pinliner
Nep status
Reged: 03/21/02
Posts: 792
Loc: leucadia
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Just found out Kit Horn passed on friday. Shared a lot of waves with Kit over the last forty years or so. He was a true waterman. Stoked on surfing until the end. I think he was 81. Gonna miss the guy everytime I paddle out in front of his house.
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PeterPopeKahapea
Tom Curren status
Reged: 06/09/02
Posts: 10124
Loc: 22.2 N 159.5 W
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aaaaahhhhhhh man!! So sorry to hear that.I was just a gremmie growing up and hearing his name every now and then and some of the story's that went along with his name.
Aloha no, Kit......
Aloha Noooooooooooo!
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"you answer to no one, in the end, but yourself"
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bigsurfer67
Nep status
Reged: 12/28/08
Posts: 878
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...my Dad grew up with him and the original pioneer crew back in the day of innovators that included Bob Simmons, Peter Cole, Buzzy Trent, Les Williams and of course Kit. He was a true waterman...heard stories of their adventures which included a Huge day at Ventura Overhead where one of them almost drowned. Some other funny stories...one where they put a board on top of Bob Simmons car that was so heavy that it caved in the entire top...lol! Back in their day which was way before Endless Summer there were only a few hundred surfers up and down the coast...all knew each other. Surfing was really underground back then...people would stop off along the road when they were surfing big Rincon and watch surfing for the first time ever. Of course hardly anyone was in the water at the time...6 people out at Malibu would be considered a crowd. Truely the golden era of surfing which has lost one of its participants. Rest In Peace Kit! 
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b.r.
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 12/19/03
Posts: 3400
Loc: Leucadia
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RIP Kit my good friend!
Kit was my neighbor for 10 years and friend for the last 17 years. He was always up for talking about the surf, trips, and new boards while we waited for sets or were hanging out in the street in front of our houses.
The guy was a legend, l.a. lifeguard, friends with buzzy trent and greg noll, veteran, waimea early days charger, family man. I remember Greg Noll's story of surfing the big wave at Makaha and then not really surfing ever again. Kit wasn't like that, he always wanted to surf more, probably rode more waves than just about anybody in history. He loved to surf and traveled up and down the coast in his RV with his loving wife Gwen.
With a lifetime of riding waves he was always a little pissed that he couldn't surf as well in his 70s as he used to and joke about how he couldn't pull the bottom turn and "went straight off Adolf" but damn if the guy didn't get good waves up until the end.
I remember surfing with him when i first moved across the street from his house on a huge day when nobody was surfing the reefs out front, too closed out too big, too unruly, and I made it out on my 7'6 and there was my neighbor the old surfer, the perpetually stoked old surfer, and he was taking off on bombs, in his late 60's.
Whenever I was going on a trip, he would give me notes on where to go, where the breaks were etc, always giving me tips and advice. One trip he sketched out maps and roads for me on Vancouver Island so I could get to the spots he had surfed in the past.
He was a family guy and always told me you gotta have more kids b.r. more kids! I always said, were trying Kit were trying! I remember surfing with him, and his son, and his grandson all my friends and thinking how cool is that for 3 generations to be sharing waves! A life well lived and he will be missed.
aloha Kit 
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JJR
Duke status
Reged: 03/06/03
Posts: 21510
Loc: Cyclist hell
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Aww man...  I had the pleasure of delivering a couple of boards to Kit over the years. He was always smiling..and eager to have a chat. He was really into fins which I thought was cool. Seems like I ran into him the other day at blacks. But if he was 81 then I guess it was like 8 years ago. When I saw him by the waterfall at blacks I was pretty amazed as Mt. mutherfucker kicks my ass every time I climb it..at half his age.  Asked him how young he was these days..and he said 73. Down on the beach at blacks..after surfing 3 hours in 6 foot juice. He didn't even look tired. Also remember like BR said..the biggest bomb winter day around here..just going off..no one out (everyone at the points and real reefs) I look north towards ponto and see one guy. Way outside..dodging and chasing rogue bombs. Sure enough..it was Kit. 
He was part of what made this area the funky that it is ..and will be very missed around here I'm sure. RIP Kit...
