America's ageing beach boys to record the history of surfing's golden age
It is almost 50 years since the Beach Boys sang about surfing and California girls, and began to take a once outlawed sport into mainstream culture. With surfing now a global industry and a hobby for millions, an ambitious plan has been launched to document the first days of the sport.
The Surfing Heritage Foundation, based in the southern Californian town of San Clemente, is seeking to collect the oral history of the sport by talking to its oldest living practitioners. It wants to find people who remember a time when waves were still uncrowded and surfing was seen as the preserve of a few crazy, dangerous wild men and women.
It will look at the sport before it became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, when it inspired California's beach culture of girls in bikinis and the music scene that went with it.
The foundation is interviewing surfers in their 70s, 80s and 90s to preserve the story of the sport's beginnings and its early culture. It is also sending out oral history kits to surfing groups across America and the world, asking anyone interested in the sport to join the effort....
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
The Surfing Heritage Foundation, based in the southern Californian town of San Clemente, is seeking to collect the oral history of the sport by talking to its oldest living practitioners. It wants to find people who remember a time when waves were still uncrowded and surfing was seen as the preserve of a few crazy, dangerous wild men and women.
It will look at the sport before it became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, when it inspired California's beach culture of girls in bikinis and the music scene that went with it.
The foundation is interviewing surfers in their 70s, 80s and 90s to preserve the story of the sport's beginnings and its early culture. It is also sending out oral history kits to surfing groups across America and the world, asking anyone interested in the sport to join the effort....