From "Remembering Butch: The Butch Van Artsdalen Story" by Douglas Cavanaugh:
GEORGE LANNING--
"I didn’t go over that year but I found out later on from Diffenderfer in the WindanSea parking lot that Van Artsdalen had just ripped the Pipeline apart, just like I knew he would. Every wave he rode people were standing on the beach going berserk. Nobody had ever seen anything like what he was doing. He was going deeper in the curl than anyone had ever gone before."
GEORGE LANNING--
"I didn’t go over that year but I found out later on from Diffenderfer in the WindanSea parking lot that Van Artsdalen had just ripped the Pipeline apart, just like I knew he would. Every wave he rode people were standing on the beach going berserk. Nobody had ever seen anything like what he was doing. He was going deeper in the curl than anyone had ever gone before."
MIKE DIFFENDERFER--
"Butch really loved the local people. Pat and I were known and since he was under my wing and Curren’s wing he showed them respect and they him. He was having a great time from what I could see."
CONRAD CANHA--
"When Butchie first come, he catch on fast. Just by watching each uddah I pick up from him and he pick up from me. Our style was similar except dat Butchie go down and do bottom turn. I hang up at da top of da wave and stall: wait for it just about break, den I shoot down into da slot instead of bottom turn up into it. But Butchie and I become good friends quick, same with Pat Curren and Diffenderfer."
MOZELLE ANGEL--
"We met Butch and really liked him. Jose really admired his ability to switch feet as he was the only one we knew at the time who could do that successfully. Jose and I were living on a boat for two years in the channel, where we could paddle from our boat to the breaks and surf. I remember surfing with Donald Takayama, Jose, Butch and Bruce Brown."
FRED HEMMINGS--
"I knew of Butch before I met him. He was by far and away the most gifted athlete in the sport. To me the measuring stick of a great surfer isn’t who won a contest or who surfs well at Malibu. To me it’s versatility- can you ride a twenty-foot wave at Waimea Bay? Can you ride a point wave at Makaha? Can you ride the Banzai Pipeline? Can you handle Sunset on a consistent basis? And THEN you can go do your Malibu, your Trestles or your Huntington Beach and do the stylistic stuff.
Butch was an incredibly versatile surfer. He was a guy who, on a big day at Waimea, would shine; he’d be one of the better guys out that day. On an eight to ten-foot day at Pipeline he’d be THE best out there."
FRED HEMMINGS--
"If Butch had not had the disease of alcoholism I’m sure he would have achieved greatness in a lot of areas. For what he accomplished he was probably the most unheralded and, in retrospect, least recognized of the surfers of the 60s. We all know that legends are usually made in the surfing magazines and 30+ years later in all the writings about different surfers of the 60s.
"Butch really loved the local people. Pat and I were known and since he was under my wing and Curren’s wing he showed them respect and they him. He was having a great time from what I could see."
CONRAD CANHA--
"When Butchie first come, he catch on fast. Just by watching each uddah I pick up from him and he pick up from me. Our style was similar except dat Butchie go down and do bottom turn. I hang up at da top of da wave and stall: wait for it just about break, den I shoot down into da slot instead of bottom turn up into it. But Butchie and I become good friends quick, same with Pat Curren and Diffenderfer."
MOZELLE ANGEL--
"We met Butch and really liked him. Jose really admired his ability to switch feet as he was the only one we knew at the time who could do that successfully. Jose and I were living on a boat for two years in the channel, where we could paddle from our boat to the breaks and surf. I remember surfing with Donald Takayama, Jose, Butch and Bruce Brown."
FRED HEMMINGS--
"I knew of Butch before I met him. He was by far and away the most gifted athlete in the sport. To me the measuring stick of a great surfer isn’t who won a contest or who surfs well at Malibu. To me it’s versatility- can you ride a twenty-foot wave at Waimea Bay? Can you ride a point wave at Makaha? Can you ride the Banzai Pipeline? Can you handle Sunset on a consistent basis? And THEN you can go do your Malibu, your Trestles or your Huntington Beach and do the stylistic stuff.
Butch was an incredibly versatile surfer. He was a guy who, on a big day at Waimea, would shine; he’d be one of the better guys out that day. On an eight to ten-foot day at Pipeline he’d be THE best out there."
FRED HEMMINGS--
"If Butch had not had the disease of alcoholism I’m sure he would have achieved greatness in a lot of areas. For what he accomplished he was probably the most unheralded and, in retrospect, least recognized of the surfers of the 60s. We all know that legends are usually made in the surfing magazines and 30+ years later in all the writings about different surfers of the 60s.
There are a lot of historical revisionists who have political or
economic interests/agendas and are trying to rewrite portions of surfing
history to fit whatever they’re selling or promoting. Butch has not
been written much about or publicized or involved in some sort of
commercial activity, hence his name has been relegated to obscurity.
He was making a big splash here in Hawaii during the early 60s, but the surf media didn’t cover it because it was still in its relative infancy. Some journalists who weren’t even around the North Shore in the early 60s are writing Butch off by saying that all he did of note in surfing was ride that one famous wave at Pipeline. It’s absolutely ludicrous. If surfing history is in the hands of people like that, then we’re all in trouble.
But if you look at pure surfing ability Butch far-surpassed many of the people we call ‘legends’ today. His performances at Pipeline heralded the dawn of tube riding there, where it became a sport within a sport. If you look at the Butch Van Artsdalen that I knew, he was probably surfing’s greatest athlete."
GREG NOLL--
"With Butch Van Artsdalen you saw stuff that you didn’t really realize at the time was going to be the blueprint for the future generations of surfers to live by and emulate. I think it’s fair to say that he was the guy who started an awful lot of what is commonplace today. When you see these young guys getting covered up in a tube and then come blowing out of the other end…every one of those guys owes a little something to Butch for that style of surfing."
He was making a big splash here in Hawaii during the early 60s, but the surf media didn’t cover it because it was still in its relative infancy. Some journalists who weren’t even around the North Shore in the early 60s are writing Butch off by saying that all he did of note in surfing was ride that one famous wave at Pipeline. It’s absolutely ludicrous. If surfing history is in the hands of people like that, then we’re all in trouble.
But if you look at pure surfing ability Butch far-surpassed many of the people we call ‘legends’ today. His performances at Pipeline heralded the dawn of tube riding there, where it became a sport within a sport. If you look at the Butch Van Artsdalen that I knew, he was probably surfing’s greatest athlete."
GREG NOLL--
"With Butch Van Artsdalen you saw stuff that you didn’t really realize at the time was going to be the blueprint for the future generations of surfers to live by and emulate. I think it’s fair to say that he was the guy who started an awful lot of what is commonplace today. When you see these young guys getting covered up in a tube and then come blowing out of the other end…every one of those guys owes a little something to Butch for that style of surfing."
Butch Van Artsdalen from Capitan Surfocker on Vimeo.
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