If you leave the water with a smile on your face, you’ve really surfed that day. And if you can encourage someone else to smile while they are surfing, then you’ve helped someone carry away the aloha spirit.
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The sentiment was shared by legendary Hawaiian surfer Paul Strauch in 2015 during his induction into the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach, where his name will be forever engraved at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street.
Strauch, known as the “gentleman surfer” and a Hawaiian who brought the aloha spirit and culture to Southern California’s early-era surf scene, has died at age 83, his daughter, Summer Strauch, shared on social media on Monday, April 27.
Tributes to the champion surfer, a San Clemente resident, have since poured in from around the globe.
“My dad always said the ocean held the secrets of life,” Summer Strauch said in her post. “For him, it wasn’t just water, it was wisdom, healing and endless possibility. The sea shaped who he was. It taught him resilience and filled him with a profound love for life and people.”
Paul Strauch, born in Honolulu in 1943 and raised there, was mentored by the father of modern-day surfing, Duke Kahanamoku.
By the ’60s, Strauch was becoming an influential figure in the world of surfing, winning the junior men’s division at the Makaha International in 1959, the Peru International in 1963, and taking second place in the 1965 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational, according to his bio on the Duke Foundation website.
In 1965, he was one of only four surfers to be selected for the Duke Kahanamoku surf team, traveling to share the aloha spirit as a growing surge of surfers were riding waves at home and abroad.
That same year, he won the World Surfing Championships in the “Small Board Division” in Peru, the following year he won the Hawai’i State title and two years later, the prestigious Makaha International.
Strauch was known for his big bottom turns in big waves, but also his graceful moves on longboards. He created the “cheater-five,” with one foot to the tip of the surfboard while the body is crouched low, a stylish move still done today.
When Strauch moved to the mainland, landing in San Clemente, he became a regular fixture at San Onofre State Beach, the long rolling wave often called the Waikiki of California. For decades, he was a leader for the Hawaiian Surf Club at San Onofre.
In addition to his Surfing Walk of Fame honor, Strauch was inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame in 2004, as well as the Hawai’i Waterman Hall of Fame.
Surfing Heritage and Culture Center founder Dick Metz recalled meeting Strauch when the Hawaiian was still in high school. Metz was stationed in Hawaii while in the military.
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“He always had a smile on his face, always pleasant,” Metz said. “Paul will always be known as a gentleman surfer, a genuinely nice guy and a guy you would always want to be around.”
For years, Strauch served as executive director and board member for the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente — while there, he led an effort to get the famed “Endless Summer” film included in the Smithsonian Museum, which it was in 2015.
Strauch and women’s champion surfer Jericho Poppler were the inspiration for the California Surfing Day logo, lobbying officials in Sacramento to make surfing the state’s official sport in 2018.
At the time, Strauch said his objective was to raise awareness about surfing, not just the act of it, but about the connection to the ocean and to make others mindful about protecting the ocean.
There’s a Hawaiian saying, “malama ke kai,” which translates to “cherish the sea,” he said.
“It’s a resource everyone should continue to enjoy and be a part of,” Strauch said. “That’s my whole mission, to love and care for the ocean.”
David Matuszak, who wrote the book “San Onofre: Memories of a Legendary Surfing Beach,” recalled meeting Strauch when he was interviewing key figures for his book.
“I consider him to be among the finest human beings I ever knew,” Matuszak wrote in a tribute.
“Most importantly, there was no finer human being that ever rode a wave. Humble, unassuming and gentle. The epitome of the aloha spirit.”
Paul Strauch was someone who always made people feel seen and cared for, Summer Strauch said, a surfer who lived life fully, with courage, joy and a freedom that inspired others.
“Through surfing, my dad didn’t just master waves, he mastered living. His kindness and love moved outward like ripples in the water, reaching farther than he ever knew,” she said. “If you ask anyone what they remember most, they’ll tell you about his smile, the kind that lit up a room and made you feel like you mattered.”
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