SANTA BARBARA HANG GLIDING HISTORY
by Ken deRussy
 The first hang gliding in
Santa Barbara, that I can document, was a man by the name of Bob Hourdequin
of Solvang (still listed in the phone book) who built and flew a biplane
from an overpass like Paterson or Turnpike between January and March
of 1967.
The Jesuit Property (The
Mesa) was first flown by Dave Butz in November or December of 1971.
Dick and Dave Saffold, as
I understand it, were two of hundreds or thousands around the world
who, after receiving the February 1972 National Geographic which featured
photos of a bamboo and plastic sail hang glider in flight, went right
out and built one and flew it the next day. Dick and Dave flew at the
Mesa.
I had returned from Europe
the fall of 1972 having completed a 4 year and 5 month enlistment in
the USAF as a (Combat) Security Policeman. I was living on Silver Strand
Beach in Oxnard and working at the commissary at Pt. Mugu when I first
heard of hang gliding. I first saw it at a hill next to Lynn Road in
Thousand Oaks and took my first flights at a training hill in Moorpark.
I bought a glider in late summer of 1973 and immediately decided that
hang gliding was going to be the next Hula Hoop. I began talks in October/November
with the company to secure a dealership in Ventura (Ventura had hills
I reasoned and Oxnard was flat!) but I got cold feet and backed out.
I not only knew nothing about business but I could barely fly.
In January I went back to
the hill in Moorpark and the site was alive with gliders. I went to
Free Flight again and told them that I would do anything to be in the
business but I was still nervous about the idea of starting my own dealership
because I knew nothing about running a business. They hooked me up with
a John Evans up in Lodi who had become a dealer but had never flown.
He was looking for an expert and hired me over the phone!
I first saw Santa Barbara
in February or March of 1974 while on my way to connect with Evans.
I remember changing planes at the SB airport and looking up at the mountains
but it never occurred to me that it was possible to fly mountains. I
was headed to Stockton/Lodi where Evans expected me to assemble his
kits, assist in starting a school and teach hang gliding on weekends
for Free Flight of Stockton. John Evans, the owner of a carpet warehouse
had decided that hang gliding was the next coming thing. As far as I
know he never learned to fly. I don't think he was all that interested.
His plan was to wheedle a dealership from Free Flight down in Sylmar
and asked them to find someone who could come up and build the gliders,
find a hill and start teaching. He just figured the people would show
up and buy large numbers of gliders!
After four or five weekends
working for Evans I decided I had learned enough about business to start
my own. I contacted Free Flight and told them I was ready to be "Free
Flight of Ventura". They told me I was too late as they had granted
that dealership to Jim Woods. I was bummed! I was convinced that Free
Flight Systems would become the Honda of hang gliders and was certain
I needed a dealership with them.
I had to find another geographic
area for my dealership. I looked on a AAA map of California to see how
far away I would need to drive from Oxnard. I was not so confident that
I was ready to quit my job at Pt. Mugu so I felt it couldn't be too
far away. I noticed Santa Barbara and took note that the greater SB
area was colored yellow which indicated population. I had no knowledge
of Santa Barbara whatsoever and certainly didn't know about the training
hill. I had no idea that hang gliding could be done from such rugged
mountains as those that I had seen from the airport months earlier.
I never investigated anything
about Santa Barbara or even visited before I gave Free Flight a deposit
on three gliders and accessories to start my business! Based solely
on that AAA map I told Free Flight I would be a dealer there. It was
not much different from throwing a dart at a map! I ended up in Santa
Barbara simply because the map showed yellow!
I can't say in what order
the following occurred but I saw the hill for the first time in April
or May of 1974. I had met Dave Saffold as well as Dan Poynter at the
third Lilienthal meet in Sylmar in May and I think Dave remembers that
he told me about the hill at that time. I remember that Jim Woods told
me where it was. In any case at the time there was no full time hang
gliding business in SB. Ted Zinke and Bill Broadhead were there frequently
teaching on a Quicksail (their own design) with a clear plastic sail.
John Baird, who lives here in Anacortes now and is my partner in our
Falcon Trike ultralight and was also the club's first President, also
had a part time business selling gear late in 1974.
The hill in those days was
unfenced and was used by dirt bikers, four wheelers, hang gliders, dumpers,
target plinkers and dope growers. I just started going there and in
the beginning had no permission. I really didn't even learn who owned
it until a year or two later.
I rented my shop/office at
1806-J Cliff Drive and got my business license in the name of Free Flight
of Santa Barbara in May of 1974. I requested and received 965-3733 (965-FREE)
from the phone company. The next year in April I moved to 613 N. Milpas
St. and changed the name to Channel Islands Hang Glider Emporium.
I was fortunate to have met
Dick and Dave. I found that it was impractical to keep my apartment
in Oxnard and my job at Pt. Mugu and gave them up. Robert and Louise
Saffold, at Dick and Dave's request, let me sleep on their couch for
a week or so. Dick and Dave were excited to have the opportunity to
influence the direction of the new instructor from out of town (who
could barely fly, let alone teach) and gave me a huge amount of help.
Dave was a bottomless pit of energy, endlessly carrying the student's
gliders back up the hill so they wouldn't get too tired, and was a natural
teacher. He was then, as now, a natural pilot and understood what was
important to impart to new students. In fact, Dave, more than anyone
else I knew in the beginning of my flying, was my instructor. He was
very encouraging to me.
