The Epic Wet & Wild Photography of Don Hurzeler From the Palos Verdes Peninsula to a Tropical Paradise
Don Hurzeler moved to Palos Verdes Estates in 1954, at the age of 7. His parents, Jim and Coleen, built a house in the Montemalaga area…a small house with a commanding view of the Queens Necklace, the mountains and all the way to Orange County and beyond. This past summer, Don and his family sold that house…with tears in their eyes (and money in their pockets). Don’s daughter and her family still live in Palos Verdes and his son and his family live nearby in Long Beach. PV continues to be core to the Hurzeler family.
PVE was quite different in 1954. The street in front of the Hurzeler home was a dirt road. Mountain lions were still living on the hill. Haggarty’s surf spot had an intact, but falling-down, pier attached to what is now the Neighborhood Church.
For a young explorer and surfer, living in PV was exciting and full of fun. Summers were spent at Rat and the PV Pool. Winters brought great surf to The Cove and Lunada Bay. Lobsters and abalone were in abundance. Life was good.
Don attended Malaga Cove grade school and was then part of the first class to spend all four years at Palos Verdes High School, where he graduated as part of the Class of 1965. Don was co-captain of the track and field team and placed in the hurdles in the CIF and California State Championships.
In between all the normal stuff, Don managed to sneak into Marineland one evening with a friend. He tells me that alcohol may have been involved. He then attempted to mount an orca to give it ride around the enclosure. That did not turn out well and contributed to Don giving up alcohol and orca riding at a relatively early age.
So what happened to Don? He left PV in 1965 to build his own life. That life earned him NCAA Division 2 All American Team status in Track and a degree at Chapman University. He and his wife, Linda got married in college and are still married to this day. They now live in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii…after living in 14 places before his retirement to Hawaii.
What makes Don interesting for this article is that he ended up as a CEO of a major insurance company and spent 40 years in corporate America…and then retired to become a professional photographer and author. Don now swims with salt water crocodiles in Mexico and sharks all over the world, to get his photos. He hikes for miles to photograph the lava flows on the Big Island. Don is still in the surf as a wave photographer and loves it. He notes there are not a lot of 74 year old surf photographers in the line up.
One of Don’s seven books, What’s Left of Don, was a 2020 Amazon #1 Best Seller. A new book, Suddenly Retired, is due out soon.
And just to show how the circle of life works…two of Don’s grand kids attend Palos Verdes High School today. Both are involved in athletics. Another grandkid is a star baseball player in Long Beach and two more grandkids will likely follow the athletic path.
Don’s only regrets in life… he wishes he and his family bought more land on the hill.
Today, Don can be found in the surf or out snorkeling in the warm, clear waters of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Better yet, Hawaii has an erupting volcano, perfect for an explorer and photographer.
Don and Linda are “lucky to live Hawaii” for the past fourteen year and claims to have never experienced an unhappy day on the island.
However, he does admit that he thinks of PV often…as it stands today and as it was. And what he misses most from those early days on the hill are growing up with a great set of friends and neighbors and the unimaginable freedom enjoyed in those days. He claims that he was raised like a free range chicken, able to hitch hike to get around town, to go out in surf that would scare any parent and to carry around a bow and arrow or small caliber gun to protect himself from rattle snakes when he hiked the canyons…not as a highly trained, accredited, licensed gun owner…but as a 12 year old kid whose dad treated guns like tools…there for protection and to be treated with respect and care.
And the best part of his freedom, no cell phones. Don was basically on his own and no one could track him or reach him until he decided to come home. Don always knew when dinner was served and he made sure to sneak in the door a few minutes prior. And, get this, dinner always included beer for Don…from about age 9 on. Or a milkshake made using 31 Flavors Baskin and Robbins ice cream from the Hollywood Rivera store mixed with crème de menthe. His dad felt the alcohol would whet Don’s appetite and help him grow from the skinny kid he was in those days. That did not work, but it did make him (temporarily) unafraid of orcas.
You can catch up with Don Hurzeler on Facebook. He is also on Instagram @donhurzeler. His book writing website is donhurzeler.com and his photography website is lavalightgalleries.com.
For a kid who grew up on the mean streets of Palos Verdes Estates, parented in a way that would land everyone in jail today, but supported, coached and loved…Don came out alright. A PV boy who fully understands how lucky he was that his parents built their dream home on a hill with a million lights sparkling below…or a fog bank a thousand feet thick.
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