In 1965 La Jolla born Encinitas surfer Rusty Miller was the top rated surfer in the Unites States – the year before he had graduated from SDSU with a BA in history. Miller went on to compete in the 1966 world championships and final in the Duke Invitational in 1967 and 1968. Hamm’s beer purchased the famous image of a 19 year old Rusty hammering down a massive Sunset Beach bomb with self confessed ‘four foot and under man’, Malibu legend Miki Dora scratching up the face and put it on billboards around the country. Ironically Hamm’s saw fit to obscure Dora with a massive glass of beer.
In 1971 Rusty was the captured on in the classic psychedelic surf film Morning of the Earth surfing the iconic break at Uluwatu in Bali with Australian Steve ‘Butch’ Cooney for the first time. Recent research suggests that 40 years later around 250 000 people surf Uluwatu each year. With Leucadia surf legend Mike Doyle Rusty founded the first successful surf wax company ‘Surf Research’ before moving to Australia’s Byron Bay and operating a successful surf school. It is therefore particularly fitting that Rusty is returning to his alma mater to help launch the world’s first Center for Surf Research on September 17th at the SDSU Alumni Center.