Welcome to Surf City, Delaware

Legendary East Coast surfers gathered at Rehoboth Beach Museum on Rehoboth Avenue to chat about an unforgettable time the area’s surfing history and an unforgettable man who helped make it possible.

Rehoboth Beach Historical Society hosted Surf Talk, a panel discussion about surfing the Delaware coast in the 1960s and 1970s, Aug. 10.  It was the same day 46 years ago that East Coast legend Bill Wise was paralyzed in a surfing accident.

A crowded room of about 50 people listened intently as George Pittman spoke about his lifelong friendship with Wise.  The two men grew up in Greenwood.  Pittman said they first heard about surfing from an article in a diving magazine and decided to give it a try.  “We bought four or five surfboards,” Pittman said.

About one year after they discovered surfing, Pittman and Wise opened The Eastern Surfer and began selling boards manufactured by Hobie.  Original Hobie boards were far larger than the surfboards predominantly used today – they stood close to 10 feet tall and weighed up to 25 pounds, Pittman said.

Terry Plowman, publisher of Delaware Beach Life, moderated the discussion.  Plowman said he had interviewed Wise a number of years ago.  Plowman said Wise had told him that when the first boards were delivered on the Railway Express, they had been mistaken for airplane wings.

Longtime local surfer Gary Revel said he bought his first board out of a garage in Harrington where Wise and Pittman first operated The Eastern Surfer.  In the 1960s, the pair also sold boards out of Wise’s truck, the Surfer Express.  Revel, who said he was about 13 years old at the time, said it was Wise’s wife, Rosalie Wise, who convinced Revel’s father to buy him a board.

Revel said Rosalie told them her husband had just been paralyzed in a surfing accident, but she still had a positive attitude about the sport.  Revel said the following Christmas he awakened to find a surfboard waiting for him, an event that remains one of his fondest memories.

Rosalie, sitting next to Pittman, said despite her husband’s paralysis, Wise led a full life.  She said even after his accident in 1965, his ties with local surfers remained strong.  “When Bill broke his neck, there was so much love from the surfing community,” she said.  “They were genuinely hurting for him.”

Rosalie said after the accident in South Bethany Beach, surfers in Ocean City would call Wise to get surfing conditions for the day.  “He never, ever let go of it,” she said.  Wise continued to photograph local surfers and wrote surf columns for local newspapers.  He was inducted into the East Coast Surf Legends Hall of Fame in 1998.

Wise passed away four years ago at his home in Harrington.  “He’s my legend,” Rosalie said.

Wise and Pittman continued to sell boards in Harrington and eventually opened shop locations in Rehoboth Beach and Ocean City.  Joe Vansant managed the shop Wise and Pittman opened on Rehoboth Avenue.  Vansant said he was one of the members of the Hobie Surf Team at the same time the Beach Boys were releasing hit records.  “1965, 1966 were just unbelievable years to be a surfer,” Vansant said.

Surfing now and then

Revel said surfing was not as accessible 40 years ago.  “It was hard to go surfing,” he said.  “You had to really want to do it.”  Revel said being able to check ocean tides online and having access to lightweight boards has made the sport more accessible and fashionable than it was 40 years ago.  “‘Surfing the net,’ wink – it’s everywhere,” Revel said.  As he was speaking, a young boy was in the room behind the panel table, playing a surfing video game on a Nintendo Wii console that was part of the museum exhibit.

Revel said when he began surfing competitively, being from Delaware set him apart from the crowd.  “It made a difference just having that name, Delaware,” he said.  “It became a moniker.”

Surfing was not as popular in Delaware as it was elsewhere in the country in the 1960s and 1970s, local surfer Neil Stevenson said, and that made Delaware surfers more individual.  Most of the surfers at the time knew how to make their own boards, he said.  “The shop class in Rehoboth High turned out quite a few skim boards,” Stevenson said with a laugh.

Stevenson said beach replenishment has created steeper drop offs creating harder impacts when a wave hits the sand.  Audience members chimed in and agreed as Stevenson said pumping sand has ruined many of the spots that were historically good for surfing.  “The adjustments man makes are so temporary and miniscule,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson and Revel said they continue to surf regularly.  They both said their favorite local spot is still Indian River Inlet.

The panel discussion coincided with the museum’s latest exhibit, “Skimming the Surface:  Surfing, Skimboarding and Floating off the Delaware Coast.”  The exhibit includes vintage long board surfboards, vintage skim boards and old photographs of the evening’s speakers with other local surfers and surfboard manufacturers of the 1960s and 1970s.

Introducing the panel speakers, Nancy Alexander, executive director of Rehoboth Beach Historical Society, admitted she was not a surfer, but she said she has enjoyed getting to know members of the surfing community.  “Of all the exhibits I’ve done, this one has been the most fun,” Alexander said.  Rehoboth Beach Museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  For more information, visit rehobothbeachmuseum.org.