Butch van artsdalen biography

Charles M. Van Artsdalen (January 31, 1941 – July 18, 1979) was a surfer. He moved to La Jolla, California, from his birthplace of Norfolk, Virginia, at age 14.

Van Artsdalen is best known as a pioneer of surfing 25-foot waves at such North Shore locations as Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach; and tube riding in Hawaii during the early 1960-1970s. A member of the Duke Kahanamoku Surf Team, he appeared in several surf movies and remained a fixture of the international surfing community until his death from alcohol-related illness in 1979.^[1]

Van Artsdalen's athletic prowess was first noted in the years he attended La Jolla High School where he earned varsity letter in baseball, basketball, and football.

He began surfing at the age of fourteen, and chose to continue in the sport because of its unstructured freedom when compared to the discipline of conventional professional sports. While in La Jolla, Van Artsdalen became part of a well-known surfing gro