Tourmaline Surfing Park facts for kids
Tourmaline Surfing Park is a beach access point and a surf spot in North Pacific Beach, San Diego, California, USA. The park is situated at the northern end of Pacific Beach, a short distance south of where the sand beach ends and the rocky promontory of La Jolla begins. There are cliffs to the north and south of Tourmaline Surfing Park, but the park itself lies in Tourmaline Canyon, which cuts down through those cliffs to the beach.
Tourmaline Surfing Park is less than 1000 feet west of the point where Tourmaline Street crosses La Jolla Boulevard. Reaching the park involves a steep, palm-lined descent through Tourmaline Canyon to a fairly large parking lot, which is slightly elevated but situated right beside the beach. There are showers and restrooms, as well as railings and places to sit.
Tourmaline Memorial
Tourmaline Surfing Park also features "Tourmaline Memorial" a monument celebrating surfers who have enjoyed the surf at Tourmaline, in the past and the present, including Skeeter Malcolm.
Although surfers have surfed the area since the 1930s, Tourmaline Surfing Park first opened in May 1963; the idea for the memorial was conceived in 2006, and the memorial itself was completed in 2008. The motto is "Surf Well, Spread Aloha, Share Waves Without Judgment"
List of honorees
The list of honorees on the memorial is as follows:
- Individual surfers
- Larry Gordon
- Floyd Smith
- Bobby "Challenger" Thomas
- Mike Hynson
- Skip Frye
- William " Hadji" Hein
- Emil Sigler
- Doc Paskowitz
- Woody Brown
- Don Okey
- Skeeter Malcolm
- Norm Polonski
- Ralph Dawson
- Doc Blankenship
- Bo Smith
- "Captain" Dan O'Connell
- Alexander "Bud" Caldwell
- Billie "Goldie" Goldsmith
- Ralph Barber
- Joe Gann
- Robert "Black mac" Mc Clendon
- Holly "Papa Smurf" Jones
- Ron St. John
- Surfing clubs
- Kanakas Surf Club
- WindanSea Surf Club
- Pacific Beach Surf Club
- Tourmaline Tailgater's Surfing Association
