Its Gillis Time

The Gillis Logo

Gillis Tourney: August 9th & 10th, 8 AM

SAME LOCATION: SOUTH GILLIS

Dockweiler Beach, between Imperial and Grand Ave.

WELCOME TO GILLIS 38!

It’s unbelievable how the tournament gets quite a bit older but we don’t get more mature, AND we get better looking. It must be the vitamin “G.”

We all were awestruck to lose one of our most prized Hall-of-Famers this year with the passing of Robert Chavez. Chavy won nine coveted ‘G” ratings, the first in 1979 with Steve Rottman. His Gillis toasts at Showtime were among the most boring ever, but we knew what to expect and loved all of them. The Chavez family lived in PdR and came to old Gillis as young pups, body surfing and playing on the Gillis Street courts we personally built there through the first decade of The Gillis. He never forgot his roots, always had a kind word for all of the Gillis faithful, and never held his nose higher than anyone else. His competitive fire and desire has been so evident and inspired so many of us to be better at the game we love. He is a Gillis Legend we will surely miss and remember for as long as we keep this tradition alive.

Speaking of tradition, the Gillis design and shirts have become such a phenomenal history unto themselves. We started creating shirts at the 6th Annual, then took a year off before the creative process churned out thirty-one in a row. I see Gillis shirts all over the United States and hear of stories of sightings globally each year. The art has evolved over the decades as well. We are constantly getting comments that certain years are people’s favorites. We have put all of the designs on the HISTORY section of the web-site so you can go and see which ones you have and which are your personal favorites. We would love to hear your votes. Thanks for wearing your oldies to the Gillis each year. We LOVE seeing all of them.

There were so many great memories from last year. With back-to-back nude sightings (male unfortunately) at Showtime, it will be hard to get those memories erased from the children’s minds soon. We hope the traditional theme this year will be “Back to Family Values,” and were not talking about the California Supreme Court’s family values. We’ve now gone back-to-back ties in the Hoffy Plus with last years co-champs Kitto-Lund and Turley-Johnson (Matt, Not Dik of course). The Icazza’s team name this year will be “Always a BridesMaid” since they again couldn’t knock off Hughes and Webster. This was the end of a 20 year drought for Eddie too. It was a great finals that was light on Duck for some reason. The Stevensons finally got back to Gillis glory with Ebba as the King and Keely as the Teen Queen. I’m sure we are all looking forward to Ebba’s speech this year at Showtime.

There were quite a few of the Hall-of-Famers who didn’t make it to The Gillis last year. The Davis Brothers, Metz, Big Murph, Parrs, Machado, Bush, Davin, Arico, Boehles, Rob Duron, Pugsley, Kerker, to name a few. Please get a hold of these folks and tell them we still love them and miss them and want them back in full Gillis spirit. These folks made the Gillis what it is today so give them a gentle nudge.

The beach was in total control last year as we made great strides to control the unruly behavior from previous years. We again want to remind all of you that we do not condone drinking on the beach. Please help the out-of-control folks to get it together so we can continue to host this tradition called The Gillis.

Get your costumes, skits, matching trunks and creative energy flowin.’ Gillis 38 is here!

The Cressmans