By ERIC BENEVIDES
Sports writer
The summer of ’69 has been best known as the time man first set foot on the moon and small Woodstock, N.Y. entertained the world’s largest concert for an entire weekend. Sixteen summers later, Bryan Adams penned the hit song ‘Summer of ’69’ that instantly landed in the Top 10 on the Billboard charts.
For Peter Pan, that summer holds a special place in his heart because it was that August when he copped his very first surfing title by capturing the New England Surfing Championships in Newport.
“That was a long time ago,” said the Pawtucket resident, who 40 years later, and at the age of 59, still ventures to Narragansett Town Beach to either ride the waves or teach his craft to aspiring surfers through his Peter Pan Surfing Academy.

“The first contest I surfed in was ’67 and I didn’t do that good in it,” added Pan. “I did better in another contest in ’68, and the next year, I won the New England championship. I was actually surfing with guys from Pawtucket and my best friend that I surfed with was Warren Geraghty, who worked at Tolman High.”
It wasn’t the first time Pan tasted success -- six months earlier, he helped the then-University of Rhode Island surf team claim the first-ever New England intercollegiate title in Narragansett -- and it certainly wasn’t the last.
For the next four decades, Pan surfed in competitions around New England, up and down the East Coast and California, and in foreign water. He racked up hundreds of victories and collected countless trophies that usually found their ways into the recycling bin because there was no room to store them in his Sayles Avenue house.
“I couldn’t tell you how many (competitions I won),” remarked Pan. “I just lost count. I just like (competitions) because they’re fun and good exercise -- a good way to stay active and motivated.”
Pan has experienced a lot of memorable moments in his surfing career, such as making the finals of the competitive National Bodyboard Championships in 1986 in Oceanside, Calif. and becoming one of the first inductees into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in 1996.
In 1999, Pan took the longest trip of his life when he went to the land Down Under to compete in a longboard tournament in Noosa Beach, Australia, and he came away with an impressive fifth-place showing.
“I did pretty good,” added Pan. “It was weird being in a different area in the world like Australia, but it was fun. The waves were fun and the kind I like, and I did a great job there.”
These days, Pan is the elder statesman on the Gansett Juice surf team, which has won numerous Eastern Surfing Association regional team titles and seen several of its younger surfers enjoy individual success. 
Pan also works out of the Gansett Juice surf shop on Narragansett Avenue in Narragansett with his son, Ted, who owns the business, and daughter, Tricia, who runs it, but his “office” is down the road at the beach where he teaches lessons to folks of all ages.
“The lesson business has been incredible,” reported Pan. “This has been the most lessons I’ve ever done -- since 1978 when I started. It seems like the economy has made a big difference because I don’t think a lot of people are traveling as much and they are staying around here.”
While Pan has seen a rise in lessons this year, he has also seen a decrease in sales on surfboards and surfing supplies.
“I think that the market is flooded with a lot of overseas imports,” admitted Pan. “Surf shops are stacked up with a lot of inventory and they can’t sell it, especially here, because we’ve had rain and the weather’s been awful.”
Gansett Juice, which was known as the Watershed for nearly 25 years before changing its name in 2001, has done its best to keep up with the latest trends and styles over the year, but Pan noticed that some of the surfboard designs from yesteryear have come back over the past summers.
“They’re just going around in circles,” said Pan. “People are riding the same stupid designs they were riding in 1970. We used to ride fishes (wide, short surfboards) in the early 70s, and we were riding longboards in the ’60s until they went completely out, and now they’re back in.”
The newest trend in surfing is standup paddle (SUP) surfing, which is very popular on the West Coast and Hawaii and just starting to grab interest on the East Coast. In SUP surfing, one stands on a large surfboard and propels themselves forward with a paddle.
Surprisingly, Pan’s last surfing competition was the inaugural New England Standup Championship on July 4 in Narragansett, and despite having little experience in SUP surfing, Pan was able to claim both the Senior Open and Open Traditional Longboard titles.
“When I started selling them, I figured I’d better learn how to use it,” added Pan with a grin. “The first time I did it, I hated it, but when I started getting into it, I realized that it’s kind of fun.
“It’s actually been around for 100 years. New England hasn’t even touched the popularity, but it should in maybe another year or so. I’ve done lessons with them and there hasn’t been much interest at all.”
Pan’s last competition was at the ESA’s (Eastern Surfing Association) Cape Cod Championships on July 18 at Cape Cod’s Whitecrest Beach. Pan had to deal with a very tough customer in the Legends division in Cape Cod legend Chick Frodigh, but Pan was able to stave off Frodigh in the shortboard and longboard for the double victory.
With just a few weeks remaining in the summer, you’d think Pan would be getting ready to store away his surfboards for the summer. Not a chance.
Pan has a handful of competitions and more surf lessons penciled in on his busy schedule, along with the kickboxing classes he teaches at Gold’s Gym in Warwick and his duties as the ESA’s president, a post he has held since 1972, and as a contributor to the website northeastsurfing.com.
“I’m just looking forward to the fall when (the beach) is less crowded and there will be better waves,” admitted Pan. “I just intend to keep surfing. It’s my job. That’s what I do for a living, surf and teach lessons, and I’m going to surf until I drop.”