Mark Martinson

Regularfoot champion surfer Mark Martinson was born in 1947 in Long Beach, California. The son of a mechanic and stock car racer father, Martinson first started surfing at age ten. After placing as a runner-up in the 1962 West Coast Championships, Mark went on to win both the United States Invitational in 1964 and the men's division of the United States Surfing Championships in 1965. Following a poor showing at the 1965 World Championships in Peru, Martinson returned to America to find a U.S. Army induction notice. However, Mark deferred as long as he could and subsequently spent the next six years eluding Selective Service agents. Amazingly, Martinson continued to surf all around the world throughout the mid to late 1960's in such places as France, Spain, Peru, Brazil, Hawaii, Portugal, and Argentina as well as was featured as the lead in a series of surfing documentaries made by Jim Freeman and Greg MacGillivray. Mark was finally caught by federal agents in 1971, but was released from basic training after only three weeks due to asthma. Martinson worked as a commercial fisherman from 1973 to 1992 before going on to become a shaper of longboards for Robert August Surfboards in Huntington Beach, California. He was inducted into the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame in 2009.