Long in style

Alex Coolman

Some of Cody Simpkins’ best teachers have been two-dimensional.

The 21-year-old Newport Beach resident, a graduate of Newport Harbor

High and Orange Coast College, spent countless hours of his youth

watching old surfing videos. He studied the way longboarders from the

‘60s held their bodies, the way they kept their poise in the curl.

“That’s how we learned,” he said on a recent afternoon. “We watched

their footsteps.”

The time in front of the television didn’t turn Simpkins’ brain to

mush; on the contrary, it inspired him to become what he is today -- one

of the best pro longboarders around.

Simpkins has dedicated just one year to full-time pro competition, but

the old-school finesse he brings to his act has earned him strong

results.

He was recently ranked seventh in the nation on the Panasonic

Shockwave surfing tour after competing in places like San Clemente, Santa

Cruz and Virginia Beach, Va. His competition longboards bristle with

stickers from sponsors like Island Style, Kayak Surf Shop, DSO

Sunglasses, Toes on the Nose and Quality Wetsuits.

Longboarding, which is the term used for surfing on boards 9 feet or

longer, is not the standard style adopted by Southern California kids

when they take to the water. Most young surfers tend to ride boards that

are about 6 feet long, preferring the radical maneuverability that

shortboards allow.

But longboarding got an injection of youth chic in the 1990s, said

Bill Sharp, editorial director for the monthly surfing magazine Surf

News. The presence of Joel Tudor, a fresh-faced Del Mar surfer with

impeccable style, did much, he said, “to make longboarding popular with a

new generation of guys.”

Tudor made “hanging 10” appear vastly cooler than trying to slash a

wave to pieces, and he also made it clear that riding longboards wasn’t

just a sport for the geriatric set.

Longboarding enjoyed a similar boost in popularity when another

Newport Harbor High alum, Robert “Wingnut” Weaver, rode one on the silver

screen in the 1994 movie, “Endless Summer II.”

“Those guys broke away from regular longboarding,” Simpkins said.

“It’s time for us to break away, the younger crew.”

When Simpkins stands up on a wave, the look is distinct. But it’s also

traditional in some ways, says Jim Knost, a 51-year-old Newport Beach

resident who has known Simpkins for about the last five years and surfs

with him regularly.

“A lot of surfers have a set pattern of moves that they do on every

wave,” Knost said. “But Cody is a unique style of surfer. He’s kind of a

throwback to the style of the ‘60s. He actually surfs what the wave gives

him, so you rarely see him do the same thing twice on a wave.”

Simpkins’ ability, in Knost’s estimation, is the kind of the thing

that will eventually stand out among the more established riders on the

longboard tour.

“He’s going against the world’s best surfers, and he’s doing more than

holding his own,” he said. “He’s knocking on the door, and you give him

another year and he’s going to knock the door down.”

For his part, Simpkins is almost amazed at his good fortune.

“It’s really fantastic, to randomly grow up in Newport Beach and be

introduced to stuff like this.”

He says he isn’t sure what the future will hold, and tries to remember

that other career options -- art, for one -- might work out just as well

as surfing.

But there’s much to be said for what he’s doing now.

“If you can make it around the world surfing a longboard, that’s pure

fun,” he said. “That’s ecstatic.”