by Kevin Cody
Shortly after being appointed to the Hermosa Beach Parks and Recreation Committee 10 years ago, Jani (pronounced Yani) Lange took on “re-envisioning” the Hermosa Beach Surfers Walk of Fame induction ceremony.
He invited 40 leaders from the surf community to bring their ideas to a meeting in the Hermosa Council Chambers. The attendees included Walk of Fame inductees and judges, surf shop owners, surf club members and professional surfers.
Lange knew them all. He grew up surfing in Hermosa, the child of Latvian immigrants who fled the Soviet occupation during World War II.
His first job was in his preteens, watching Becker Surf’s parking lot in exchange for stickers, and back to school clothes. During his teen years, he worked in sales at Becker Surf, Spyder Surf, ET Surf, and Pier Surf. After surfing for Redondo High, he attended El Camino College and Long Beach State.
But Lange tells anyone who asks, “I got my degree from the University of Hermosa Beach.”
“What a lot of people don’t take into consideration is that the surf shop is as critical an institution for kids around here as school. You learn how to grip your skateboard, how to wax your surfboard, and what pro’s riding for what company – how to not be a kook. You learn the etiquette and the DNA of the town,” Lange said in a 2011 Easy Reader interview.
Attendees at the Surfer Walk of Fame meeting included Spyder Surf co-owner Dennis Jarvis, SWOF judge John Joseph, Hermosa Museum director Annie Seawright-Newton and the South Bay Boardriders contest director Matt Walls.
All of them hosted surf events in the spring, but there was no coordination among them. Lange convinced them to host their events together, creating the Surfer Walk of Fame weekend.
At the gathering, the surf community leaders agreed that on the Friday evening prior to the SWOF inductions, the Historical Museum would host a reception for the inductees. The museum has a collection of historic surfboards.
Following the reception, in the Community Theater, the SBBC would present its annual Big Wave Awards, and winter surf movie. Saturday morning after the inductions on Pier Plaza, Spyder Surf would hold its annual Spyder Surf Fest, with live music, and vendor booths. Sunday morning SBBC agreed to host a surf contest.
“Until then, SWOF began and ended on Saturday morning. I organized a series of fractured events into the second largest surf event on the West Coast, next to the U.S. Surfing Open in Huntington Beach,” Lange said.
“This past year’s inductees, Greg Browning, Mike Balzer and David Nuuhiwa, received video congratulations from around the world, from people like pro freestyle surfer Rob Machado and 11-time world champion Kelly Slater,” Lange said.
Lange described his work with the Surfers Walk of Fame, which he emcees each year, as illustrative of how his lifelong involvement in Hermosa activities, including playing and then coaching youth sports, has prepared him to serve on the City Council. He currently coaches the Valley Middle School surf team.
Another example, he said, was helping resurrect Hermosa’s Concert on the Beach last month. The popular community event ended with COVID.
He enlisted Vox Productions’ Sean Sedlacek, a Manhattan Beach resident who got his start staging the first Concerts on the Beach, and whose clients now include Skechers, ESPN, Adidas, BMW and the Democratic Party. Lange also enlisted Adam Briggs, who booked the Concerts on the Beach during their glory years, under Allen Sanford, who went on to found the BeachLife Music Festival.
“I worked with those guys in my 20s when I was producing punk shows,” Lange recalled.
Like the Surfers Walk of Fame weekend, Lange pointed out, the Concerts on the Beach are free, family friendly, popular with residents, and good for Hermosa retailers.
During his decade on Parks and Rec, Lange said, he also helped expand the city’s seniors programs. That included the controversial 2016 decision to convert tennis courts to pickleball courts.
“What convinced me,” he said, “was an older gentleman who had played professional tennis. Pickleball, he said, allowed him to stay on the court,” Lange said.
Lange and his wife, Denyse, a Hermosa Valley School teacher, have three school age children, which helps explain his support for Measure HV, the school bond on the November 5 ballot.
He opposes Measure HB, the .75% sales tax increase.
As an independent rep for sports manufacturers, his clients include not only surf shops, but also small, local markets, including Granny’s, Boccattos, and The Green Store, as well as local hotels.
“It’s death by 1,000 cuts for small businesses,” he said. “Proponents say tourists will pay most of the tax increase. But tourists only come to town for three months.”
Lange’s concerns about e-bikes, and appreciation for first responders were reinforced by a recent police ride-along, he said.
“It was a Friday night, with mostly routine stops like cars running stop signs. Then we got a call about a hit and run that left ‘an e-biker down, but still breathing,’ the dispatcher radioed.”
“We were at Pier and Monterey, in front of Becker Surf. The dispatcher said the accident was at 6th Street and Ardmore Avenue. I live at 6th and Ardmore. It was after 10 p.m. and my son should have been home. But maybe he snuck out on his e-bike.”
“The officer gunned it with light flashing. I was trying to prepare myself. But when we got there we didn’t find anybody. The hit and run was at 6th and Ardmore, in Manhattan Beach. It was still tragic, but it wasn’t my son,” he said.
Lange compared the current backlash against e-bikes to the backlash against skateboarders when he was growing up.
“We need to take a page out of the skateboarding book. When bumper stickers read, ‘Skateboarding is not a crime,’ the city recognized skateboards were here to stay. It built a skate park, and put on safety clinics.”
Lange said he supports the city’s ban on short term vacation rentals, except in the commercial district, for the same reasons he supports local businesses, and events like the Surfers Walk of Fame, and Concerts on the Beach. He wants to protect Hermosa’s beach culture for his kids, he said. ER
