Jesse James – America’s first Surfer!!!

Jesse James wore many hats – outlaw, gunfighter, folklore hero, and surfer?!!? That’s right Jesse James, once America’s most wanted , is believed to be the first ever to “hang-ten.” Although born in Missouri, James bandit exploits would lead him to the west coast in the year of 1875.  Allan Pinkerton, the leader of the famed Pinkerton detective agency, had been hired to detain James and doggedly pursued him to the coast of Santa Barbera.  Pinkerton encountered James in small saloon directly across the Madras beach, then sparsely occupied due to the frigid autumn weather.  James immediately ran.  As he scrambled his gun holster caught on the doorknob.  James incredible speed caused the door to be ripped from its hinges, the door then dragging behind James as he ran for his life.  Outside the saloon James found the area swarming with Pinkerton agents.  Having no where else to escape, James darted for the Pacific Ocean with the door still in tow.  Hitting the water James began to panic.  In an act of sheer desperation, James grabbed the wooden door and placed it on the water. He laid prone on it and began to paddle towards oblivion. Wave after wave crashed down on James. The Pinkertons then watched in amazement as James stood erect on the door and began to ride on the waves, hooting and hollering with drunken delight (Although he never said “Cowabunga.”) Eventually the waves brought him back to shore. The Pinkertons surrounded him. But instead of the click of handcuffs, the only sound heard was applause for the greatness seen by all.  Allan Pinkerton himself shook James hand saying, “Tomorrow you are an outlaw, but today you a free man.” The story made headlines across the nation inspiring children to throw old doors in the ocean in hopes of finding similar thrills.  The door surfing trend would eventually die down. In the 1960s surfing from Hawaii would hit mainstream America, but James’s achievement would still stand as a first. The story of an outlaw surfer would even make the silver screen over a hundred years later, you may know it as “Point Break.”

Jesse James – America’s first extreme sports star.

Strange? Yes. Extreme? “Totally” History? Definitely!