It has just been announced that the 2026 Surfers’ Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held on July 31.
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The site is the Surfers’ Hall of Fame Plaza on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street in Huntington Beach, directly in front of Huntington Surf and Sport under the shadow of the big statue of the great Duke Kahanamoku. This is one of the best events to attend each year, as it takes place while the U.S. Open of Surfing is going on, it is free and open to the public, and it usually has the most up-close and personal gathering of legendary surfers and surfing industry people available to meet and greet.
The inductees this year are both local Orange County surfers. Jay Larson and Courtney Conlogue, who both came up surfing the Huntington Beach area on their way to international recognition. This speaks loudly to the proud heritage of our local waters and the “Surf City” nickname for Huntington Beach.
Jay and Courtney follow in the footsteps of a long line of legendary locals such as Jack Haley, Mike Haley, Robert August, Bill Fury, John Boozer, Randy Lewis, David Nuuhiwa, Bud Lamas, Richard Chew and Carl Hayward.
The Surfers’ Hall of Fame was started by another local surfer, Aaron Pai. “AP” as he is called by his friends, is originally from Hawaii but grew up surfing in Huntington Beach. The dude is a “surfer” through and through.
When he grew up, he did exactly what he was meant to do: open a surf shop, Huntington Surf and Sport. As time went by and AP and his wife, Sher, grew a larger and larger family, it became “the family business.” There are now 19 members of the Pai family, they all surf and they all take part in some aspect of the business.
This year, all 19 of them are expected be on hand and working at the hall of fame ceremony. AP, Taylor, Trevor, Lindsay, Ashlyn, Sher, Delany, Jenna, Scotty, Rosie, Izzy, Goldie, Sid, Finn, Jones, Zowie, Rooney, Toby and Murphy Pai are all set to be there! This is a wonderful thing to see. They sing and are just all so completely stoked, it is just heartwarming.
AP got the idea for the format for the hall of fame from the then Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, where celebrities put their hand and footprints into concrete squares in front of the theater. In this case, it is the inductees into the SHOF that do that and the concrete slabs are placed in the plaza in front of the store. Past inductees include Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, Phil Edwards, Mike Doyle, Mickey Munoz, Gerry Lopez, George Downing, Bob Hurley, Linda Benson, Joyce Hoffman, Tom Carroll, David Nuuhiwa, Dale Dobson, Buffalo Keaulana, Laird Hamilton, Shawn Tomson, Margo Oberg, Lisa Andersen, Skip Frye, Peter Townend, Mark Richards, Jericho Popplar, Paul Strauch, Herbie Fletcher, Sam Hawk, Timmy Turner, Ben Aipa, Kai Lenny, Ilima Kalama, Joey Buran and a lot more (Even me, yay!).
The event itself is always a fantastic morning. All kinds of coolsters show up. It’s a great place to see people and meet new pals.
I try to make it to as many of these as possible, and they have reluctantly and probably ill-advisedly put the microphone into my hands from time to time. One of my most memorable moments was when I got on to talking about something and during my babble, I walked right into the freshly done cement slab that Tom Curren had just put his hands and feet into. Oops!.
Kinda ruined my tennis shoe, plus they had to redo the slab. Tom was cool about it, suggesting they leave my shoe in there. But they didn’t.
After that, they put plastic “Corky Guards” over the newly laid slabs. Just in case.
I strongly recommend you show up and check it out if you are anywhere near Huntington Beach on the morning of July 31 at 9 a.m. As Art Laboe used to say, “Be there or be square.”
Also, stay tuned. I will be filling you in on Jay Larson and Courtney Conlogue over the next couple of columns. Don’t touch that dial.
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