Surfing History: The Sixties Influence and Change on our Sport.(part 1)

“I can take that point and hold it just as long as I like, and you can get any place up that river that suits you, young Captain. Hell, a six-foot peak. All right, take a gunship back to the division. Lance, go with Mike and let him pick out a (surf) board for you and bring me my Yater Spoon, the eight six.
I don’t know sir, it’s ah…
What is it soldier?
We’ll I mean it’s pretty hairy in there, it’s Charlie’s point.
Charlie don’t surf. (Apocalypse Now)

While G.I’s were waging war, Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon were surfing and singing on the beaches of California in Beach Blanket Bingo and Bikini Beach. The surf culture seemed to go merrily on its way while the rest of the country was torn by war in Vietnam, civil rights riots and nation wide protest. This drive to forget the war and social problems of the day seemed to typify the surf culture during the Vietnam era.

Frankie, Annette, and oh yes, Gidget were turning out the geeky and cornball surf movies throughout the 60’s. These movies painted a distorted view of surfing and gave the world (outside of California and Hawaii) their first view of surfing. True hardcore surfers stayed away from the kooks that interpreted their sport in such a nauseating way. These movies were undeniably commercial monsters and Beach Party grossed $3.5 million, almost unheard of for that type of movie, at that time. Many of Santa Monica local surfers benefited from these films and were regularly used as extras.

A New York Times writer said of them, these movies have created a rather idyllic way of life for the young people who are regulars in the beach pictures. They are thus living out a bazaar adolescent fantasy-making a great deal of money without ever leaving their beloved surfboards (Lueras 128). In-spite of these movies, California’s surfing society developed a character all it’s own. It produced it’s movies, music, worshiped it’s own heroes and established a surf style that lasts today.

Surf History Part 2