Got that board for Peanuts

Once upon a time, there was a character in the surfing world known as Peanuts Larson. For all I know he may still be around since my surfing days are long passed. His real name was George Zimmerman, and just why or how he became Peanuts Larson escapes me.

Larson was an original. If there was a regular way to do something and an original, hair-brained crazy way to do it, Larson always spurned the regular and went his highly personalized way.

For example, one night, I heard some noise on my front porch but ignored it. Next morning, I found a huge redwood stump on the porch with a note attached that read, “To the Judge, from George.”

Larson shaped surfboards. I hired him to shape one for me. For $25, he went to Compton, bought a huge slab of redwood and balsa and spent the winter shaping it. Never knew much about that board. Those were the days of the huge redwood and balsa boards, and San Onofre was the only place to surf.

Whenever I went to San Onofre, Larson was waiting for me. He would beg me to let him take the board “just to test it.” When he came in, it was usually dark, and he would tell me that it was a great board. I never found out.

When WWII came along, I sold the board for $50, and when I came back, my board-surfing days were over.

Larson had a highly personalized telephone personality. If the phone rang and you picked up the receiver and a voice gave you the local latitude and longitude, you knew it was Larson.

He was not the most reliable man in town. For example, he was once arrested on some minor charge, and I got him off on the promise of a dozen bull lobsters. Never got a-one.

The last time I saw Larson, we were having a drink together at a bar in San Clemente. The door opened, a cop appeared and Larson took off like an Olympic hurdles champion, leaping from table top to table top with an appropriate crashing of glasses at each table.

I haven’t heard from him since then, but if the phone ever rings and a voice gives me longitude and latitude, I’ll know that Peanuts Larson is alive and well -- probably someplace where the water is warm and the surf is close to perfect.

* ROBERT GARDNER was a Corona del Mar resident and a judge who died earlier this year. This column originally ran in March of 2002.

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