SurfWriter Girls: March 2026

Saturday, March 21, 2026

Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum is Moving On Up!

New Location Has More Stoke to Share

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti are excited to hear that the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum is moving on up - down Main Street to its new location to join the city's library complex.

It will have even more stoke to share than it did when we wrote this milestone story in 2014 about its then new exhibit Century of Stoke:

Exhibit Director Dave Reynolds was on his hands and knees at Huntington Beach's International Surfing Museum, carefully laying cut-out footprints on the floor to welcome the museum's guests.

The footprints, arranged in chronological order around the main exhibit area, “each represent a milestone in the history of Huntington Beach and the people who went before,” Reynolds told SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel.

And what a history it’s been – taking the tiny community, once known as Shell Beach before oil and rail car mogul Henry E. Huntington put his name on it, and turning it into the surfing capital of the world.

The 100-year procession of visionaries, entrepreneurs, surfers, board shapers, artists, community leaders, and more who forged HB into the Surf City USA of today is on display in Century of Stoke, curated by Reynolds and surfing’s first professional world champion Peter (PT) Townend.

From the original 1914 cornerstone of the Huntington Beach Pier…

To colorful surfboards used by surfing legends…

A statue of Duke Kahanamoku…

Awards and vintage photos…

Paintings and artworks…

Beach music record album covers…

Movie posters…

Even a replica of Gordie Duane’s famous surfboard shop…

The milestones are here.

And the memories…especially the memory of Natalie Kotsch, the transplanted Canadian and non-surfer, whose desire to preserve Huntington Beach’s surfing history led to the creation of the International Surfing Museum in 1987.

The spirit of museum founder and muse Natalie, who passed away February 2013, is intensely present in the exuberance of the exhibit itself and within the hearts of those who are carrying on her legacy.

To help the museum reach its new goals, proceeds from Huntington Beach’s 100 Years of Surfing events scheduled this year have been designated to benefit the International Surfing Museum.

Tony Soriano, Chairperson of the Surfrider Foundation's Huntington/Seal Beach Chapter, told SurfWriter Girls, “Surfrider is helping to promote the museum’s fund-raising efforts. It shares many of the same educational goals that we have and deserves as much support as the community can give it. The International Surfing Museum is preserving our surf culture and is recognizing the achievements that improve our sport and the beach community.”

Looking around at everyone enjoying the Century of Stoke exhibit, SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti were definitely “picking up good vibrations.”

Now that Huntington Beach is celebrating its centennial summer we’re excited to see where the next footprints lead!

Today in 2026, we know that the footprints are moving on up to the museum's new location at the HB library complex...and a new chapter in its storied history.

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

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.

Sunday, March 1, 2026

CSUF Students Restoring Oyster Beds

Living Shorelines Project Protects Ecosystem

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Marine biology and zoology students at CSU Fullerton are learning how to protect coastal ecosystems by participating in the Living Shorelines Project initiated by CSUF and Orange County Coastkeeper to restore OC’s Olympia Oyster beds.

SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti learned that the Olympia Oyster population along California's coastline has been declining due to loss of habitats, pollution and overharvesting.

This puts the species at risk and threatens marine ecosystems that depend on the oysters to bond together and build oyster beds – living structures that prevent erosion and provide homes to sea life.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has been supporting Living Shorelines Projects across the country, says they can help “stabilize coastal areas, reducing erosion while improving habitat, water quality, and resilience.”

As a CSUF grad, Sunny is glad that the Fullerton students are making a difference in restoring oyster beds in Alamitos Bay, Huntington Harbor and Newport Bay. When Sunny was in high school, she had a similar experience, doing scientific research on the Newport Beach Back Bay Estuary measuring changes in water temperatures.

Now, under the direction of CSUF biological sciences professor Danielle Zacherl and her former student Kaysha Kenney (now marine restoration director at OC Coastkeeper), students are working with Orange County Coastkeeper to restore the dwindling oyster beds.

Local restaurants are on board, too, providing discarded oyster shells. Instead of going in the trash, the shells are being used for the project.

Students clean the shells, attach them to strings, and lower the shell strings into the ocean from area docks, providing sites where oyster larvae can attach during the oysters' breeding cycle.

At the end of the cycle in early fall, students will pull up the shell strings and transfer them to oyster beds undergoing restoration...where the oysters attach themselves and bond together...