Inductee Bio
By Dick Van Straalen: Chairman of the board
AFTER thinking about it for a little while Dick Van Straalen says he can “rip into” a blank block of foam and turn it into a surfboard that jumps out at you. “I’ll spend the day before thinking about what I want to do. It takes about an hour or so. I just get in and rip into it,” the energetic 73-year-old said.
Greg Noll, Rick James and the Tale of the Severed Thumb
Enjoy this article about the legendary Greg Noll and the story about how a severed thumb encased in a dixie-cup shaped hunk of resin ended up in Noll’s shop. The Florida Connection is- Pat O’Hare and Rick James learned to shape at the Noll factory in Hermosa Beach. In 1963 they moved to Cocoa Beach and began shaping James and O’Hare Surfboards. After a year James decides to move back to California and work again at the Noll factory. Read on to discover the thumb connection.
original article appeared here-easyreadernews.com
Hermosa Beach’s Greg ‘Da Bull’ Noll was a no bull guy
KEVIN CODY|JULY 7, 2021
by Mike Purpus
When I was a 12 year old surf grom my friends and I hung out at The Greg Noll shop after school and passed around “The Thumb.” It was a human thumb in a block of resin sitting next to the cash register. We didn’t know who’s thumb it was or where it came from. The people that worked at the shop refused to talk about it but they let us pass it around for 30 minutes and then kicked us out of the shop.
When I was 18, I got my own Jacobs Surfboard Mike Purpus Model. Hap Jacobs had Ricky James shape my boards. He was missing his thumb. I asked Ricky what happened to his thumb. He refused to say anything about it and got mad when I asked.
A few months went by and I finally got Ricky to tell me what happened to his thumb. Ricky used to shape for Greg Noll, making The Mickey Dora Da Cat Model. One Friday morning Mickey came by the Noll Factory to have Ricky shape him a new surfboard. They finished around lunch. Greg went to the store to get the usual Friday beer keg and the rest of the guys had gone to lunch. Mickey wanted a special fin for his new surfboard. When Ricky was cutting it out on the bandsaw his hand slipped and he severed the thumb. Ricky was in shock with blood spurting everywhere. Mickey grabbed a rag for a bandage and rushed Ricky to the ER.
The ER doctor asked where the thumb was? He said he could sew it back on. Mickey raced back to the factory. He screamed, “Where’s the thumb?”
Greg held up a block of resin and said, “How do you like my new paper weight?” He had filled a Dixie Cup with resin and dropped the thumb in.
Mickey raced back to the ER and handed the doctor the block of resin with Ricky’s thumb. The doctor said, “What am I supposed to do with this?”
Ricky fainted.
When Ricky told me the story I said “I loved that thumb.” Ricky said “Not as much as I did.”
He told me if I ever repeated the story he would quit shaping my surfboards. Ricky shaped really good boards, so I couldn’t tell anyone for five years, when he moved down to San Clemente.
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