1973 - Laguna Beach, Ca.
In the rearview, "Secret Spot" was a pivotal milestone in my life, but at the time I was simply making an animated film about what I knew best, surfing. For years, I'd been animating my surf-rat character "Willy Makitt" while riding my own secret spots on the Southern California coastline. So when I began to pencil out Willy's incredible ride, the transition seemed natural.
My first two animated shorts, "Secret Spot" and "Rocket 88" made it to the big screen. As the opener to Forgotten Island of Santosha, by Larry and Roger Yates, "Secret Spot" was probably among the first animated surfing cartoons to hit the big screen. It also included something I'd dreamed of doing but didn't know was possible: surfing up the face of a wave, exiting the water, and re-enter the wave firmly in control. That aerial would show up roughly 10 years later with pro surfers pulling off that amazing trick, and it's now commonplace throughout the surfing community.
"Rocket 88" was featured in the iconic 5 Summer Stories by MacGillivray-Freeman films. In "Rocket 88", Willy Makitt pulls off another first, doing a "shuvit" maneuver, where the board is kick flipped and spins, while the rider lands perfectly to continue the ride. Seen in skateboarding for years now, this trick has yet been perfected in surfing. While "Secret Spot" and "Rocket 88" paddled off into the sunset with their films, Willy Makitt took on a life of his own and was featured on the Hang Ten fiberglass skateboards in 1975.
2009 - Oceanside, Ca.
In 2009, the California Surf Museum built a new location in downtown Oceanside.
Ric Riavic, the museum curator, approached me with some great news... the new museum had the perfect location to feature Willy and pay tribute to "Secret Spot" by dedicating an entire wall.
Totally stoked, I looked at the space and returned with a new proposition: instead of a single wall, I would create an installation to enhance an outdoor reception area, complete with the Willy Makitt wave, indigenous coastal scenery, a stoked tiki in a hot rod, a VW combi filled with surfer girls and of course a vintage woody. The museum's board of directors unanimously accepted.
Humbled and stoked, "Secret Spot" is now a permanent installation at the California Surf Museum.