Couldn’t possibly miss visiting the Surfing Heritage Foundation compound in San Clemente.
displayed treasures of the SHF collection [the web site here]
This is ground zero for collecting, preserving, cataloguing and celebrating surf history, as well as the beating heart of contemporary research into the ongoing evolution of surf culture and surfboard design. Key strands of surf history and culture, including characters, board designs and technology, can be drawn between post war California and Sydney in the 50s and 60s and this is the place to uncover it. I even met co-founder and benefactor Dick Metz, who ran me through the aims and objectives of the SHF as well as his own amazing story.
Here’s a snapshot: Dick grew up in Laguna and was part of the lively OC surfing scene before and during WW2 and in Hawaii on military service during the Burma War. Hitchhiking around the world in the late 50s brought him to Sydney where he linked up with Barry Bennett, Gordon Woods, Scott Dillon and Bluey Mayes among others. Dick knew, surfed or worked with the Duke, Hobie Alter, Rennie Yater, Bob Simmons, Phil Edwards, Greg Noll, Dale Velzy, Gordon Clark, Dave Rochlen, Joe Quigg and Matt Kivlin, along with top shelf movie idols, starlets and hollywood hangers-on in the 40s, 50s and 60s who holidayed or camped out on the remote beaches around Dana, Laguna and San Clemente. Dick’s travels in South Africa, Tahiti and Australia inspired fellow OC surfer and film-maker Bruce Brown to shoot The Endless Summer, which became the world’s first ever mainstream release surf-flick. The Hawaiian off-shoot of his Hobie board shop business, Surfline Hawaii, was the first to commercially produce aloha print jams, or boardies.
Stay tuned for more on Dick Metz, the work of the SHF and cross-overs between Sydney and SoCal surfing history. We’ll try to coordinate production of a video piece with Dick.