It’s a way to pay homage to surfing’s greats, the South Bay icons who paved the way on the waves.

The annual Surfers Walk of Fame induction will happen at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 23, at Hermosa Beach’s Pier Plaza, followed by the Spyder Surf Fest that brings out the surf industry for an afternoon of fun.

Surfers Nick Christensen, Josette Lagardere, Charlie Quesnel and John Teague will be inducted.

The Walk of Fame ceremony returns after a two-year, pandemic-induced hiatus, allowing the four surfers to be honored in person.

“The way we figured it, we could have done a virtual thing, but why would we want to do that?” said Dennis Jarvis, owner of Spyder Surfboards and a board member for the Surfers Walk of Fame.

“They’re all great surfers and have done a lot of good stuff for the sport,” Jarvis added. “We just wanted to ensure they get their day in the limelight.”

The ceremony will give the surfers an opportunity to share stories from the past and educate the next wave of board riders about the sport’s history, Jarvis said.

“It’s super important to keep your heritage,” he added. “That’s the beauty of it, we have all these different generations.”

The festivities will begin at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 22, for a Surfers Walk of Fame kickoff party at the Community Theater, 710 Pier Ave.

That party will include screening a surf film by Brad Jacobson and handing out the South Bay Surf Awards, which honors the best waves ridden — and the best wipeouts — during the winter season throughout the region.

The awards are put on by the Hermosa Beach Historical Society and the South Bay Boardriders Club.

The next day, following the Surfers Walk of Fame, the Spyder Fest will gather various surf brands, which will give back to the community.

“They give back by giving away a bunch of big stuff,” Jarvis said of the festival, which will have booths, carnival-like games and more.

Hermosa Beach and the Surfers Walk of Fame put together a video that gives information about the honorees’ lives and surfing careers. Below is a bit about each inductee.

Nick Christensen

Christensen has been a prominent surfer in the South Bay for the past 45 years, riding waves throughout the South Bay from the Avenues, Manhattan Beach Pier, El Porto and all the way up to the Big Jetty at Hammerland.

He was part of the NSSA National Team and competed on the World Surf League Championship Tour for three years, making several main events in the mid-1980s.

Following his stint on the World Tour, he went back to school and graduated from UCLA.

He became involved in what would evolve into the largest surfing internet website in the industry, Surfline.com, teaming up with founder Sean Collins to develop the technology that helped predict surf conditions.

Christensen still calls South Bay home, living in Manhattan Beach.

Josette Lagardere

Lagardere is known as one of the South Bay’s first female surfing champions and top longboard surfers of the 1960s.

She ranked in the finals in almost every contest she entered in the 1960s and her surfing talent earned her a spot on both the legendary Dewey Weber Surfboard Team and Jacobs Surf Team. In 1965, at 19, she defeated the reigning world champion, Joyce Hoffman, in the Laguna Masters surfing contest, one of the most-respected surf contests at the time.

That same year, Lagardere ranked second in the United States Surfing Association and ranked fifth in the Surfer Magazine poll.

In 1968, Lagardere moved to Queensland, Australia, and in 1969, she won both the Queensland state and the Australian national titles.

Shortly after, she withdrew from the surf competition scene, opting to enjoy the waves and beach culture of Queensland’s Gold Coast and the neighboring beaches.

Charlie Quesnel is being honored as the Surfers Walk of Fame “South Bay Legend.” Quesnel is seen here in an ad for Dive N Surf. (Photo courtesy of Quesnel)

Charlie Quesnel

Quesnel has been a surfing icon since the 1960s, boasting a love for the sport that started when he was 10. At age 11, he bought a board from South Bay legend and fellow Surfers Walk of Fame inductee Bing Copeland.

This connection led Quesnel to appear in several Bing Surfboard ads in Surfer Magazine and to become a member of the Bing surf team.

He competed in the United States Surfing Association and the Western Surfing Association. He was a member of the Bay Cities Surf Club and was instrumental in winning many championships for the team.

In 1964, Quesnel began visiting Hawaii, where he spent time surfing the North Shore. In 1970, he opened his own surfboard shop, Charlie Q surfboards, and for two years built and sold boards under his name. His shop was down the street from Bing’s factory in Hermosa Beach.

He eventually moved to Hawaii and today plays an active role in the Surfrider Foundation’s Maui Chapter, which he had been a part of for more than 20 years.

He currently serves as treasurer and volunteers his time for beach clean ups and other events.

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John Teague

Teague began surfing in Hermosa Beach in 1960. He is known as one of the finest longboard surfers of his time and a top competitor, winning or placing in the finals of most of the contests he entered from 1962 through 1964.

Some of Teague’s notable wins include third place in the Huntington Beach surf contest junior division in 1962, first place in the Santa Monica mid-winter championships in 1962 and 1963, and first place in the Hermosa Beach Surf Festival junior division in 1962 and 1963. He also made it to the semifinals in the first world contest in Oceanside in 1964.

He stopped competing shortly after, accumulating more than 35 surfing trophies, on display in the original Jacobs Surfboards Shop.

In 1967, he was featured in the film “Blue Safari,” among other legends, such as Ricky Gregg and Greg Noll.