Heritage, Craft & Evolution: Surfboard Design 1885 – 1959

[billie_morini]

BaNZ's and billie's favorite break in the whole wide world - San O! (Don't be mislead, billie has surfed only in California)

[billie_morini]

Exhibit feature. Closeups provided below. (1)

[billie_morini]

Exhibit feature. Closeups provided below. (2)
Yes #1: Mother of Pearl inlays!
Yes #2: Riveted metal construction!

[billie_morini]

San O! (this is literally where BaNZ surfs)

[billie_morini]

Inlay 1

[billie_morini]

Inlay 2.

[billie_morini]

Honest to God metal work (1)

[billie_morini]

Honest to God metal work (2)

[billie_morini]

Honest to God metal work (3)

[billie_morini]

Honest to God metal hull. Titanic?

[billie_morini]

The museum theater was running surf movies. "They May Be Giants?" Naw. Sadly, no popcorn, either.

[billie_morini]

In addition to art contributions in this exhibit, notable artists John Comer and Kevin Ancell contributed, too. The museum provides these bios for each of them.

John Comer’s painting career began in 1968 with his first solo gallery exhibition in Santa Barbara and has been intermingled with surfing and sailing voyages to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, the Pacific Islands, and Africa. His paintings reflect the colors, light and atmosphere that make our maritime environment so unforgettable.

Kevin Ancell, who grew up in Southern California’s surfing scene, explores art as an expression of the inner self, and draws on the painting styles of Spanish, Italian and Flemish classical art. He also taught and studied in China before returning to the United States. Today, he divides his time between surfing, shaping surfboards, and painting.

[billie_morini]

This exquisite exhibit was sponsored by the George H. & Olive J. Griffiths Charitable Foundation, Mimi Michaelis, Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation, and Wood-Claeyssens Foundation.

A 31-page book called "Heritage, Craft & Evolution: Surfboard Design 1885-1959" includes pictures of the entire exhibit and was self-published by John Comer and Suzette Curtis this year. Copies are available in the SBMM’s Museum Store for $28. It is possible for you to order this book directly from the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. If this proves difficult, then contact me. I'll go to the museum gift shop to attempt to purchase the book for my Surfing Wave Forum Brothers & Sisters.

[BoMan]

This is the first exhibit in this mesmerizing exhibit. I did not know this! The first surfers on USA shoreline were three Hawaiian brothers attending boarding school near Santa Cruz, California. The Kawananakoa brothers surfed the San Lorenzo River mouth in 1885!

I didn't know this either. Zooming on the image you can see how hard it was to carry those boards to the water!

[oldmansurfer]

Of course they were in boarding school so they went boarding

[oldmansurfer]

Any talk of the first to surf anywhere has to be qualified with the first recorded...somewhere to be surfing somewhere. I have heard a few different versions of who was the first to surf in California and in reality who would have known if someone surfed somewhere? Had to be someone around recording it for prosperity when surfing in California in those days was a solitary sport.