Next time Take the Train

Vicky Tuten was a good girl. Ambitious, curious, fun loving. A seventeen-year old surfer from Belmont Shores, she would carry her board to the jetty and paddle to Ray Bay, that stingray-infested river mouth where she met friends like U.S. Surfing Champion Jack Haley. Noting her intelligence and honesty, Haley gave the girl a job, and she was soon managing the champ’s surf shop in Seal Beach. When Haley and his team took surf trips, it was usually by car. Only once did they decide on a different mode of transportation.

Originally published in Kelea’s Gift

It was a hot summer day with a clean south swell running when Captain Jack decided to make a Trestle run. This would require enough stealth to beat the Marines at their own game. Jack, along with fellow surfers Eddie Brenner, “Wallpaper,” Ernie Morgan, “Toes,” and one of Long Beach Surf Club’s founders, Vicky Tuten made their way through the Cotton’s Estate, past the barbed wire, past the Point and Uppers, to Lower Trestles, just in time to watch solid six-foot lines turn to onshore mush as he afternoon wind began to howl.

          Moving onward required a long and risky walk through enemy territory, laying low to avoid capture. On their way out they noticed that the train engine was stopped on the tracks and empty. The engineer must have been in the bushes, pissing. Also doing what came naturally, Haley climbed aboard and fiddled with the controls. Surfers and boards were loaded, and team Haley figured out how to make the big machine move forward, destination a mere half-mile away, at San Onofre. When they saw the wind had blown out Old Man’s they continued further to Mile Zero. Why not Oceanside?

          And so the little engine began picking up steam, Haley at the helm chugging through Oceanside, Carlsbad and Del Mar where residents expressed shock to be mooned by the engineer and his five unruly conductors. Might as well check out Mexico. Like most surfers they knew how to start things and not stop them, and the train rattled and hummed until it ran out of fuel, on the far side of the border.

Vicky Tuton continues to be an adventurous traveler, but usually drives cars to her destinations.