I love Mickey Munoz, the “Mongoose.”
He is one of my oldest pals and my mentor and a major influence on not only my surfing but also my life in general. One of the great surfers of all time and one of the coolest dudes ever.
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He taught me a lot about surfing and was also a great example of how to go about life. The guy is just totally “stoked” on life, and if you know him, you know his great laugh. Unmistakable.
A couple of weeks ago, the city of Dana Point honored him with a bronze, life-size statue erected in the Waterman’s Plaza across from Doheny State Beach. It’s very cool, showing him doing his infamous “El Quasimodo” stance taken from John Severson’s 1960 film “Surf Fever.”
They had a great unveiling ceremony May 14 that was probably the coolest event I have been able to attend in ages.
That was a great day all the way around for me. My beautiful wife, Raquel, and I flew in the night before from Zihuatanejo, Mexico; we did not want to miss this.
Our day started with my annual wellness checkup at Memorial Care in Huntington Beach. The good news is it was all good news, no new bad stuff, and the worst thing I have is a small skin tag to be removed. That’s a win for me.
From there, we cruised down the coast and had a great brunch at the Harvest Restaurant, which is part of The Ranch at Laguna Beach. I stay there whenever I can; it is an amazing place and is run by my pal Mark Christy. Mark also owns the local Hobie shops.
Part of my mission for the day was to get info on the opening of the new Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center that is set to open in downtown Laguna Beach shortly. Stay tuned for more on that.
After that, we headed farther down the highway to the Dana Bay Art Gallery in Dana Point. A little extra added “Dananess” to this is that the owner is named Dana. Great guy who not only runs the gallery but is the manager of Bernie Taupin, lyricist for Elton John. The Dana Bay Gallery has some of my paintings exhibited and for sale, and we needed to talk about the next appearance I will be doing June 21, noon to 2.
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From there, it was on to the statue unveiling.
Tons of people showed up, and it just seemed the whole crowd was seething with “stoke.” That was like the theme of the day.
Mickey Munoz is as stoked a person as they come, and his vibe just took over the crowd.
All kinds of coolsters were on hand, including Phil Edwards, Herbie Fletcher, Jericho Poppler, Colin McPhillips, Steve Pezman, Allan Seymour, Brian Logan, Joyce Hoffman, Dick Metz, Mark Samuels, Jim Kempton, Tom Servais, Leo Hetzel … on and on. Jeff Alter (Hobie Alter’s son) gave a great opening speech, followed by Colin McPhillips’ colorful story about a trip down to Baja with Mickey that perfectly set the tone for Mickey himself.
His story of how the famous “Quasimodo” stance came about was priceless. And the statue by Bill Limebrook was unveiled. Amazing work.
After that, there were so many people I got to see and talk to that I almost wore out my voice. It was all just joyful. Then off to the after-party at the El Patio restaurant and bar in Capistrano Beach.
El Patio was the go-to after-work spot for the Hobie factory workers back when I was a kid growing up in that crowd. It was also a frequent spot I would take dates when I was young. More talking and visiting with old friends while downing some tasty tacos and a cold Miller Lite beer.
On the way out, I ran into Bob Montgomery, who gave me a “Moongoose Cup” hat that just capped off the party. In the parking lot on the way to our car there was a guy who bought one of my paintings, and he had it and wanted me to personalize it for him.
As if I couldn’t have been more stoked on the day, this was the icing on the “Day of Stoke.”
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