Hermosa Beach surfer Mike Purpus earned the "Surfing Pioneer" award at the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame ceremony on Thursday, July 30, outside Jack's Surfboards on Main Street and PCH.

Purpus, a fierce competitor through the 1960s and '70s, joked that when people ask how long ago he started surfing, he says he started when his mother's water broke. "My whole life, I've wanted to impress you guys," he told the crowd, according to the OC Register.

His honor came just three months after Hermosa Beach celebrated its own Surfers Walk of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, April 25, at Pier Plaza. That event, the Walk of Fame's 22nd annual, added five new names to the pier's collection of bronze plaques: Laurie Wilson ("Female Legend/Champion"), Lonnie Argabright ("South Bay Legend"), shaper Tyler Hatzikian ("South Bay Legend"), shaper Pat Rawson ("Cultural Legend"), and artist John Van Hamersveld ("Cultural Legend").

Van Hamersveld created the iconic poster for the surf film "The Endless Summer" and painted "Hermosa's Great Wave" mural in 2015 at 14th Street and Hermosa Avenue. He grew up on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, attended El Segundo High School, and recalled in an April interview with the Daily Breeze that the early 1950s South Bay surf scene had only about 20 kids at each break, a small tribe building a new generation of surfers and surfboards along the coast.

Spyder Surfboards received a Legacy award at the April ceremony for hosting Spyder Surf Fest for 18 years and operating two retail stores in Hermosa Beach across 43 years in business.

The pier question

The plaques themselves face an uncertain chapter. First installed in 2003, the Hermosa Beach Surfers Walk of Fame now includes 60 bronze plaques embedded in the pier deck, though six have gone missing and been replaced with concrete.

An engineering report found the pier, built in 1965 and stretching 1,140 feet from the Strand, is in "poor to serious condition." The city is weighing high-priority repairs ($3.25 million), full replacement ($44.5 million), or demolition, the New York Post reported in March. Officials have discussed removing existing plaques from the deck and relocating future ones to the handrails, citing structural damage from the bronze installations.

The City Council referred the plaque question to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission earlier this year, according to the Daily Breeze. No public timeline for a decision has been announced.

The Hermosa Beach Surfers Walk of Fame induction weekend is organized in partnership with the South Bay Boardriders Club and includes a kickoff event at the Hermosa Beach Community Center (710 Pier Ave.), the Pier Plaza ceremony, and the South Bay Surf Series competition.