OB Rag

By Jake Howard / Surfer / January 11, 2025

One of the greatest surf lives ever lived, the legendary Mike Hynson has gracefully kicked out at the age of 82. Born in Crecent City, California, on June 28, 1942, Hynson will forever be tied to the breakout success of “The Endless Summer,” but the hit surf film hardly defined the man. A local hero, a hot-dog performer, a shaping genius, a cosmic adventurer, Hynson altered the sport and culture of surfing in an untold number of ways over his colorful time on this spinning blue orb.

The son of a Navy man, Hynson grew up ping-ponging between Hawaii and California before his family finally settled in Pacific Beach in the mid 1950s. And that’s when and where his life as a surfer began. Indoctrinated into the rebellious surf scene of San Diego in the late ’50s and early ‘60s, his early work with Gordon & Smith and the Red Fin design carved out a name for him as a top-flight board builder, while his antics with the Windansea Surf Club became the stuff of legend. Landing back in Hawaii in 1961, he was among the first class of surfers to begin to crack the code at Pipeline.

On Sunday, January 12th, Point Loma was home to a parade of dozens of vintage cars that drove across the Peninsula to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the legendary 1915 Point Loma Road Race. And Rag staff were on hand near Catalina and Hill to observe the event and these are their photos.

The vintage cars drove from the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park to Point Loma, where they drove two laps of the original race route — which took them on Rosecrans, Lytton, Chatsworth, Catalina, Talbot, and Canon Streets.

Sponsored by the San Diego regions of the Horseless Carriage Club of America, they simply wanted to share their vintage autos with the public.

Designation Reports: Preserving San Diego’s History

SOHO / January-February 2025

Historic designation reports are often seen as technical documents, essential for evaluating a site’s architectural integrity and historical significance. But their value extends far beyond these initial purposes. For anyone with a passion for understanding San Diego’s past, these reports are repositories of social and cultural history, quite often preserving stories and details unavailable anywhere else. Many of these reports are accessible through the California Historical Resources Inventory Database (CHRID), an invaluable tool for exploring and studying the state’s rich heritage.

A well-prepared historic designation report provides a deep dive into a site’s historical context, shedding light on the lives of those who lived or worked there and the broader social forces at play. These documents often include oral histories, photographs, maps, and records that illuminate forgotten narratives—information that might otherwise remain buried in archives or lost altogether.

Editordude: The following post is close to my heart, for I once was an inmate and as one fought fires for San Diego County back in the early Seventies.(Please see the original for any links.)

By Doug Melville / Forbes / January 9, 2025

As the shock of the Los Angeles fires and their effect on so many communities, businesses and families is still being digested, lots of attention is being turned to those who are on the front lines fighting the flames.

Many people might not be aware that one particular group has long been depended on to battle wildfires: inmates.

While the 13th Amendment ended slavery in the United States, a loophole allows people convicted of crimes to be forced to work for public or private enterprises. In this case, those tasked with firefighting volunteer for those positions and must meet certain criteria. They are not assigned without their consent.

Their pay scale was doubled in 2023, and depending on the skill level and the task assigned, they either receive $0.16 to $0.74 an hour or a maximum day rate of $5.80 to $10.24.

Whale Watch and Intertidal Life Festival

On January 11 & 12, 2025, visit Cabrillo National Monument for Whale Watch Weekend!

Celebrate the return of the Pacific gray whales as they pass Point Loma along part of their annual, round-trip migration from Alaska to Baja California. We are also celebrating the 75-year anniversary of the first public whale watching event, held right here at Cabrillo National Monument.

Schedule of Events

Before the community of  Point Loma says adios to that patch of dirt along Famosa and near Nimitz — that’s been called various names over the years, like the “Famosa Pump Track” and more recently “Famosa Canyon” — there has to be some kind of reckoning with its history.

Here is an edited version of  Katie Mae B’s “Some History of the Dirt & Kids at the Famosa Pump Track – With Plenty of Questions Remaining,” posted on the Rag March 19, 2019.

At the Famosa Open Space pump track, what makes it a perfect place is “the dirt,” — The unique mix of dirt, sand and organic materials,” locals say. Two of these locals have been active in Famosa Open Space pump track at different points over a few decades and with the same core group.  Now [in 2019] they are a part of the larger group working together to save the whole space.

From Mexico News Daily / January 8, 2025

A day after Donald Trump announced his intention to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, President Claudia Sheinbaum proposed calling the United States — or at least the country’s southwest — “Mexican America.”

“Why don’t we call [the United States] Mexican America, it sounds nice, right?” Sheinbaum said at her Wednesday morning press conference. “It does, doesn’t it?” the president added with a smile.

She noted that the Constitution of Apatzingán, which was created during the Mexican War of Independence, referred to territory now known as the United States as Mexican America.

At the time of the document’s creation in 1814, large parts of what is now the southwestern United States were still under Spanish control. Mexico, when it became an independent country in 1821, was much larger than it is today, as its territory included all or part of several modern-day U.S. states.

By Kate Callen

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but some of the most tantalizing OB Rag entries are comments posted in response to our news articles.

Some commenters share trenchant insights that bring us joy. Others entertain us by huffing and puffing (shout out to Paul J!).

And a very few, like Scott Lewis, editor-in-chief of Voice of San Diego (VOSD), post comments that leave us gasping: Did he really say that?

Just the other day, on January 7, Lewis commented on a Rag story about Colin Parent’s 79th Assembly District election loss. He challenged an opinion by Mat Wahlstrom that VOSD and Circulate San Diego, Parent’s money-minting nonprofit, have formed a mésalliance. (Mésalliance is French meaning a marriage with a person of lower social status.)

Reporter Tyler Faurot at the Pt Loma-OB Monthly wrote up an update on the 72 units coming to the Famosa Canyon site close to Nimitz. He also accounted for some of the local community opposition to the project which will include some affordable units.

By Tyler Faurot / Point Loma – OB Monthly (SDUT) / January 9, 2025

A 5-acre lot at the intersection of Famosa and Nimitz boulevards in Point Loma is on the way to being developed into an affordable-housing complex after being sold by the San Diego Housing Commission.

But the plan has raised concern among local residents who fear the development would diminish an already low amount of open space on the Peninsula. The lot is a popular location for off-road biking.

The proposed project would include 72 units divided into three buildings, each three stories tall. There also would be a managerial suite.

by Ernie McCray

In a reflective mood the other day
I thought of people
who, in some way,
had something to do
with who I am today
and the first person who popped
up in my mind
was my very first school principal
standing tall in an image
that’s so memorable to me:
Big old head.
Big old shoulders.
Big old chest.
Big old beer belly.

By SOHO editorial staff / January-February 2025

As architect and author Carl Elefante famously said, “The greenest building is … one that is already built.” Today we propose that the greenest building isn’t just the one already standing—it’s the one already housing people.

In a time when everyone is concerned about affordable housing, climate change, sustainability, and the urgent need to reduce waste, we want to remind everyone that one of the most impactful OR one of the best ways we can make a difference is by saving and reusing our existing buildings.

When we construct a new building, the process consumes vast amounts of energy and resources—fuel for mining, transporting raw materials, manufacturing components, and construction itself. That energy, known as embodied energy, is already built into every historic building still standing today.