The Surf Punks were formed in 1976 by Malibu residents Dennis Dragon (son of the Symphony conductor Carmen Dragon, and brother of The Captain And Tennille's Daryl Dragon) and Drew Steele (son of the B-movie actress Allison Hayes, made famous as the alcoholic abused housewife Nancy Archer in Attack of The Fifty Foot Woman, and Gavin MacLeod of "The Love Boat" fame). Dennis recruited the additional talents of Malibu residents John Heussenstamm for lead guitar duties and fellow bodysurfer/frisbeeist John Hunt on bass. This was the original core group, produced and engineered by Dennis in his garage studio across the street from Zuma Beach, his favorite body surfing spot. Scott Goddard [b.1952-d.2006] later joined as lead vocalist.
Record producer and then Malibu resident Denny Cordell saw merit in the group and released their first recordings on a single, "My Beach" b/w "My Wave" in Australia on Shelter Records with hopes of creating a sonic tidal wave. It didn't happen. Their subsequent first album, an independent release on their own label, Day Glo Records, garnered them enough airplay on the then fledgling L.A. alternative radio station KROQ to lead to a re-release of the album on EPIC Records in 1980, and the release of two further albums, "Locals Only" and "Oh No, Not Them Again" on Enigma. The Surf Punks also provided the music to KLOS Shock Jock Frazier Smith's signature show bumper, "Cool Patrol". The Surf Punks were managed from 1980 to 1983 by Michael Parenti ( the artist, http://es-tr.com , not Michael Parenti the political writer), who also provided many of the T-Shirt designs for the band. At one time, rock legend Johnny Rivers showed interest in the band by co-producing with Dennis a single titled "Surf Punks Medley" released on his own Soul City label. TV Producer Chris Bearde also managed the band for a short time and tried with movie producer Brian Grazer and Johnny to procure a Hollywood movie deal for the band. It didn't happen.
The live shows of the Surf Punks included prancing bikini-clad babes on stage, as well as a full size Lifeguard Tower (with lifeguard!), beach sand, surfboards, trash, etc. In the heydays of the punk explosion in L.A., the shows were wild and abandoned, the lead singer Drew Steele known to cover his body with baby oil, ketchup, mayonnaise, and all sorts of sundry foodstuffs during the song "I Can't Get a Tan", which usually led to the audience being doused with a fire extinguisher, and then having a bag of baking flour dumped on them in a white cloud by the flailing Steele.
The lyrics of the band centered primarily on the in-group/ out-group experiences of "locals" - surfers living on the beach in Malibu, and "valleys" - commuters from the San Fernando Valley to the private and public beaches of the exclusive Malibu Beach community. Never truly "punk" in the traditional sense of the word, the Surf Punks were sort of a "Beach Boys" of the punk world, offering an intelligent take on the "turf wars" over the southern California beaches and its waves.
The band made at least one video, for the song "Shark Attack".
The term "surf punk" was a generational adaptation of the term "surf nazi" which was in wide use in the early days of the sport in the 60s and 70s also used tongue-in-cheek to describe people who were fanatically dedicated to their sport.