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O.T.
Tom Curren status
Reged: 01/20/03
Posts: 13409
Loc: sur
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I shared some great sessions out in front of Kit's house with him when I lived up the road years ago. He was always stoked and open to "talk story."
He was a true California Surfer.
And in my book there's no higher accolade than that.
RIP Kit
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"This post has been removed for incendiary racist comments"-nameless60
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TRI FINS ARE DANGEROUS
Tom Curren status
Reged: 01/10/02
Posts: 12997
Loc: Pavement, CA USA
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The neighborhood will not be the same without Kit Horn. He was really fun to surf with. He never got bitter or grumpy and was like a stoked little kid last time he came out to the factory. He was a true gentleman and a great inspiration. 
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Surfboard Blog: Surfy Surfy
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JJR
Duke status
Reged: 03/06/03
Posts: 21510
Loc: Cyclist hell
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Thanks for the pic TFAD...legends.
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TRI FINS ARE DANGEROUS
Tom Curren status
Reged: 01/10/02
Posts: 12997
Loc: Pavement, CA USA
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Posting this to the top so friends of Kit can find this topic.
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Surfboard Blog: Surfy Surfy
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bloomies
Phil Edwards status
Reged: 09/27/08
Posts: 7179
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Quote:
Thanks for the pic TFAD...legends.
+1 and the great stories.........
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If the logical end of communism is the gulag, then the logical end of capitalism is the Mafia.
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MANdingo
Legend (inyourownmind)
Reged: 09/18/09
Posts: 272
Loc: Mexico
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Damn! That makes me sad. Surfed alot of epic sessions with the Horns over the years. They just donīt make them like that any more. Iīm gonna go get drunk.
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surf cat
Phil Edwards status
Reged: 01/14/02
Posts: 6862
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Thank You Pinliner for introducing me to surfing legend Kit Horn. It was an honor to surf with him and you a couple of years ago.
I got to know his son Lifeguard Bret Horn and family here in Sonoma county.
.....You know that movie~ 'it's a wonderful life'? Kits' life would make a great 'movie'.... To me there is something special about being a lifeguard~
Over the years Kits' son Brit saved many people from death~
what an honor to a father to have raised a hero
Rest in Peace Kit
Kit Horn at Lunada Bay
Back on the Mainland, Greg Noll tells the classic story of Kit Horn at Lunada Bay, in what I guess to be Christamas-time 1963:
"We usually threw a shop party on the day of Christmas Eve. One winter, just before I was scheduled to leave for my annual trip to the Islands, people were getting out of their jobs early and stopping by the shop for a little Christmas cheer. Kit Horn came by to see if I would be available to go to Lunada Bay in the next couple of days. Lunada Bay is off the Palos Verdes Peninsula and breaks only on a big winter swell. It's a big, steep wave with a fast takeoff. Under the right swell conditions, the place could become very hairy. In 1963, we got several days over fifteen feet. The bay was rock-rimmed and enclosed by a hundred-and-fifty-foot cliff from point to point, with only one small trail down to the water.
"Not many people have heard of Kit Horn. He was a good friend and schoolmate of Buzzy Trent's. And a frustrated big-wave rider. If you had asked the guy what he wanted to do when he grew up, he would have said that he wanted to go to Hawaii and ride big waves.
"Horn was a bitchin' guy, but he worked at some terrible goddamn engineering job at Northrop -- wore a suit and tie and large-rimmed glasses. A tough guy, he spent all his free time running, pumping weights and getting in shape for the day that he would find himself in the Islands surfing big waves. He never made it, though. He never really had enough time. The couple of times he did go over there he would miss the big surf and come home totally frustrated by the whole deal. He wanted it so badly."
"So, at the shop, we got to drinking wine -- Horn wasn't a big drinker -- and talking about Lunada Bay. It was breaking at about fifteen feet. By this time it was about three in the afternoon and we were getting pretty poop-faced. I told Kit that I had a special workout for getting in shape for big waves. What you did, I said, was tie yourself into a big truck tire innertube, paddle out at Lunada Bay, get yourself right in the impact zone, then try to catch a wave backwards. There, with your wine bottle and your innertube, you drink and wait for a wave to break on you. If you lose your bottle of wine or if you quit drinking, you're automatically disqualified.
