Rider Down: The Electric Surf of Bob Bogle

Bob Bogle created the "Surfing" sound

LOS ANGELES (Shred White and Blue) — No sport other than surfing has its very own music – not skating, snowboarding or even skiing unless you count reggae, and can somehow make an inseparable match for mystic Jamaican rhythms and snow-covered mountains in your mind.

But surfing? Man, that certain clean twang of guitar and snare snap of drums can conjure up the blue waves and bright sunshine every time.

Guitarist Bob Bogle helped create that sound. Bogle, who died on June 14, at the age of 75, was a founding member of the Ventures, whose tightly paced instrumental masterpieces such as “Walk, Don’t Run,” “Hawaii Five-O,” and even their cover of the Surfaris legendary “Wipeout,” set the template for surf music in the 1960s.

John Fogerty (of Creedence Clearwater Revival) called them “the most popular instrumental rock and roll band of all time,” just last year when the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

As for Fogerty’s own two degrees of surf separation? That’s CCR’s Susie Q that the two Playboy bunnies are dancing to in Apocalypse Now, shortly after “Lance” and Robert Duvall grab a quick session amidst the smell of napalm.

Here are two quick YouTube clips of Bogle’s immense contribution to the stoke. Every time the needle hits the wax, he makes you feel paddling.

Thanks, man.

Walk Don’t Run

Wipeout