Dan Robichaud: Cheap Wine and Ukuleles

Dan Robichaud is a California native who started surfing before World War II. He did most of his surfing in Huntington Beach, riding the heavy, solid, redwood boards that were the best boards available at the time. He worked as a lifeguard in San Diego and Long Beach before joining the service during the war.

In the summer of 1947, after leaving the service, Robichaud and some of his friends were receiving a $20 a week stipend from the government. They decided to live bohemian-style on the beach at San Onofre for the summer.

Dan’s cohorts that lost summer included a guy nicknamed “Burrhead,” Glen Fisher, a fellow named Kenny (who had lost his leg in World War II, but surfed anyway) and the then-unknown James Arness, who would go on to star as Marshall Dillon on TV’s Gunsmoke.

“We had a ball,” says Dan, “We stayed and surfed. We lived off the beans in the fields above San Onofre and the lobsters from our pot. Whitey Harrison would go by in a boat and give us fish and abalone. We didn’t have much money, but we lived and we scrounged and we really enjoyed our days. We surfed, we drank cheap wine and played ukuleles all night. Cheap wine and ukuleles–that’s all we needed.”

Dan (right) with Duke Kahanamoku (left) in Hawaii.

They would collect discarded soda bottles for extra money and every time one of them went into town, they would pick up some junk tires from behind a gas station, which they burned for warmth. “When we’d come in from surfing, we’d throw one of those tires on the fire,” says Dan, “They’d burn black and smoky. They’d turn your legs black and it wouldn’t come off. We called it ‘getting vulcanized.’

“Arness had this big overcoat,” says Dan, “He would get out of the water and put that thing on. He just lived in it. It was like a tent!” Dan says he ran into Arness some 25 years later, and he told Dan that for all of his success and the money he’d made, their summer at San Onofre was the best time of his life.

“When you go surfing, every day’s some kind of adventure. You’re involved with nature and the weather. It just feels good to be out there on the beach,” says Dan. “It’s like a religion. You become dedicated. It becomes a way of life.”

After that summer, Dan moved to Long Beach and became a fireman. But surfing still influenced every aspect of his life. It affected where he lived and where he wanted to live. One of the reasons Dan became a fireman was because he would have every other day off and could surf during the week, when most people were at work.

Dan today, with one of his ukes.

Excerpted from Barracuda issue #09.