Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/294/

How he began surfing

My dad was a fire...worked for the fire department, and mom was housewife, and used to take me to the beach all the time. And we still have 8mm movies of me running around on the beach when I was one and a half years old with diapers--and no hotels or anything. So, I got acclimated to the water, just because my dad used to take me out every day off. Fire department, you have three days off, and family’d go camping, you know, Waimanalo, and just swim around and stuff. And then you start with the little, these wooden paipo boards that’s just a piece of wood, no fin or anything, and start with that. Then start, watch these guys ride around in these old coot boxes, the hollow, big twelve, fifteen feet things with no fins, and, but it was kind of different. So I got to play around on one once. And it just started from there.


surfing

Date: July 29, 1999

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Brian Niiya

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

Interviewee Bio

Wayne Miyata (1942–2005) was a pioneering professional surfer in both Hawai`i and Southern Calfornia and was known as a leading big wave rider. Originally from Hawaii, Miyata appeared in the classic surfing film The Endless Summer in which he was one of the first surfers to be filmed successfully surfing a tube ride through the hollow of a large curling wave. He also became one of the leading surfboard shapers in Southern California. He died in Hermosa Beach, CA at the age of 63. (August 10, 2005)