"Kit had drunk enough to believe me. And I was far enough along to be stoked on the idea. So we did it. We got two big truck tire innertubes and two fresh gallons of Red Mountain wine and went to Lunada Bay. It was near dusk as we ran down the trail. We were fired up and the whole situation turned competitive.
"We paddled out in our tubes and sat right in the impact zone. A fifteen-foot set comes through and pounds the living poop out of both of us. We're laughing anyway, having a great time. Kit loses his inner tube, but holds onto his wine bottle. I'm getting a little concerned about him, but he just laughs. He had drunk about half his wine. I think the only thing keeping him afloat was the half-empty bottle.
"By the time we decided to go in, the sun had gone down and I couldn't find Kit on shore. I'm walking along the beach, and it's pitch dark. I finally find him in a tide pool. He'd drug himself there and was still lying face-down, his head pointing towards the ocean. He was real screwed up, his face and body were a mass of bloody cuts. The tide was coming in and he was barfing as his head bobbed up and down in the tide pool.
"Kit was a big man, weighed a couple hundred pounds. I tried to roll him out of the tidepool but couldn't. The best I could do was grab him by the ankles and drag him up the rocks, just to get his head out of the water so he wouldn't drown. I carried over a couple of big rocks, rolled one under each of his armpits and told him I was going for help.
"I climbed up the path to the road and hitchhiked to a phone. I called Horn's house and somehow the message got through that Kit was lying face-down in a tide pool at Lunada Bay. His wife just went beserk. She thought he'd drowned. At this point, the cops were called in.
"In the meantime, Kit comes to and starts walking up the trail. In the process of doing this, he slips and falls in some dog crap. So now he has blood and crap all over him, and he remembers that a friend of his lives at the Point at Lunada Bay. All he can think of is looking up this lifelong friend. After all, it's Christmas Eve. He stumbles into the guy's house and collapses on the couch, looking -- and smelling -- like poop. They call his wife, and she comes to pick him up."
"For years afterwards, if the name of Greg Noll was spoken in Kit Horn's house, the woman would go into a total rage. I haven't seen the man since, and that happened in the early '60s.
"Not long ago, I was at E.T. Surfboards, a shop in Hermosa Beach owned by Eddie Talbot, a young guy who once worked for me and who became like a son to me. While I was there, a kid came up and asked me if I would tell him the story about Kit Horn at Lunada Bay. I guess it's become one of those surf stories that gets carried on from one surf generation to another." legendary surfers Kit Horn
Edited by surf cat (04/01/10 02:17 PM)
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b.r.
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 12/19/03
Posts: 3400
Loc: Leucadia
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Kit told me that Noll was prone to exageration and his version of events are not exactly accurate as to how it went down but he didn't elaborate, so who knows. I do know that Kit kept surfing and chasing large waves for 4 decades after that Xmas. The guy was a legend.
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Shank123
Nep status
Reged: 01/22/03
Posts: 796
Loc: Alta CA
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His son Brit is quite the legendary guy also- runs in the blood I reckon. A lifeguard for years on Sonoma Coast, quite a few medals of valor awarded for his work. Had the honor of training with him up there a few times: gnarls. That plus the stories I've heard of large sharks, very large waves, etc. he was the definition of a hellman/waterman in my book. Sounds like the acorn didn't fall too far from the tree. Awesome members of our tribe, an inspiration. Great job having a singularly fantastic life Kit!
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Malcolm
Grom
Reged: 08/02/02
Posts: 57
Loc: Santa Barbara, CA, USA
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There's actually a lot on Kit, scattered about the LEGENDARY SURFERS collection. Wish I had more of the classic stories. Please go to: LEGENDARY SURFER: KIT HORN to parse through what's there... Aloha, Kit! - Malcolm
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Malcolm Gault-Williams
LEGENDARY SURFERS
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TRI FINS ARE DANGEROUS
Tom Curren status
Reged: 01/10/02
Posts: 12997
Loc: Pavement, CA USA
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Kit's obit in the NY Times: click here
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Surfboard Blog: Surfy Surfy
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b.r.
