Today’s high-flying surfers are making history; they just don’t know it yet. And wherever there is history, there has to be a repository for it. We call such places museums.
Although surfing is far older than, say, baseball, many are surprised to learn that surfing has a much longer history. Perhaps more surprising is that just down the street from you, in Oceanside, is one of the finest surf museums in the world.
California Surf Museum is located at 312 Pier View Way in Oceanside. Admission is $7 for adults, and $5 for seniors (62+), students and military personnel. Children 11 and under are admitted free, as are CSM members. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. CSM is fairly small, but there is a lot to take in, so plan on spending several hours.
Take your time. Read slowly. Examine some of surfing’s most significant craft one at a time until you start seeing the threads connecting our evolution. A hundred years go by in a flash as aliases turn to redwood planks, to hollow paddleboards, to 10-foot, three-stringered signature models.
By the late ’60s, Aussie Vee bottoms and Hawaiian mini guns freed us to ride closer to the curl. By the ’70s, Hynson’s down rails led us into and out of the barrel.
If the card attached to the board still leaves you wanting more, ask one of CSM’s knowledgeable staff to fill you in on the rest of the story. From there, it’s easy to imagine such boards strapped to the roof of a $25 live-in, rust-and-duct tape junker prowling the California coast, the North Shore of Oahu, and regions beyond, in search of surf.
As a surf historian, I have recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with legendary subjects, including Phil Edwards, Dale Velzy, Joey Cabell, Margo Oberg and Linda Benson. Long after the foam from their legendary waves has cleared, they are left standing, forever memorialized through images and words in the surf movies, magazines, and at the California Surf Museum.
CSM was founded by Jane Schmauss and Stuart Resor when Jane’s Encinitas restaurant ran out of ceiling space. Jane continues on staff at the museum as a surf historian.
CSM’s current president, Jim Kempton, has a surf resume too long to publish here, so here are a few bullet points. Jim is the former editor and publisher of Surfer Magazine. Aside from the many words engraved in the “bible of the sport,” Kempton’s literary contributions include the books “First We Surf, Then We Eat,” “Surfing: The Manual,” and “Women on Waves.”
I recently began partnering with CSM on my newest book project, the soon-to-be-released coffee table edition of “Good Things Love Water.” To learn more about our partnership and to pre-order a limited edition copy, visit: perelandrapublishing.com.
To learn more about the California Surf Museum, visit: surfmuseum.org