Up through the end of July
when I met Bonnie, I slept in my shop. For a short time stayed with
my Dad and his wife who had rented an apartment nearby on red Rose Way.
Within two weeks (or less) of meeting Bonnie at the Yankee Clipper on
upper State Street I moved in with her at her place in Ojai.
By the fall I had begun to
sell other brands and in September ran ads showing that I was representing
Free Flight, Seagull, Manta and Sport Kites as Wills Wing called them
selves in those days. No one in the world has been a Wills dealer longer.
Dan Poynter was the author
of "Hang Gliding - The Basic Handbook of Skysurfing" which
was the first real book on the subject. He was known throughout the
world as THE authority and loved to bring people together using all
his contacts and knowledge. His success in his book publishing business
was the result of him being a natural organizer. He was and is also
great at encouraging me and others I'm sure.
 It followed then that he
would encourage me to start a club just as he had seen every place in
the world where hang gliding was popular. He prodded me into getting
the names of the flyers together and he created a nifty looking notice
that announced the formation of the "California Coast Hang Gliding
Association" with my name on it as the organizer!
And so it was that the first
meeting of the Santa Barbara hang gliding club took place on 4 February
1975 at Sierra West on Yanonali Street. I advocated having our club
name include the geographic identifier Channel Islands so as to include
an area that could represent Santa Barbara and Ventura areas. The idea
carried and the Channel Islands Hang Gliding Association was formed.
Two months later when I moved to Milpas I changed the name of my business
partly because I no longer wanted to appear to be exclusively a Free
Flight dealer but also to appeal to that larger than just Santa Barbara
area.
I cannot at this time pinpoint
when we became USHGA Chapter #26 but it was probably April or May 1975.
I am Member #1 and, at different times served as President, Vice President,
Treasurer, Media Relations, Safety Director, Public Relations, and probably
every other office that our club had! In early 1977 the club voted to
change the name to Santa Barbara Hang Gliding Association.
The Mesa was pretty wild
in those days. Kids would drive straight up the face of the hill while
we were flying, dirt bikes would whiz by us at high speed and it was
not unusual to have dumped couches and other crap all over the field.
Some even came in full on dump trucks and unloaded where they pleased
in broad daylight. Finally some kids were four-wheeling and flipped
their jeep. One kid died and there were whispers of lawsuits against
the Jesuits.
In August 1975 the attorney
for the Jesuits, John K. Hass, had the property fenced and sent me a
notice that the property would be posted and that no permission had
ever been granted to anyone to use the property. A small trailer was
placed at the top of the hill and a guard was assigned to insure no
trespassing. Almost immediately there was a confrontation between the
guard and some kids who called the police and claimed the guard brandished
his weapon. The guard was removed and Hass phoned me to have me come
to his office to "work something out."
As a result of that meeting
I was given formal permission by John K. Hass to teach on the Mesa and
the responsibility to manage ALL activity on the property.
Ken sent this on March 6, 2009:
Hi Lee Ann and Chad,
I thought you would be interested to know that the club first held meetings at the Carrillo Rusty's sometime in early 1976. It has been quite a run - 33 years! Few traditions have lasted longer in the hang gliding world. (Your phone number 965 3733 is one! That went in to service in April 1974!)
The first, organizational meeting of the proposed California Coast Hang Gliding Association was held at Sierra West, an outdoor equipment company at 6 East Yanonali Street in Feb 75. I had followed Dan Poynter's encouragement and with his guidance and help, announced, organized and conducted the first meeting. Dan also lent his skills in creating the announcement flyer. John Baird was elected the first Pres and I was elected the VP! The next meeting was held in March at Tapioka Enterprises on 27 Garden Street in Ventura. Tapioka was a leather goods company owned by pilot Ken Kesson who ran another company called Windsong for distributing hang gliding accessories and was the sponsor for the comp pilots the Arrambide brothers. By late spring we had settled on our new name, the Channel Islands Hang Gliding Association.
Our thinking was that pizza parlors would be ideal for club meetings. For the remainder of 1975 we tried the Pizza Factory, whose location I don't recall, and then had several meetings at the Rusty's at 3731 State. We probably would have stayed there but got kicked out in November 1975 for bringing in our own beer and food! That was also a period when meetings routinely entailed loud, VERY animated arguments and more than once threatened to break out into violence! So maybe the management just wanted the troublesome flying hippies gone! We next met at Deanos Pizza in Carp for one or two meetings. Sometime after February of 1976 we began our long tradition of meeting at the former Poor Richards, by then renamed as Rusty's Pizza parlor. We were still pretty raucous but the upstairs meeting room gave us the privacy we needed!
As the club founder, holder of Membership card Number 1, former President, Vice President, Treasurer, Publicity Director, and many other offices we had at various times, I attended nearly every meeting and have many fond memories of the hundreds, maybe thousands of pilots that contributed to the flying community over those many years. I miss those times and hope that there are a few of the original founding members who will attend the next meeting and tell some good stories of those early meetings. I suppose it is too much to hope for that some of the old timers would get into a drunken fist fight, eh? ;-)
Ken de Russy
USHGA Life/Charter Member #5114
Hang Gliding Museum Collector Guy
Anacortes, WA
360 293 8621
Skype "ken.de.russy"
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