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 12/19/03
Posts: 3400
Loc: Leucadia
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thanks jp
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23rdstMB
Phil Edwards status
Reged: 11/14/02
Posts: 6972
Loc: S-41.32 W174 44.83 - East Pe...
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Quote:
Posting this to the top so friends of Kit can find this topic.
thanks- missed this the first time around. Lots of stories about this guy told by my pops of their days sitting in the lifeguard towers in Santa Monica... RIP
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mc
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 06/29/03
Posts: 3482
Loc: on the road
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sorry to hear this....
met kit at jalama with son britt about 10 or 15 years ago...
talked story around the campfire one night and he had some amazing tales to share...!
he also clued me in to some lesser known big wave spots north of the city that i wasn't aware of...
very cool guy....
very humble....
very experienced....
well traveled....
please send my condolences to his family if anyone knows them!
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search for surf
http://www.mcshots.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcshots/sets/
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Joe_Ponto
Grom
Reged: 01/28/08
Posts: 5
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Oh s***! Bummer!! Condolences to his wife and family. I saw Kit often walking around Grandview-Avos, where I did surf lessons. One day, I had a group for a lesson, Kit stopped and told us how they used to teach safety back in the old days: Line everyone up, then hit them all at once across the face with a redwood board. (I sometimes use that in my lessons to this day as comic relief, and will start using it again and attributing it to Kit, as always). Kit was always up to talk. No ego, not a name-dropper. He would also look down at all the colored boards, and trip on how they all used to be made out of wood and big, and not all candy colored softees. I am so stoked Kit would stop by my lessons, and even wave when I was out in the water with a group. When I was still riding my small pintail, Kit complemented me on my surfing...did not have to do that. GOD DANG IT! Condolences to his wife and family. His wife reads this, she knows who I am, my deepest condolences to you and your family. Goddamn honor to have known the guy, for sure. (Told me once on a big day, he paddled out, didn't even get one, he told me. Did not have to admit that. I am sure he got plenty on other days, but just on that day, didn't even get one. Said they were all close outs. And he said he was wearing a helmet and was laughing about that. Guy was way up in his 70's and paddling on the big days.) Never "claimed it", always just did it. Everyone now always claiming any minor achievement, making it up where there wasn't one, and Kit, never claimed nothing.
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Malcolm
Grom
Reged: 08/02/02
Posts: 57
Loc: Santa Barbara, CA, USA
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Have updated the KIT HORN Chapter at LEGENDARY SURFERS, Sunday, April 18, 2010 and will continue to do so as people have stuff to share: LEGENDARY SURFER: KIT HORN
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Malcolm Gault-Williams
LEGENDARY SURFERS
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b.r.
Michael Peterson status
Reged: 12/19/03
Posts: 3400
Loc: Leucadia
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there was a nice paddle out for Kit yesterday and sure enough a never ending set rolled in just as the paddle out started. some words were said by family and friends and a couple of nice sets rolled through the pack of 100 plus friends and family. Peter Cole was there and shared some words about Kit, saying back in the day Kit would come over to surf the north shore for a couple weeks with him and kit was in such good shape and pumped to get waves that peter was relieved when he finally left so he could rest his sore body.
lots of memories and stories yesterday,about our friend who was stoked for 80 years ,
thanks Kit!
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TRI FINS ARE DANGEROUS
Tom Curren status
Reged: 01/10/02
Posts: 12997
Loc: Pavement, CA USA
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Photo by Ed Lewis. Farewell Kit.
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Surfboard Blog: Surfy Surfy
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23rdstMB
Phil Edwards status
Reged: 11/14/02
Posts: 6972
Loc: S-41.32 W174 44.83 - East Pe...
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finally found that pic of Kit Horn...
He's seen here on the far left. My Grandfather is in the middle and he was in charge of putting together this taplin team that won the Hermosa Beach Surf Festival in 1952. My grandfather represented the City of Los Angeles but Kit was City of Santa Monica at the time. My grandfather knew who the best swimmers were and he knew that he had to have Kit on the team to win it all, which they did. Peter Cole was also on the team and he is the tall guy in the very back.
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