Greg Noll drops in at Waimea Bay with his iconic jailhouse boardshorts. Photo: NollSurf.com
Before Christian Fletcher or Noa Deane or any other modern iconoclasts of surfing, there was Greg Noll. He was the original badass. In the history of the sport, nobody has ever had a cooler nickname than “Da Bull.” Despite being a California native, Noll’s greatest exploits went down on the North Shore of Oahu, including a legendary session at Waimea and the first ever wave caught from second reef Pipe. As a big wave pioneer, Sunset beach was also one of Noll’s arenas for progression. And his Sunset Beach rhino-chaser, a piece of surfing history that’s been sitting in Noll’s house for 50 years, is finally going auction.
The board, which Noll rode to a third place finish at the 1967 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational at Sunset Beach, will be sold along with other surf memorabilia in September at the California Gold Vintage Surf Auction in Culver City. Including Noll’s iconic board, the auction will feature his trophy from the ’67 Duke contest, a poster of Duke and Greg shaking hands and a 16” x 20” poster from the event. But the lot ain’t cheap! The pre-auction estimate for the board is set at $18k-$30k. But for the rest of us with more humble financial reaching, we can honor Noll’s legacy by watching him on YouTube. Check out this epic late drop at Waimea starting at the 4:05 time mark:
