JOHN PECK

I SAW THESE photos taken in Newport Beach, CA. 2 weeks ago of a guy I met at Waimea Bay in 1968. His name is John Peck.He was a famous surfer in the early 60's even gracing the cover of SURFER MAG. surfing Pipeline on a longboard in 1963.

As I was driving my VW van around the point at Waimea, I turned up the old road leading to the church...( the one with the tower you see in all the old photos of the bay ) ..and this guy comes swinging off a tree in front of my windshield.

He had green teeth, hair strung out past his waist. a matching beard and both had not been washed in months.His body smelled.... well, it was unbearable.He was spaced out on LSD as I'm sure he was everyday back then. He couldn't put a complete sentence together but after a minute or two of grunts, hand signals and head shakes I realized he was asking for a ride to Sunset Beach.

Below is a piece of an article from SURFERS PATH mag.

"To put it mildly, John Peck's existence has been filled with many ... how shall we say? ... rather extraordinary experiences. He's sprinted away on a silver thread of light through the cosmos, each stride becoming expoentially larger on his way to the infinite reaches space; he's escaped through the steel bars in a jail cell via cultivated yoga power; he's watched an approaching FBI agent mysteriously drop dead milliseconds before his armed attempt on Peck's life; he's surfed macking Sunset Beach on a leash-less longboard...while soaring on LSD". ( hell ... I did that .... )

Stories like this about Peck are endless. It was good to see that he made it back into the fold of a normal ?..no..sane ?? .. Yes ... life. I had a few friends from those days that didn't.

1963

October, 2013, Newport Beach

Peck at 68 years old, 10/6/2013

1963

1968 or 2008