“As the short board revolution of surfboards took off, he was riding that front wave, coming up with some of the most innovative designs,” Sahagen said.
Hawk was inducted into the Hall of Fame in a special ceremony that brought hundreds of people to Huntington Surf and Sport at the corner of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway. The Hall of Fame had already inducted its usual quota of four people in July, but made an exception for Hawk, who was suffering from terminal throat cancer.
“He was a true inspiration to all of us, and he’s meant so much to the sport of surfing in Huntington Beach and in California through the way that he surfed the waves and shaped his surfboards,” said Aaron Pai, the owner of Huntington Surf and Sport. “We’ll miss Chris Hawk, but he’ll always be remembered.”
At the ceremony Sept. 18, Hawk spoke briefly to the crowd and etched a message into a concrete slab. The message read simply, “Peace — Love — Surf.”
Afterward, Hawk held up his trophy and said the induction had been a lifelong dream.
“It’s the ultimate for me in my life,” Hawk said. “This is it.”
Monday, the concrete slab in front of Surf and Sport, which also features Hawk’s hand and footprints, was circled with flowers, candles and tributes written on sheets of paper. One read, “Best shaper in the world,” while another declared, “Chris, you caught the wave to heaven.”
Hawk’s ex-wife, Kathy Hawk Margerum, who divorced him in 1979 but remained close over the years, said Hawk was humbled by the attention he received in the weeks before his death.
