Classic car cruise held in memory of Huntington Beach’s Daniel ‘Dano’ Patten and Tommy Simpson
It was the kind of classic car cruise that Daniel “Dano” Patten would have loved to film.
More than 100 cars drove down the streets of downtown Huntington Beach on Wednesday night, cruising through the fog down Pacific Coast Highway from Warner Avenue to Brookhurst Street.
The only thing missing was “Dano.”
Surf City Classics car club held a memorial ride starting at Lake Park to honor Patten as well as another late member, Tommy Simpson.
Patten, was a well-known Huntington Beach-based videographer who shot video of car shows and other Surf City events for his “Dano Live” YouTube channel, which has more than 10,000 subscribers. He died on Christmas Day.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Patten, 66, was filming an illegal street race in Carson when two cars crashed into each other and went into the crowd. He died at the scene, police said.
The following day, Simpson, 72, another Surf City Classics club member who lived in Huntington Beach, died after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. He left behind his daughters, Renic and Airyn, as well as three grandchildren.
“We’re going to do this every year for Dano and for Tommy,” said Brian Almas, an Irvine resident who is the president of Surf City Classics. “Dano was loved by everybody coast to coast, Ventura to San Diego. But at the end of the day, this is where he hung his hat up. When the cameras went off, we were his family.”
Almas said the club will be giving out the “Sweetest Ride” trophy once a month in Patten’s honor.
The city of Huntington Beach put up a banner on Main Street Wednesday honoring Patten and thanking him for “capturing our H.B. lifestyle.”
Patten, who is survived by his girlfriend, Tammy LaFlamme, and brother, Russ Patten, of Orange, filmed events all over. The recent videos on his YouTube page include a Malibu Cars and Coffee event and a quarantine ride in Tustin.
But he called Surf City Classics home, Almas said, taking video at each Wednesday night meetup and cruise at Lake Park. Almas said Patten was instrumental in building Surf City Classics from eight members when it started three years ago, to more than 400 members now.
“He went to every car show, seven days a week,” Almas said. “No one’s ever going to do that. No one will ever be Dano. Not only that, but for sunsets, for surfers, for the whole [Huntington Beach] community. If something was going on in H.B., he was a part of it.”
Lyn Semeta, who served as Huntington Beach’s mayor in 2020, made a Facebook post on Dec. 26 that Patten “touched so many lives and documented so many important occasions in our city with his photos and unique narrative.”
“I found so many photos tonight that he took, but my favorite has to be the times when he was there with us to welcome the military jet teams flying in to the Los Alamitos Air Base for the air show,” Semeta wrote. “It was such a privilege for me to be there — and Dano felt the same. You will be missed but never forgotten.”
Wednesday night’s memorial cruise featured a candlelight vigil before the ride. T-shirts and other merchandise were also sold, with the proceeds going to the Huntington Beach youth shelter.
Patten’s signature phrase was “Hey, hey, hey,” and he would refer to his friends as “bro-skis,” Almas said. He was known for his red sunglasses, and loved distributing “Dano Live” stickers.
“If you passed by while he was filming you, he would say, ‘That car sounds pretty good, but it would sound a little better if you gave it another five horsepower with the sticker,’” said Surf City Classics member Rey Venegas of Chino Hills.
Venegas brought his 1939 Chevrolet Ram Rod to the cruise. Patrick Comfort of Westminster, another friend of Patten, brought a red 1960 Volkswagen Bug.
“Dano just crapped his pants over it when I first saw it,” Comfort said with a grin. “Him and I were Volkswagen freaks. He was like, this is a hot rod!”
Russell De Bie of Huntington Beach admired Patten’s work ethic.
“He was everywhere, and it was kind of like a friendly feeling,” De Bie said. “If you didn’t know anybody, and let’s say you just went downtown for breakfast? You knew you would run into Dano, almost anywhere you go downtown. Any car event, he was just always there.”
A public memorial service for Patten isn’t planned, Almas said. He encouraged people to donate to the Huntington Beach youth shelter in Patten’s memory.
“He gave us memories for a lifetime, with all of those videos,” Almas said. “But you know what? With everything that’s happened, I realize that he was giving us a memory of him.”
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