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Mickey Muñoz statue unveil draws hundreds to honor ‘The Mongoose’

May 16, 2026

Mickey Muñoz’s signature surf move — body hunched over, head tucked between his knees, one arm swung back and the other punching forward — happened in a split second as he tucked into a shorebreak wave.

He didn’t know it at the time, but photographer John Severson was shooting from the shore. A year passed before the image of him in the now-iconic stance would appear in the first issue of Surfer Magazine in 1960. It’s a move dubbed “quasimoto” that 66 years later would be immortalized in a life-size bronze statue in Muñoz’s hometown.

Muñoz, 88, was honored Thursday, May 14, as the newest addition to the Watermen’s Plaza, a collection of local legendary surfers who hail from in and around Dana Point and have made their mark in the surf world, whether through innovation, competition, art, industry or style.

Other past inductees into the Watermen’s Plaza include Severson, innovator Hobie Alter, filmmaker Bruce Brown, champion surfer Phil Edwards, tandem surfers Steve and Barrie Boehne, female champion surfer Joyce Hoffman and brothers Walter and Philip Hoffman.

Earlier this year, Dana Point announced the addition of Lorrin “Whitey” Harrison, whose statue will be unveiled in 2027. All the bronze statues are done by artist Bill Limebrook, who also grew up in Dana Point.

Hundreds of people gathered during the statue unveiling ceremony on Pacific Coast Highway to honor Muñoz, affectionately nicknamed “the Mongoose,” with stories flowing about his influence in the early-era surf culture.

Surfer Mickey MuÃ±oz strikes his famous Quasimodo pose for fans...

Surfer Mickey Muñoz strikes his famous Quasimodo pose for fans during a special ribbon-cutting ceremony for a bronze statue in his honor in Dana Point on Thursday, May 14, 2026. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)

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Muñoz, of Capistrano Beach, started riding waves at age 10, and was one of a handful of surfers who would make the pilgrimage to Hawaii and among the first in the late 50s to charge big waves like Waimea Bay.

As surfing started hitting the mainstream, he was tapped to be a stunt double for Sandra Dee in the 1959 movie, Gidget.

“I looked good in a bikini,” he joked to the crowd.

Muñoz invented stances such as “mysteriouso,” “el telephono,” and, most famously, the “quasimoto,” a unique move that earned him notoriety among the stylists of the era.

He was also one of California’s best competitors, finishing runner-up in the 1962 and 1963 West Coast Championships and third in the 1964 United States Championships, Dana Point Mayor Pro Tem Mike Frost told the crowd.

He was also invited to surf in the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship, one of the highest honors of the time, and won the Tom Morey Invitational, a noseriding championship that was the first paid, professional surf contest.

Champion surfer Joyce Hoffman, who has her own statue in the plaza along with her father and uncle, Walter and Flippy Hoffman, joked that he was “trouble” in his younger years, one of the more colorful figures in the sport.

“He certainly is a legend in surfing and deserves a space here,” she said. “He’s been a fixture in surfing around here, it seems like forever, and a big part of (surfing) maturing, and turning into what it has turned into.”

He became a surfboard shaper and designer, learning from the era’s greats like Joe Quigg, Dale Velzy and Hobie Alter. He worked at the Hobie factory and helped in an operation that put out 200 boards a week.

Hobie’s son Jeff, now executive director of the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, shared stories with the crowd, thanking him for all of the laughs, inspirations, adventures and friendship over the years.

“You’ve lived life most people can only dream about,” he said. “Somehow through it all, you’ve remained the most genuine, humble, joyful people anyone could ever meet.”

Alter talked about Muñoz’s love not just for surfing, but many other passions, including motorcycles, snowboarding and skiing, off-road racing, hang gliding and sailing. On one boat trip to Ensenada, his small catamaran flipped upside down — the surfer was left waiting in the ocean for hours for help to arrive.

Alter likened him to the “Forrest Gump of surfing.”

“Every event we all know about in surfing, somehow Mickey was there,” Alter said. “If Forrest Gump would have grown up at the beach instead of Alabama, he probably would have been Mickey Muñoz.”

In the water, he’s the “ultimate waterman” who was an early adopter of stand-up paddling, and helped spearhead an event dubbed the “Mongoose Cup” held for years in the Dana Point Harbor as the sport grew to promote safety.

Fellow stand-up paddler Colin McPhillips called Muñoz his “co-pilot” on many adventures, from lakes, rivers and surf breaks around the country to longer road trips off Baja’s coast.

He recalled one small surf session when they were out at Rincon, a break near Santa Barbara known for its localized crowds, when a surfer who was with a group of others approached McPhillips.

“Normally, we don’t really like those kinds of boards here,” he told McPhillips, carrying his stand-up paddle, as he got out of the water.

“By the way, is that Mickey Muñoz?”

Soon, the star-struck surfers were handing McPhillips their cameras to get photos with the legendary surfer.

“I get to be lucky enough to still share waves with Mickey, at his favorite points in the desert, hanging out on the beach, having a beer and talking shop until the sun goes down,” he said, calling him the “ultimate California waterman.”

Muñoz, wearing a red and yellow lei around his neck, said he was “flattered, humbled and honored.”

He told stories of adventures with fellow surf legend Corky Carroll, whom he used to take around to surf as a kid, dabbling with Hollywood for his Gidget role and other commercials, and the friends he made through the years, including Jean-Pierre “The Fly” Van Swae, who passed away last month.

He wore a shirt in honor of Fly that read: “Stay stoked till you croak.”

In the crowd, surfer Tony Geria, board member for the Vintage Surfboard Collector’s Club, talked about stories in the book “No Bad Wave,” which highlights Muñoz’s eclectic life.

“The guy has done everything. I call him the world’s oldest grom,” Geria said, the term used for young surfers. “He’s just a legend.”

Mickey Muñoz statue unveil draws hundreds to honor ‘The Mongoose’ Orange County Register

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Mickey Muñoz statue unveil draws hundreds to honor ‘The Mongoose’

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