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VIRGINIA BEACH — An icon in the Virginia Beach surfing community celebrated his 84th birthday Friday surrounded by friends and surfing memorabilia.
Pete Smith, one of the founders of the East Coast Surfing Championships and co-owner of the area’s first surf shop, was integral in making Virginia Beach known as a mecca for the sport.
“He’s the benevolent godfather of surfing in Virginia Beach,” said Smith’s friend George Kotarides.
Smith’s birthday party was held at the Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum on 24th Street at the Oceanfront, where a collection of historic surfboards line the wall along with items from Pete Smith’s Surf Shop, which opened in the 1960s.
Smith recently loaned the museum a 14-foot, 100-pound wooden rescue board that his uncle, John Smith, a founder of the Virginia Beach Patrol Service, took him into the waves to surf for the first time when he was 5 years old.
The museum’s surf exhibit highlights how vintage ocean rescue equipment inspired the creation of the surfboard.
It’s been more than a few years since Smith’s caught a wave, but his memories of the camaraderie and fun of the sport are strong.
“I still surf in my mind,” he said.
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In the early days of the East Coast Surfing Championships, originally called the Virginia Beach Surf Carnival, Smith was the emcee. He stood on a lifeguard stand with a microphone in his hand and a clipboard.
“I always marveled at Pete’s voice,” said Mary Sydney, a longtime Virginia Beach surfer. “He has a command of the surfing language.”
It’s now the longest consecutive-run surfing championships in the world. The 61st ECSC is scheduled for Aug. 20-27.
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In 1962, Smith wrote an article about how surfing was beginning to take hold on the East Coast for Surfer Magazine. He penned it on the letterhead of a Virginia Beach hotel where he worked.
Soon after, two up-and-coming surfboard designers, Hobie Alter and Bosco Burns, were looking for people to become dealers of their new line of surfboards. They drove to Virginia Beach with their boards on top of their car and found Smith working at the hotel.
Smith and Sydney’s uncle, Bob Holland, opened the area’s first surf shop in 1963.
She reminisced with Smith before his birthday party Friday, describing it as the “country store of surfing.”
“We’d love to go there and just hang with Pete,” she said.
In true Smith style, he smiled and said “Cowabunga!”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com