Dale Webster obit

Dale Webster, Who Surfed For 14,642 Days Straight, Passes Away

With a streak of more than 40 years, the Northern California core lord has gracefully kicked out. 

He was not on the list.

Some records in surfing will never be broken. Kelly Slater’s 11 world titles are top of mind, but in terms of sheer endurance and grit, Dale Webster’s record of surfing 14,642 consecutive days, which is essentially 40 years without missing a session, is virtually unbreakable. Sadly, after 76 laps around the sun, Webster, aka Daily Dale, aka the Daily Wavester, has gracefully kicked out.

Born in Northern California in 1948, Webster started stand-up surfing in 1961. Somewhere along the way he shook the hand of Duke Kahanamoku at the U.S. Championships in Huntington Beach, describing the moment like “liquid sunshine pouring over me.” Eventually moving up to Sonoma County in 1973, Webster’s cosmic calling came into view when the Monster from New Zealand swell hammered the California coast in 1975.

“There was a solid south swell in September and I surfed everyday during the swell,” Webster told SURFER in 2015. “Each day the waves got better and better. After surfing 85 days straight, my friend said, ‘You should try to surf for 100 consecutive days.’ When I got to 100, the story was in the local newspaper. That publicity gave me a little pat on the back to make it to a year. So then the challenge became a year. And so forth.”

Staring with that fateful session on September 3, 1975, Webster would go on to surf for 14,642 more days (riding a confirmed 43,923 waves in the process). Inspired by iconic surf heroes Doc Paskowitz and Phil Edwards, three waves to the beach was Webster’s requirement for each session. 

“Doc Paskowitz and his teachings on health had a big influence on me. He once wrote that in order to be the best surfer in the world, all you had to do was surf one more wave than Phil Edwards. And Phil Edwards didn’t consider a wave a real wave unless you rode it all the way to the beach and you dragged your fin in the sand,” he explained. “So that’s how I surfed: I rode waves all the way to the beach.”

The most hard core of NorCal locals, very little of Webster’s journey was easy. For starters the year-round water temps hover in the low 50s, often dipping down to the upper 40s in the winter. Savage storms lash the inhospitable coast, while giant Great White sharks prowl the depths. And then there’s the personal sacrifice. For 40 years Webster HAD to be by the beach. He suffered through kidney stones and thyroid issues. He even managed to scrape together enough motivation to have a surf the day cancer took his wife’s life.

Growing up surfing the Sonoma County coast in the ’90s, there weren’t a lot of surfers to look up to. Uncrowded and remote, usually Webster was the only person we’d see in the water during our rambling surf checks. He quite literally was always out there. The definition of a “fixture in the lineup.”

What motivated Webster’s streak? Like the free-range lyrics of a Bob Dylan tune, that’s open to interpretation. His response to the question seemed to vary over the years. From making sure he got the most out of a wetsuit warranty, to his desire to break the standing record of consecutive days surfed (a meager 5,280), he once explained to me that his goal was to surf for an entire lunar cycle but had been operating on bad intel for years (when he went to the library in 1975 he mistakenly thought a lunar cycle was 40 years … turns out it’s only 30 days).

Eventually becoming a surf star in his own unique way, in 2003, filmmaker Dana Brown highlighted Webster in his documentary “Step Into Liquid.”

“I once knew this girl who didn’t miss a day of high school in four years. I thought she was weird. #DaleWebster hasn’t missed a day of surfing in #14641 days and I think he’s awesome,” shared Slater in an Instagram post.

Forced to take some time off for a minor medical procedure, on October 5, 2015, Webster’s 40-year streak (40 years, one month and one day, to be specific) came to an end. Living a true surfer’s life for another 10 years, there’s never been another man so committed to the pursuit of riding waves.

“Surfing is really a challenge,” Webster surmised. “Sometimes you end up looking for perfect waves that only exist in magazines. But when you go to the beach, you have to surf the waves you have on hand. It may not be barreling, but the act of putting on a suit, going out there, and just being in the water feels wonderful.”