Tom Wolfe does a good job describing space in “The Right Stuff,” but when attempted to capture surf culture as he did in his book of collected short stories titled. “The Pump House Gang,” he fell out of orbit.
The scene of his crime is Windansea’s sewage pumping station. In his book, Wolfe manages to get every reference to surfing, and his singular reference to rock ‘n’ roll, wrong. Yes, one of America’s most celebrated journalists misquotes the chorus to the top song of the era, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” writing, instead, “I Ain’t Got No Satisfaction.” Blasphemy! Then again, it was 1968, so maybe certain illegal (at the time) substances were to blame.
Stories still circulate about Wolfe edging nervously toward the Windansea shack where local boys like Pat Curren and Butch Van Artsdalen were known to congregate and tip a few between surf sessions. He turned about-face upon hearing one of the crew say, “If that guy comes over here, we’re gonna pants him.”
You would think Tom would have known better than to arrive at the beach in plantation-boss garb, topped with a white fedora. Instead, he ridicules the tourists in print, apparently never realizing he was linked in spirit with them. He writes about “the black panther,” which was apparently how the pump house gang referred to tourists who wore black socks. Wolfe was no black panther, he was a white panther, pasty white and a virgin to the workings of SoCal soul.
There’s something about Windansea that cannot be captured by bunking down at the La Valencia for two weeks. Windansea at that time was a closed shop. You didn’t just show up and announce yourself. If you didn’t live there, it was wise not to surf there.
To know anything about the culture of Windansea, you had to mix it up with some tough locals who rode some tough waves. Not every Windansea local, or the waves that break there, want to drown you. Both can be welcoming, but it is best to check the temperature before paddling out.
“Windansea: Life. Death. Resurrection.” is a compilation of firsthand interviews beginning with glider pilot Woody Brown’s first ride there in 1937, moving on to chronicle the stories of surfers like “Tiny Brain” Thomas, the Ekstrom brothers and Butch Van Artsdalen, who became the original Mister Pipeline.
Bill Decker is a longtime Windansea local and a journalist. After being contacted by Esquire Magazine to write a retrospective on the Pump House Gang, he interviewed one of the surfers who appeared in the book. “What do you think of Tom Wolfe?,” Decker asked.
“Tom Wolfe is a dork,” was the reply.
Needing a photo for his story, Decker and his co-coconspirator, Eric “Whale” Dameron, tagged the sewage pumping station that Wolfe made famous with the words, “Tom Wolfe is a Dork.” A while later, Decker was called to the East Coast to cover the Apollo 13 launch. Wolfe, who was there, introduced himself to Decker.
After discovering he was from Windansea, Wolfe mentioned that his agent had sent him a weird photo of his name spray-painted on the pump house. “Who would do that?” asked the writer.
“I have no idea,” replied Decker.
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