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Big Wednesday's "Masochist"

Surfing cinema is a limited genre with relatively few full length “Hollywood” style films. Results have been mixed: Gender barriers have been broken, real surfers have even been put on the payroll as doubles. Most of the films have been farces or have portrayed surfers as buffoons (Spicolli) bank robbers (Point Break) or psychotics (Lance in Apocalypse). John Milius Hollywood 1977 film, “Big Wednesday” attempted to capture Malibu in its heyday. Gary Busey portrays one of the central character in the film called “The masochist”. At the end of the story, the “masochist” moves “Up North”. I had an opportunity to interview the real “masochist” who lives somewhere “north” of the Mexican border. He wishes to remain anonymous but still surfs “The Point” from time to time.

BC: How did you come to be called “the masochist”?
M: I was riding a horse at Malibu, it was hot so I had my shirt off and draped over my head like a turban. Bob “Porkchop” Barron said, “You look like you’re of “Damascus”. And then Miki Dora said, “You mean “Masochist”. And it stuck. So Dora named me.
BC: You started surfing when ?
M: Like 54/55. I used to hitchhike down to Venice Breakwater and the lifeguards would have these paddle boards called cigar boxes that were hollow and weighed 50 or 60 pounds. I’d just go out and paddle them. At this time You never saw anybody anywhere surfing. One day I went down to the Velzy-Jacobs shop down by south Venice where the oil wells used to be which they now call Marina Del Rey. They had a great little shop down there and they were just making balsas.....You could get a brand new balsa for like $58. I got a board there for thirty five bucks and hitchhiked home with it.
BC: When did start to see other surfers?
M: I was at the lifeguard tower at Navy Street and I was looking out and I saw this guy taking off on a wave. I met the guy surfing out there....his name was Derrick Beckner and we became buddies.. His father was Fred Beckner, an early California surfer. Then we started using foam boards, Velzy-Jacobs. Very flat ...very primitive.
BC: When was the real “Big Wednesday” ?
M: ‘58 was “The Big One” portrayed in the movie I believe. That was a big, big swell.... Derrick and I went up to Latigo, that was the first time I ever surfed Malibu. That was a week long swell.. serious surf-about 12 foot at second point. Beautiful ocean...the air was clean. There was one about two years ago that lasted about three and a half days. It was as big but it didn’t last as long. I heard Malibu was pushing alot of white water. From the pier you could see “lines” all the way up to Latigo and Dume.
BC: Describe Malibu in that period....
M: The whole United States was so boring in the fifties. The beach as far as I was concerned was the center of culture of the world. The summer places were Malibu, Trestles and Windansea. I thought we were running the world because the world was coming down there. I think right there at Malibu we were having the most fun. Malibu was this place full of creative people and all the color of the boards along the wall. Guys with Prince Valiant haircuts straight and blond creating a styleway before the Beatles. The pit was right there where you could watch and encourage with unspoken words. It was so informal, wearing cutoff jeans with a rope for a belt. Whatever it took to get out there. You could sleep in your car...you could sleep anywhere. I didn’t even have a board alot of the time....I’d borrow them. I must have borrowed about a hundred boards. David Niven used to surf. You’d see him walking on the beach. And all these movie stars kids used to come down and surf. Dan Dailey’s son, Bunker Spreckles, Gordon Macrae. He would put on a party for everyone at the beach. There was free food.

BC: Do you think the producers captured that magic in “Big Wednesday”.
M: Hollywood wanted to capture the essence of Malibu. But they couldn’t capture it....very, very little of the essence. There was a big buildup, but there was nothing there. So you try, sometimes it works with other people and sometimes it doesn’t. They had enough money to do what they wanted to do. But they didn’t have the real people involved. They needed “the principals”...But they had actors trying to capture the charisma of the real people. And the real people would have probably done a better job of it...
BC: Who should have been portrayed?
M: There were so many guys; Ernie Tanaka, Hugh Foster, Brock Hudson, Pete Eggar...Bohemians....Beach People and God bless em. All were great surfers and all contributed to the “media” of surfing. For instance, there was this guy Richard Roche who lived up in Point Dume. The spots north of Malibu were empty most of the time so he didn’t need to come to Malibu....he had Dume to himself. But when Richard did show up at Malibu....he had all the greatness there. Johnny Fain had a definite admiration for Richard Roche cause he was not looking for the camera and he was a great surfer. He provoked Fain to do better. His forte was when the waves got bigger....his animal instinct would come out. He was just starting to get ahead in life. He just graduated from UCLA he was second best in math with his B.S. He had just gotten married to this woman that Fain had introduced him to. He and this guy from Malibu got into building tennis courts, Richard would give the bids. He was going somewhere up in the Valley to some account in his VW bug and a truck was coming down a hill with a load of dirt and it ran right over the top of him and he died three days later. He died when he was about 27.
BC: Were you happy with Gary Busey’s portrayal of the “Masochist” in “Big Wednesday”.
M: Too many exagerrations...fiction.. The masochist character was a joke, they made him look like a fool. I found the oven scene and the scene with the prostitute to be demeaning. The masochist should have been portrayed as someone who was striving, not just in the waves and the elements, but against intimidations of the bullies. My whole trip was- A against B: Dora and his sickening followers who couldn’t find their way by themselves. Miki was bullying and I wouldn’t be intimidated, I stood up to his face..... It got ugly on the beach, but I found out who my friends were; Milius, Fain and the guys I mentioned earlier. But I enjoyed it.
BC: But didn’t they consult you or have you sign a release in how you were portrayed in “Big Wednesday”?
M: (pausing) No.
BC: But Denny Aaburg was in it. Denny surfed Malibu and and did a great soundtrack for George Greenough’s classic film, (Innermost Limits of Pure Fun).
M: Denny’s a good boy. Denny came back from Australia and was very inspired and did some of the best surfing I had ever seen. But his brother (Kemp) was the best surfer. He was great. An uncanny stylist. He had more depth than anybody in the period between ‘60-’64. I saw him once standing up on the nose of his board at Rincon. I think he had about 10’8” Jacobs. He was standing on the nose at the bottom of the wave and the wave was 8 foot looping out over him. So relaxed. He was in great shape; a swimmer and a paddler.
BC: What about John Milius, he surfed Malibu didn’t he?
M: John was just a young kid enthralled with beach life like everybody was...wanting to get out of town and come to the beach. He would come down on weekends and sometimes at the end of the day. He would come down with this guy named Jack Barth who was a really good surfer. John had proven himself in several movies and was able to direct “Big Wednesday”.

BC: I know he did Conan the Barbarian with Gerry Lopez and Arnold Schwartsinegger!
M: I thought that was a damn good movie. I think that was the true masochist there. Trying to overcome the evil of the world. They should have had Schwartzenegger going against Dora. That’s where all the action was.
BC: So Dora was the dark force...particularly for you?
M: He had his own magic... Once he got in a jazz mode, he created a style that was all his own. Malibu brought the older traditions into contact with alot of experimentation, positioning for speed etc. Miki was underappreciated because he gave style to the sport. But in any sport there’s this thing called rivalry. We were in each others way. He would take off in front of you and you’d get tired of it.... Instead of trying to work it out friendly which I was willing to do, he was always going one step further. I was a strong boy in those days and it would come to brinkmanship....I haven’t told you some of the stuff that went on.
BC: Like what?
M: There was a scene once where we both collided on the inside...fell off the wave at the same time. We had a little altercation before that so he was getting kind of desperate. You know that bathing suit he had where he could put a little comb on the side of the pants? Well he had a little “something intimidating” in there. He pulled out his little “something intimidating” and showed it to me. So I was like in waist deep water, so I just bent down and picked up a rock! So he put the “something intimidating” away.
BC: When was this?
M: About ‘64 or ‘65. But later on toward the end when we didn’t see each other so much, we made our peace and started talking a little bit. One thing people should know is that for all the talk about his “kicking out on people” that was attributed to him, nobody ever got hurt. But he’s an older man now. He plays around but he’s sacrificed for his life, for the way he wants to live. He wants to go surf, so let him surf.
BC: Dora’ s problem was that he was ahead of his time. But he displayed advertising genius with those “Blue Max” ads where he was dressed up like one of those German WWI pilots... Those ads moved an awful lot of Greg Noll surfboards. .
M: He was having fun. That was his insights into society.
BC: Isn’t Dora in South Africa now?
M: A friend of mine said they saw him recently in Oxnard.
BC: What about the Bear symbol that was used in the movie...
M: Yeah, you still see shirts with Bear on them. It’s a thriving business to this day. I understand there were some ill feelings toward Milius but I don’t know all the details (Excerpt from Surfers Journal spring 2000: “Perhaps the most lasting image of John Milius’ film “Big Wednesday” was the Bear surfboard logo. The design concept is credited to Milius. According to Billy Hamilton, one of the film’s co-producers, suggested he use the logo for a new surfboard line. Bill says he asked about the legal implications, but was assured the company wasn’t interested in the Bear logo. And Bill Hamilton wasn’t the only one using the Bear. Chuck Dent, Peter Townend, Ian Cairns, and Randy Rarick all used it. But Bill Hamilton (and no one else) made the Bear logo a commercial success by building a $7 million clothing company. John Milius (and presumably Warner Brothers) contend that Bill Hamiliton never had rights to the Bear logo and took him to court winning a million dollar lawsuit..
BC: Has Malibu point actually changed since you started surfing there?
M: Around winter 68/69 it washed out. It was terrible, all this alluvium came down from Malibu creek and filled up the beach. It was bad for ten years....TEN YEARS..Malibu was not the old wave. That whole beach filled in. They’re still having problems with it.
BC: Have you heard about the movie that’s going to be made on Mavericks?
M: There’s alot of interest in Mavericks. Some people need a high risk to discover themselves. They live vicariously by watching other people do it. You know “feed em to the lions”....That’s what they do in sports.
BC: Surfing definitely has become more extreme....

-PROEXCHANGE/Bill Clarke