My Irish-Hawaiian friend Bill Griffin got these for me as a birthday present back in 1977. I was about one semester and a half away from graduating from college at that point, and I was chomping at the bit to see the world. He was lifeguarding that summer, I think; related on his mother's side somehow to the Sunn family in Makaha, he and I shared an appreciation of the quieter side of Hawaiian living.
These trunks ventured to New Zealand, Australia's East Coast, Fiji, Tahitian Islands, and lots of California. I totally blew out the butt crack seam - I'm sure those in "the know" have a technical term for this seam - while bending over to adjust the fin on my board at the old South Jetty in Ventura one beautiful Fall morning.
Times were changing. I replaced them with a pair of Quiksilvers, my one and only pair of honest-to-God surf trunks without a waist tie. Those were good trunks for surfing on a board, but weren't adjustable enough for bodysurfing. I eventually gave them to my bodysurfing partner (now brother-in-law) when he somehow managed to blow out the entire seam which divided his lifeguard trunks into legs - he was stuck in San Clemente with a little red skirt. |
