Goleta has been known largely for its dirt-side products — walnuts, lemons and the like — but Tom Modugno wants you to know that it’s grown some pretty good surfers, too.

Guys like David Pu’u, Dave Dettinger, Cappy Pettersen, Randy Cone and Bobby Morris, who Modugno says is probably the best surfer to emerge from Goleta’s waves.

So he set up goletasurfing.com, his tribute to the sport’s local past, present and future.

“There was a nothing on the web about Goleta surfing at all, nothing about the surfers from Goleta,” said Modugno, who owns the Santa Cruz Markets in Old Town and Santa Barbara.

The new site is already chunky with photos of Goleta’s surfing past he solicited from guys who’ve been around since the ’60s.

Photos are divided into “Sessions” — shots from a particular day, like “Big Wednesday” — and “Persons,” shots of guys in action.

The oldest are from Mike Haskell, whose name should sound familiar. Back in the ’60s he lived on Farren Road and began to surf what was then called Tecolote Canyon beach. He took his friends and word spread about its good waves. Next thing he knew, everybody was calling it Haskells and the name stuck.

Current stars, like touring pro Morris, are highlighted, as are the next generation of standouts, such as Micaiah Furukawa, Daniel Prichard and Suri Sherman — all students at Dos Pueblos High.

But it’s really the past that Modugno, a Goleta native and hard-core Haskells local, wants to preserve.

“That’s the direction I really want to go with,” he said. “The main motivation. And so I’ve been hitting up all my old buddies, trying to get names.”

He’s made some progress, but it’s not an easy task. One reason is simply the passage of time. Photos from 20, 30 years ago tend to get stuck in boxes and forgotten.

Ironically, old-school surf culture makes it harder, too.

Surfers back in the day were notoriously protective of their “secret” breaks. The last thing they wanted was for others to see how swell their swells were.

“They frowned on photos,” Modugno said. “They didn’t want people taking pictures.”

He said one older surfer told him: “If we saw guys taking pictures we’d take (the camera) and smash it.”

But surfing’s a photogenic sport and Modugno knows good photos are out there; it’s just a matter of persistence.

“It’s hard to get old surfers to find their pictures,” he said. “Little by little we’re getting more.”

Pu’u, a Goleta native who spent 15 years touring as a pro before becoming a photographer and filmmaker, says he has a good 10 years of photos to look through.

Now 51 and living in Ventura, he’d love to see pictures of guys who got their start here.
“Goleta’s got a pretty rich surf culture.”

Modugno, who also owns Haskells Designs clothing, doesn’t expect the site to be a money-maker. It’s more a labor of love and, in the end, about Goleta pride.

It bugs him that Goleta is too often seen as “Santa Barbara’s stepchild.” It deserves better, he says.

“Nobody talks about Goleta. I thought we needed to get some recognition,” he said. “It’s the most beautiful place in the world and we need to stake our claim on that.”

Photo by Tom Modugno

Caption: Touring pro Bobby Morris makes the most out of a small wave at an undisclosed break in west Goleta. The Goleta boy is maybe the best surfer G-Town has produced.