Dropping In

Julie Cox surrounded by Oceanside Girl Scout Troop 4338. They visited CSM as they worked on their surfing badge.

Students from the New School of Architecture and Design in San Diego pose in front of the wave in CSM’s “Secret Spot” permanent installation being created by artists John Lamb and Brett Hazard

Al Nelson begins to unpack his travel surfboard, which he just donated to CSM

Making a surprise visit to CSM were Malia, