One of the oldest surfers in the world: "Doc" Ball

John Health "Doc" Ball was born in 1907, in Los Angeles. He was a legend among surfers and surf photographers. In the 1920s, when he started surfing, there were around 15-20 surfers around the whole southern California coast. “Doc” was influential in the growth of surfing in California, especially between the 1930’s and 1950’s.

At age 94, he was the oldest living American surfer when he passed away in 2001. He had been riding waves since 1929 and continued to surf without a wetsuit until his very last days. He remained a source of inspiration to all of the surfers. 

“Doc” wrote the classic photo book California Surfriders  (1946) about early California surfing. He co-founded the State's first surf club in Palos Verdes.

Doc’s introduction to the Pacific Ocean

His introduction to the Pacific Ocean came early, at Catalina Island, "at age 4,". 

Doc: " I was taken along with my parents on a Redlands Elks Club party. On arriving, my mom decides to take a swim in the little bay. She also carried me out there and met another club member, Jake Suess (owner of a grocery in Redlands). He says, 'Let me take little Jack. I'll teach him to swim.' She handed me over to him. He wades out to hip depth and plops me down in that cold H20. I went clear under before he grabbed me up. And I start screaming 'It's salty!' Anyway, that did not blot out my interest in the old salty, as our family vactioned at Hermosa Beach. I learned to bodysurf, here. Also, to make a few dimes catching and selling sand crabs to be bait for fishermen."

Find out more about the interview of John Health “Doc” Ball In 1998 (he was then 91 years old) printed in LONGBOARD magazine, Volume 6, Number 4 (August 1998), "Doc Ball, Through the Master's Eye" contained Doc's story and also a number of images he took during the 1930s. Click here