Billy Meng was a surfing pioneer and fishing legend who’d been close friends with my dad, George, since the 1940s. They met in the South Bay but later moved to Santa Barbara, and Billy was like part of our family. I grew up listening to Billy’s stories in his wise old leprechaun voice:
“In 1938, I was 8 when I got my first surfboard. It was a Tom Blake and was a hollow wooden board with a cork plug and a cord that I pulled to let the water out. Fiberglass wasn’t used back in those days. I surfed in a wool sweater because wetsuits weren’t invented yet and witnessed the first surf leash just about the time I was getting out of surfing.
“I have had a life out of the movies, and enough adventure, surfing, fishing — and dated enough women! — to last three lifetimes. Some people say that I created the surf culture and was probably the first of the free spirits. Dewey Weber, Greg Noll, Miki Dora, Mickey Munoz, Mike Stang, and Velzy all called me ‘The Legend.’ I was like the Pied Piper and influenced those young surfer kids; many became legends themselves. My truck was full; by the time I drove from Manhattan Beach to Malibu, I picked up so many of them that there were surfers and surfboards everywhere, kids were on the roof, on my running boards, in the back with all of the boards and six of us sitting in the front seat!