A Wave of Treasures to
Enjoy
In Oceanside, California, just steps from the
beach and municipal fishing pier, there is a surfing treasure waiting to be
explored – the California Surf Museum.
Filled with surf paintings, photographs,
classic boards, mementoes, and displays, it is a welcoming beacon of surf lore
in a beach-loving town.
Navigating the well-designed, inviting space, SurfWriter
Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel kept making new discoveries. And with two,
classic rattan chairs placed in front of a giant wave backdrop, we were ready
to kick back and soak it all in.
From the larger-than-life image of renowned
board-shaper Donald Takayama shaping one of the boards surfers have dubbed as
"magical," we were drawn into this special place. With his six
decades of board shaping prowess, Takayama is the perfect one to put
front-and-center by the museum's entry.
Nearby we saw an exhibit of a totally
different kind of board – an homage to Tom Morey, the creator of the Boogie
Board, that soft, flexible piece of colorful foam that has given fun and
enjoyment to so many.
Walking through the Timeline of Surfboards display took us on a journey through time that makes you want to grab each board and take it to the ocean.
While much has been said about the Zen of
surfing, there's a science to it. The bright, yellow buoy in the museum's Wave
Science display shows how buoys operated by the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography’s Coastal Data Information Program monitor ocean temperature and
wave direction to predict swells, letting people know when "Surf's
up!"
SurfWriter Girls were lucky to run into Jane
Schmauss, the museum's historian, and find out how the museum got started and
has grown since it was founded by a handful of surfers in 1986.
Schmauss said it took dedication from surfers
and the community. She donated a corner of her restaurant in Encinitas,
George's Restaurant, for the museum's first location. Later it moved to other
SoCal spaces until finally landing at its current spot.
Since those first surfers got together to talk
about preserving surf history their vision has grown into a premiere surfing
museum that has hosted more than 650,000 visitors from around the world and
holds an annual gala to celebrate surfing.
SurfWriter Girls found out about the surf
museum from Tom Gibbons, a member of the board of directors and its history/social
sciences consultant, when he invited us to the museum's 14th Annual Gala
in Carlsbad.
The festive gala in November honored leaders
in the surfing community and presented three Silver Surfer Awards
to pioneer surfboard shaper Bing Copeland, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and
Kathy Zuckerman (AKA "Gidget").
Located at 312 Pier View Way in Oceanside, the California Surf Museum is right in the middle of all the action for a day of surfing, fishing, or sight-seeing.
Sunny Magdaug and Patti
Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications
wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com
Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites
as long as credit is given.
