DEL CANNON - SURFING IS EASY, COMEDY IS HARD

(Video and words by Matt Warshaw, the Encyclopedia of Surfing.)
Dale Velzy is the first surfer Bruce Brown introduces in Slippery When Wet, his 1958 debut movie. Del Cannon is second. The camera loves both, but for very different reasons. Dale, with his crooked smile and Boozefighters haircut and a merchant marine tattoo on his bicep, is the lovable hustler on his way to a near-career-killing beatdown by the IRS. Cannon is handsome and innocent and reserved, with a hint of Buster Keaton around his soulful eyes. Dale was never again seen in a Bruce Brown movie. Del was featured in most of them. It’s easy to see why. He looked and surfed like Phil Edwards’s understudy-Phil was every surf filmmaker’s go-surf surfer at the time, Bruce included-but was more accessible, more relatable, easier to identify with. Brown recognized the value of Cannon’s ground-level charisma. Phil was a surf god. Del, although cool in his own right, leaned a bit sad-sack as well. At the beginning of Barefoot Adventure, he steps in a fresh pile of dog shit and responds with nothing more than a weary why-me tilt of the head.
“Del was a San Diego guy, a good surfer and a great swimmer,” Bruce Brown later recalled, “but he was really great actor! He had screen presence. He could get a lot done with just the slightest expression. And he’d do anything you asked.”
Bruce, as you can see from the video above, was happy to film Del riding waves. But he was even happier filming him in the short corn-filled comedy bits that popped up every ten minutes or so during the running time of a surf movie, as a way to break up the wave-riding action.
Cannon was among the group of surfers who rode Waimea for the first time, in 1957, was later known for making high-quality surfboards, and following his move to Hawaii was a mostly-uncredited shaper for Lightning Bolt. But back in the sport’s pre-Beatles age, when hair was short and comedy was corn-filled, Del was known and appreciated as the boy-next-door barefoot adventurer who would pretend to step in a mound of poo for our lowbrow comedy pleasure.

[@Headlands_CalvaryChapel]

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[@barclaysauers255]

My last long longboard was a tasty custom 9'6" 'DC' with a bitchen gray tint with blue resin pin lines and matching skeg. A real beauty. His version of a 'Trestle Special' made up in San Clemente. Cost about $130.00 if I remember right. Less than 6 months later I stripped it down an shaped it into a real ugly 7' something pocket rocket. Rest in peace Delbert. Thanks for the visit.

[@tylerrobinson5490]

surfing the trestle with Dick Thomas and Freddie Pfhaler in that first clip

[@b.williamerickson9230]

I agree

[@user-xp5cp5fu9w]

4:30 was true......Del always drove like a bat out of Hell.

[@winstonanderson5771]

Rest in Paradise DC!!🤙🏿🤙🏿🤙🏿☀️☀️☀️🌊🌊🌊🌴🌴🥥🥥🥥 live the barefoot adventure