California Surf Museum names 2024 ‘Silver Surfer’ award recipients
OCEANSIDE, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — Three Californians that brought international acclaim to surfing in the 1960s are being honored with this year’s “Silver Surfer Lifetime Achievement Award.”
The California Surf Museum in Oceanside has announced three California natives have been named the 2024 recipients of the museum’s “Silver Surfer Award.”
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The lifetime achievement award is presented annually to surfers who made significant contributions to the culture and lifestyle of surfing.
This year’s recipients — Mary Lou Drummy, Mickey Muñoz, and L.J. Richards.
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Mary Lou Drummy
Mary Lou Drummy grew up in the 1950s in the Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth, according to the California Surf Museum. Staying near Hermosa Beach during the summer months, Drummy quickly became a leading contest surfer, the first woman (or surfer) to grace the cover of “West,” a prominent pop culture magazine of the time, and a mentor to many women competitors who followed in her groundbreaking wake.
In 1975, Drummy helped found the Women’s International Surfing Association (later to become the Western Surfing Association).
In 2015, she received the Surfing America Midget Smith Judging Award, named after her longtime companion who passed away in 2008.
In 2016, she was named Woman of the Year by the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame. In 2017, she was inducted into the Hermosa Beach Surfer’s Walk of Fame.
During her career, she served as a competitor and later a surfing event organizer, paving the way for what competitive surfing is today.
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Mickey Muñoz
Mickey Muñoz’s surfing career began at age six when his family moved from New York City to Santa Monica. Living just two blocks from the ocean, Muñoz became a well-established fixture by 1950 among the Malibu crew of “Gidget” fame, according to the California Surf Museum.
He is known for his standout skills and trademark tactics, like the “Quasimodo.”
He also became a big wave riding pioneer and is one of the original crew to take on Hawaii’s Waimea Bay in 1957.
In the 1960s, he became a top competitive surfer.
He finished runner up in the 1962 and 1963 West Coast Surfing Championships, and in 1964 took third in the United States Championships. In 1965, he finished second in the U.S. Championships and took fourth in the World Championships.
Today, he is designing surfboards and continues to live what has been a storied surfing life.
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L.J. Richards
Retired Encinitas fireman John Richards, known as L.J., “Little John,” was born in 1939 and raised in Oceanside where he grew up a few blocks from the ocean.
Becoming friends with Phil Edward, dubbed “The Guayule Kid” by the surfing generation that preceded him, Richards went on to win the 1963 men’s title at the U.S. Championships in Huntington Beach on a Phil Edwards shaped board that he still has today, according to the California Surf Museum.
In a surfing career spanning six decades, he has traveled and competed in surfing events around the world.
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In 1989, he was the recipient of the Oceanside Longboard Surfing Club’s inaugural LeRoy Grannis Waterman’s Award for his sportsmanship in the true spirit of surfing. In 1991, he was inducted into the International Surfing Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was acknowledged with a plaque on the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach.
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This year’s recipients will be presented with their award at the California Surf Museum’s 16th Annual Gala Fundraiser at the Cape Ray Carlsbad Hilton beach on Nov. 2, 2024 from 2 to 8 p.m. Ticket details have yet to be announced.
The recipients of the “Silver Surfer Award” will receive a plaque inscribed with their name and year of honor; a “Silver Surfer Award” with names of all past recipients can be found at the California Surf Museum. A list of past recipients can be found online here.
The California Surf Museum was founded in 1986.
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