History of Surfing in California

Nothing much happened after that until 1907 when George Freeth came to California from Hawaii. After demonstrating surfing in Redondo Beach he stayed in California and continued to surf until his death in 1919.

Famous Hawaiian surfer Duke Kahanamoku surfed Ocean Beach, San Diego in 1916 and subsequently inspired Olympic swimming teammate Tom Blake. In the 1920's both Blake and Kahanamoku surfed and gave demonstrations throughout California.

The 1930's saw the rise of surf clubs in major surfing areas of California. During this time Tom Blake patented the Hollow Surfboard and it went into production. World War II halted most surfing innovation for a few years.

World War II created advancements in the plastics industry and Bob Simmons was able to put this to use by creating the first balsa and fiberglass covered surfboard in the late 1940's. By the 1950's Dale Velzy opened California's first surfboard shop in Manhattan Beach. Soon after, surfing exploded in popularity.

By the end of the 1950's, foam and fiberglass had taken over as the standard surfboard. Hollwood released Gidget in 1959. Maybe not popular amongst surfers but it showed growing recognition in popular culture. That same year the first West Coast Surfing Championship was held at Huntington Beach. Surfing documentaries like The Endless Summer received critical acclaim in the mid 1960's.

Surfboard manufacturers thrived in the early and mid 1960's but that changed by end of the decade. The shortboard revolution put the brakes on the traditional companies and regular competitions faded significantly.

The 1970's started out as a slow as competitions were few and surfboard manufacturing returned to surfers backyards. The history of surfing in California went into a quiet period. Twin-fins became popular and by the mid-late 1970's regular competitions were re-forming.

Surfing in California exploded in the 1980's and the state became part of the Word Pro Tour schedule. The Surfrider foundation was launched in 1984 as the first surfing environmental group. California surfers like Tom Curren, Brand Gerlach, and Christian Fletcher were among the best surfers in the world. The end of the 1980's saw a resurgence in longboarding.

Big Wave surf spot Mavericks received world wide attention in 1992 and in 2001 gigantic waves were riden at Cortez Banks, 100 miles of San Diego. A few years later, Ghost Tree in Monterey entered the scene making California a bonifide home to big wave surfing.

California surfing business also boomed in the late 1990's after a slowdown early in the decade. The 1990's ended with a few surfing dot com implosions, followed by continued growth in the 2000's. Surfline, headquartered in Huntington Beach, has become the most popular surf-forecast/webcam site in the world. Large numbers of women have taken up the lifestyle and surfing in California continues to grow in popularity.

A great place to see some of this history is at one of the three surfing museums in California.

Do you have a great story about this? Share it!

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

surfer's cross 
Hello!

I have a surfer's cross my older brother gave me when I was just a little kid, in the early 1960's. It is a maltese cross, whith a guy on a surfboard ...