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entertaining u newspaper: your monthly guide to entertainment
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The Jock by Tom Weppel
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by Shaun Robbins
The Man. The Myth. The Legend. This week I would like to dedicate my column to one of the all-time iconic figures in surfing history: Wilbur Kookmeyer. If you don’t know who he is, you might just be a kook yourself. For those who really don’t know, Wilbur Kookmeyer is a cartoon character that was featured in his own self-named comic strip, which was created by Bob Penuelas.
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For a few years Penuelas produced a comic strip called “Maynard and the Rat,” a two-page feature in Surfer Magazine that ran every month. In one of these issues, Penuelas introduced Wilbur, a surf dork. Wilbur was met with an overwhelming reader response and became a monthly feature in the comic strip.
By 1986 Wilbur was more popular than the other characters and became the featured star of the strip. Penuelas officially switched the name of the comic strip to “Wilbur Kookmeyer,” and the comic strip continued to be a regular addition to the magazine from 1986 to 2000, before Wilbur went into hiding for three years. On his reemergence in 2004, Penuelas brought Wilbur back as a regular feature once more until the last strip was published in August 2006.
During his 20-year reign as “King of the Kooks,” Wilbur took part in a variety of fun-loving adventures and mishaps. One month he would be shredding waves in his daydreams, the next he would be blaming his surfing shortcomings on his board’s sticker placement. It was great comic strips like these that kept readers thumbing through their copy of Surfer Magazine each month to see what Wilbur was up to next, thus entertaining multiple generations of surfers.
While Wilbur isn’t a real person, hence not a real surfer, he is without a doubt a surfing legend. Just talk to anyone who surfed in the late 80’s or 90’s, and they will surely know who Wilbur Kookmeyer is. To give you a better sense of how popular this guy was, he had his own clothing line and other memorabilia out for a while, which was offered in surf shops across the country. I, myself, had the Wilbur Kookmeyer bendable figurine, which could bend and twist into crazy positions!
While the comic strip is long gone, the memories of Wilbur’s antics remain. The official Wilbur Kookmeyer Website (wilbur-kookmeyer.com) is up and running and features some of the classic comic strips that so many of us grew up with. You should visit the site and read some of the classic comic strips, re-live some of your youth, or introduce someone else to this classic surfing icon. Regardless, you should visit the site to pay homage to one of surfing’s legendary icons.
We finally got some good surf to help keep everyone on his or her game, and I enjoyed my fair share of waves to keep me satisfied for a little bit. Going into Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we should not see any spectacular surf, but we will see some small ridable waves, so break out your longboard or fish and enjoy. Looking forward to Monday and the rest of the week, we will continue to have small ridable surf. Looking to the tropics there doesn’t seem to be any real activity that will push quality waves our way, but keep your fingers crossed. Don’t take my weekly word for it, call or log onto your local report daily to find out what the present conditions are for your favorite break.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
