EverythingSURF: Surf History & Culture

Last Year we were taking a trip to Huntington Beach and on our way back to the car we passed by the International Surfing Museum. I had always heard about this museum but had never really thought about or actually pursued to check it out. Since the museum is FREE of charge, and yes....you read correctly...free of charge. So being that we had no plans later that evening and we were passing by it anyways we decided to go in and check out the fascinating surf memorabilia.

The museum includes so many interesting things from history. Especially the fact that Huntington Beach is "Surf City" and is the most surfed beach on the west coast, this is the perfect place for a surf history museum to be located in. In the museum they have everything that has to do with surfing...like:

>old surfing films

>surf music (records, album covers, and samples)

>trophies & awards

>photographs and posters of events and surf championships

>old surf boards (longboards, shortboards, etc..)

In 1767, The first people to observe surfing were the Europeans and then the first American to actually observe the art and sport of surfing was Captain Cook in 1778 in Hawaii. Surfing is a big aspect of the Polynesian culture and believe it or not but the sport of surfing and the art of carving boards actually disappeared for a while because of the ban over the hawaiin culture...finally at the begininning of the 20th century surfing was revived again by protesters of the disapperance or the Hawaiin culture and the "Ambassador of Aloha" Duke Kahanamoku actually played a huge role in exposing the world to surfing. Surfing in the beginning was a very low-key sport that no one knew about and heard of. The main destinations for surfing in the early years were only 3, Hawaii, California, and Australia. That soon grew throughout the years after the popularity of the sport exploded. The popularity grew after things like movies, music, and books were based around surfing and set in beaches. Some early movies that put surfing on the map were Gidget and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (which actually portrayed the stereotype of a "surfer")

(^Pictured above: Movie Poster "Gidget" and movie poster of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and Spicoli at the beach surfing^)

Another Popular surf culture icon was The Beach Boys. The Beach Boys were most known for their melodic vocal harmonies and songs about California culture like Surfing, Beaches, Cars, and Girls. The Beach Boys formed in 1961 by a guy named Brian Wilson, the group also included his brothers, Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine, this band also had early members David Marks and later bandmate Bruce Johnston. They have all become part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.