Chuck Allen, 1936–2011

The surfing coach turned snowboard evangelist

By occupation, Chuck Allen was a banker. By avocation, he was a cheerleader for surfing and snowboarding whose dogged efforts helped alter both sports’ image as stoner hobbies and convinced the world they were demanding, legitimate sports. Allen was a born teacher who communicated his love of competition and fair play to nearly everyone he encountered. “His guidance was priceless,” said Janice Aragon, head of the National Scholastic Surfing Association, the group Allen formed to unite competitive surfers under a common—and respectable—banner.

Allen was born in Enid, Okla., far from anything resembling saltwater or swells, said the San Bernardino, Calif., Sun. Horseback riding was his sport, and as a teen he competed in rodeos. But that was before he got his first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, at age 19, when “he drove from Oklahoma to Southern California in a 1944 Ford Coupe.” His trip terminated at Tin Can Beach, so named because beachgoers dumped their trash there. He pitched a tent and worked odd jobs until he could afford an apartment. By the 1960s, he had graduated to a banking career and a house in San Juan Capistrano, in Orange County, with his wife and children. When the kids took up surfing, he did too, even serving as an unpaid coach on his sons’ high school surfing team.

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