In Gremmie’s Reef–a 1964 science fiction short story in the anthology Reawakened Worlds Vol 1 by (John) Hayden Howard–a teen surfing off the Santa Barbara, California coast finds something bizarre.

Previously published in If Worlds of Science Fiction, October 1964 (illustrated by Finlay) the story Gremmie’s Reef puts us in the flip-flops of a young teenager. He is an eager surfer, but desperate for his older teen brother’s attention. We first meet young Ted at the beach:

A strange new sight off the Santa Barbara coast . . .

Then Ted sees, offshore, some terrific new swells. It’s strange–as if giant waves are over a submerged reef he knows can’t be there. Still, he gets excited about trying to surf. He has some success. That is, despite getting clobbered in the process and getting something oddly purple on his skin.

Ted rushes home to tell his brother David. Maybe, finally, his brother will pay attention to him.

David gets very annoyed at Ted bothering him. He keeps calling him a “gremmie. ” (That’s 1960s slang for an inexperienced and objectionable surfer.) He finally goes with Ted to the beach, though David doesn’t believe there are any strange new swells at Chalk Cliff.

Then they both encounter something even more bizarre, and the story takes an ironic and subtly humorous intergalactic twist.

As I review what I like about this story, I think Hayden Howard showed well what it can be like for a teen in any era to feel ignored and sometimes bullied by a sibling. The author himself only had a sister. Yet perhaps when young he had peers bully him, so might have known what that felt like. (He had an ear deformity he hid most of his life under long hair, but when he was a child long hair was not in style.)

That human element, mixed into an entertaining science fiction tale, gives Howard’s characters depth. Meanwhile, slang throughout the story immerses me in the 1960s.

Here’s a copy of the cover of the 1964 science fiction magazine in which this story by (John) Hayden Howard was originally published. Other authors in this publication included Robert A. Heinlein. Below that is a 2023 anthology of Howard’s works, Reawakened Worlds, Vol 1. In that book is the full story of Gremmie’s Reef, including its surprise ending.