the end. When he pulled, that activated the camera to fire off an entire roll of 36 exposures.
Don’s ’60s Classics: From my own surfing and being a photographer, my mind’s eye registered the water perspective shown here, and I worked towards achieving it for a long time, all elements finally coming together. (far left) Winter 1963-64, Sunset Beach. Rusty Miller dropping in, Mickey Dora paddling out Mickey’s wearing the trunks he wore while performing as a stunt double in Ride the Wild Surf. The billboard of this photo came out in ’63. I got a thousand bucks from Hamm’s Beer and gave Rusty, who was a minor at the time, $150. His parents thought I had exploited him, but for me it was the culmination of about ten years of effort to get that shot. (middle) 1962-63, John Peck’s famous backside rail grab at Pipeline. He and Butch were the first Pipe masters, Mr. Frontside and Mr. Backside. (left) 1967, Tiger Espere at Waimea Bay. I was shooting from a board and could get pretty close on big days.
(far left) 1969, Ricky (Griff) at Waimea, shot from Jose’s boat.(middle) Sunset Beach with Paul Gebauer, Rusty and Ricky outside and Kimo (Hillinger) on the inside. Later, Kimo took a horrible near-death wipeout at Waimea and never went out there again. (left) Sunset Beach. I was paddling out and saw this beautiful peak with nobody on it. The sky, lighting, the peak at the far end of the bend in the line. I had o capture it – what every surfer would like to see on the way out.
(far left and middle) 1970, Owl Chapman, Sunset Beach. The first frame of this sequence was a Surfer magazine cover with the second frame running on the contents page of the same issue. Some people felt Surfer shouldn’t run such a severe wipeout on their cover, I guess they worried that it would be detrimental to the growth of the sport. (left) 1965. Hemmings at the aMakaha Bowl, just before the contest started. Fred won that year. I remember he was on a Brewer gun and wave jacked up to make a great photo.
The good doctor shot only what he chose to. There isn’t a lot of magazine-directed or advertising-ordered works here. “I got pictures of whatever interested me. Politically, I was totally ignorant. In the beginning, there was no industry, and by the time one developed, I’d been doing it for so long it didn’t really affect me. I’d much rather shoot pictures of little Hawaiian kids playing in the mud than some large surfing contest that was held in mediocre conditions.”
Photo by daughter, Patricia, 1993.
No celebration of Dr. Don James would be complete without a closer examination of his “other” career, the practice of dentistry. “I got interested in becoming a D.D.S. because of Dr. Barney Wilkes and Dr. John Heath Ball. They were two outstanding men who surfed a lot and did something to aid humanity. I was exposed to the lifeguards on the Santa Monica force, and the way they conducted themselves always impressed me. The guards there were the first organized professional group around, and they worked hard to establish a respect for surfing. I learned about the Hawaiian concepts of “aloha” and doing for others first from people like McMahon, Tony Guerrero, Duke Kahanomoku, Pua Kealoha, Hawkshaw Paia, and, of course, Harrison, and Pete. Peterson gave me my first job and he later took Cap Watkins aside and said, ‘Look, the kid needs to be a doctor and we’ve got to help min.’ That got me on as a Santa Monica guard. I’d attend school all day and work for the city all night on the pier. I had a scholarship from the Navy, so my grades had to be good. One failure and you were out of the program immediately. Being a lifeguard enabled me to get through medical school, so I owe it all to Peterson and Watkins. If the university or the government had every found out I was working another job, they would have washed me out straight away. None of the guards ever came out and said it, but I knew they were all pulling for me; there were many long hours put in and plenty of pressure, but I had to make it for everybody.
There was a lot of fun, too. It was sort of expected that you do something to help people out. “I’m proud that my being a dentist might have improved some of my patient’s ability to live and function. Many of the people I worked on became lifelong friends. “The ordinarily circumspect dentist can, after much prodding, come forth with an assortment of humorous and entertaining tales of the tooth biz: There was time time romantic leading man Erroll Flynn arrived in the office wearing a brassiere (he was joking), in another incident, a pain addled Clark Gable speculated about killing James’ senior partner (he wasn’t making a joke). Other chair-bound geniuses such as writers Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley would spellbind all present as they speculated about the condition of man and wonders of the universe. For many of use younger patients, the Doctor was an exaample that terminal adolescence wasn’t a requirement for being a hardcore surfer. Perhaps that was his most significant accomplishment of all. What office visiting grem wouldn’t be impressed when James received those hourly calls from Hawaii updating him on the swell conditions at Waimea? If the surf showed epic inclinations, all non-critical appointments would be rescheduled and James was on the next jet out. By down, Dr. Donald James, D.D.S. would be in the lineup.
Most days at home find Don at the beach paddling his vintage 9’6” DelCannon or bodyboarding. Travel to favorite uncrowded archipelagos is another top priority. He dwells in the rustic Mountain Drive area of Santa Barbara with his wife Laura Rowan Peake James. His relationship to surfing is now much simpler, and he continues to photograph whatever he sees fit. “There was a time when I had a violent need to prove something, and to be the best in the world at it. Now I can appreciate it on a day-to-day basis just for the pure joy of being out there. I know I can keep it up in some form or another as long as I can walk or crawl down to the water.”
Doctor James and Santa Barbara graphic designer Tom Adler are currently collaborating on a book of Dan’s photography with the working title, “’37 to ’43 – Beach Life California,” with text by Craig Stecyk.
Tandem warm-ups, Makaha, 1963. (Bob Moore and partner chat with Windansea Surf Club’s Thor Sevenson while Mike Doyle and Linda Merrill practice a lift.) Trying to capture life around me…I seem to look for composition and structure unconsciously.
1969, Tommy Holmes canoe surfing Castles at 8-10′. This was the first time I’d done helicopter photography. I got a call from John McMahon that town was up, and I was there by 2:00 that afternoon. John had lined up the chopper from Ala Moana and I was in the air by 3:00.To ride big Castles with a canoe is a feat, this was a prelude to their riding Avalanche on a twenty-foot day.
(top) The Calhoun tribe, Robin, Marge and Candy at Makaha, 1963-64. This was a beautiful weekday, just a few surfers out, and they were there just to have fun. The Calhouns were unique in the surfing world, a family comprised solely of women who traveled and surfed together.
Aunties and uncles, down from Waianae to watch the surfing contest.
1983, Pipeline. I was out with Jeff Johnson on his 24′ Whaler shooting Sunset. On the way back, I was below reloading when Jeff stopped the boat and said, ‘Hey, you interested in any of this?’ I looked up and here was this vision of Pipe from a boat that I’d never seen before.
In the early 1960s, I was experimenting with an ultra-wide lens at Makaha, swam under on a lark, and on an impulse snapped this view. (Probably the first of this now frequently seen under water perspective of surfers. -Ed.)
Joey buran, Waimea Bay, 1983. I was in a Whaler with Mike Holmes, who I liked to use as a boat operator to take advantage of his big wave knowledge. These shots show how accidental the taking of a unique photo can be. The boat couldn’t reverse and Joey was almost out of my frame by the fourth shot. But each image has its own strength…the beginning of a vertical descent into Hades. (the 4th shot was used as a Surfing magazine cover, the rest until now were unpublished.-Ed.)
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