J im   Lucas

Some Surfing History


Jim Lucas Truly a representative of California's surfing culture, Jim Lucas first entered into the surfing realm in 1964 in the chilly waters of Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, California. He quickly became addicted to the sport spending endless hours in 53 degree water just to catch a moving wall of water to glide upon

During the late sixties and early seventies, Jim became one of the Soul Patrol - a group of Santa Cruz surfers who trekked up and down the North Coast in search of empty perfect waves. At this time Jim became involved in the local Santa Cruz political arena to shut down the sewer pipe pumping raw sewage into the surf line at Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz. Efforts were successful and Pleasure Point was saved.

In the early eighties Jim became one of the first members of Surfrider Foundation - an organization to help save the nearshore environment.

Between 1994 and 1998 Jim served on the National Board of Directors of Surfrider Foundation. During that time he was a member of the Strategic Planning Committee, chair of the Marketing Committee and a member of the Executive Committee.

Jim's competitive surfing exploits have had him placing in numerous longboard contests throughout California, Hawaii, Japan, France and Costa Rica. He served as Team Captain of the Greg Noll/Da Bull Clothing Surf Team from 1991 to 2002. He also instigated and still directs the Surf-O-Rama - a longboard contest where participants have to ride boards manufactured prior to 1969. Initiated in 1989, the Surf-O-Rama raised over $65,000 for charity.

Jim has written numerous articles for Surfer Magazine, Longboard Magazine, Longboarder Magazine and Classic Longboard Collector. Jim has close to 100 prized surfboards, extensive surf memorabilia, books, magazines and a surf t-shirt collection that numbers over 800. He can be seen tooling about Santa Cruz on dawn patrols in his classic baby blue 1951 Ford woody wagon searching for a secluded “secret spot”!

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