International Surfing Museum Exhibit
Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
Skateboarding has come a long way from the 1950s when kids used to pull apart a roller skate and nail the front and back wheels to the bottom of a board. That’s when “sidewalk surfing” took off and a new sport was born.
Check it out for yourself at the Surf2Skate exhibit at the International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach.
Filled with vintage and new skateboards, photos, posters, memorabilia, and more, S2S is a blast from the past and a salute to the future.
“The exhibit is community-driven,” museum director Diana Dehm told SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel. “The people of Huntington Beach came up with the idea and they organized and put it together.” Surfers and skateboarders, volunteers and businesses all joined in to make it happen.
Early Zephyr skateboards, made in the 1960s by legendary surf and skateboard shaper Jeff Ho, are show-stoppers.
Known for their vibrant colors and graffiti-style designs, Ho’s Zephyr boards – named after the god of the west wind – helped turn Venice Beach into a Mecca for skateboarding.
And don’t miss the first mass-produced skateboard – a bright red Roller Derby board made in La Mirada, CA in 1959. Sold in Roller Derby rinks, Thrifty Drugstores and Sears stores across the country, it propelled the skateboard craze into a movement.
There’s so much to see. Huntington Beach definitely pulled off a burly with Surf2Skate.
It will have you ready to grab a board and break some moves of your own!
Painting by Ricky Blake
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Looking good ladies. Enjoyed the article.