Surf's up

They caught Nantasket waves in '60s; now they're back for swell memories

(Globe Staff / Yoon S. Byun) Audrey Berman-Cassevoy, Hull; Bob Coletti, Norwell; John Burns, Cohasset; Mark Richardson, Somersworth, N.H.; and Warren Horsley, Randolph.

June 28 will be a big day for surfing in Hull. And maybe even a bigger day for memories.

It's the day a group of South Shore natives who surfed Nantasket Beach 40 years ago will meet on the beach, reconnect, reminisce, and - if the weather cooperates - catch some waves.

The "Surf 68" reunion is already attracting considerable attention. Its website, surf68.com, has received over 330,000 hits since it was launched last fall. It has also become a central depository for local surfing history and lore.

"It took on a life of its own," said webmaster Bob Coletti, a 58-year-old Norwell resident who started surfing at Nantasket when he was 16. "Everyone's been sending in photographs they've saved for 40 years. It's really been a collaboration."

Visitors to the Surf 68 website can browse through 1960s-era photographs, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera related to Hull's surf scene: the jacket worn by members of the Breed East Surf Club of Quincy; a trophy from the 1968 Nantasket Invitational surfing tournament; and images of vintage boards. There's even a series of podcasts narrated by Will Somers, a New England surfing pioneer who once owned the Hobie Surf Shop in Hull.

"This was like our coming of age," said surfer Gail Kotowski, then of Hull, of the '60s surfing scene. "We didn't realize we were at the beginning of East Coast surfing."

Nantasket Beach became a popular surfing destination during the 1960s. Two surf shops opened in town, and surfers from all over New England came to Hull to ride the waves there.

But those early surfers faced some challenges beyond those presented by Mother Nature.

In the early days, surfing was decidedly not welcome at Nantasket Beach. In the mid-1960s, the Metropolitan District Commission decided to ban the sport from all state-owned beaches in the Greater Boston region. In 1966, town officials in Hull passed regulations that limited surfing to a specific part of the beach on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

But some beachfront homeowners in Hull wanted the sport banned at Nantasket completely. They complained that surfers were trespassing on their property and held public protests to show their opposition to the sport.

In 1966, a Hull couple filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court, demanding that the police and town put a stop to it. As a result, the Hull Board of Selectmen voted to ban surfing in July 1966 and then turned to the MDC for help. The selectmen asked the MDC to reserve part of the state-owned portion of Nantasket Beach for surfers. After much wrangling, and several public hearings, the MDC eventually designated a surfing area at Nantasket.

During that tumultuous time, surfers spoke up to defend their rights.

"Football players have fields; skiers have mountains; boxers have arenas, but what do surfers have?" wrote Kotowski in a letter published in the local newspaper. Looking back, she said the fight was her first experience with the legal process. She went on to become a lawyer and will be one of the many returning surfers at this month's reunion.

She already purchased tickets, and is looking forward to seeing her surfing buddies - friends she hasn't seen in 40 years. Organizers say they expect 75 surfers or more to attend. Kotowski plans to bring two boards with her, she said, adding, "I'm hoping to God for waves."

The Nor'Easter Surf Shop in North Scituate and Global Surf Industries will be supplying dozens of boards that the reunion attendees can use at the beach, and a dinner party will be held in the evening at the Clarion Nantasket Beach Resort Hotel.

To the website, Kotowski submitted a scanned image of her official East Wind Surf Club membership card from 1969. She was a member of that club and the Breed East Surf Club, two of several surf teams that competed locally.

"There were only a handful of us [girls] who took it seriously," she said. "You'd only find a few out there surfing in the winter, wearing a wetsuit."

Surfing "was my life," she said. "We would stay in the water 'til we turned purple."

Several veteran surfers have posted their own personal stories to the Surf 68 website. John Burns, a 63-year-old dentist who lives in Cohasset, wrote about his first surfing experience at Nantasket, back in August 1962, when he paddled out on a 10-foot Velzy surfboard that he borrowed from a friend.

Burns never gave up the sport and continues to surf today. These days, surfers use the Internet to get weather forecasts and look to webcams for the latest wave conditions. Back in the '60s, it was much different. Burns recalls picking up the telephone and calling someone at the Coast Guard station, who would then radio to the Boston Lightship to get the swell report.

Burns also contributed an image of his 1968 Eastern Surfing Association Competition card, a newspaper clipping from the Hull Mirror showing him riding a wave in February 1967, and a black and white photo of him and five buddies hanging out in front of the Hobie Surf Shop.

Back in those days, Kotowski and her best friend would get up at dawn to catch some waves before the lifeguards came on duty. She recalls lugging her long board down to the end of M Street to get to the beach.

"It must've weighed 50 pounds, and I'm only 5-3," she said. "I don't even know how I carried it."

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.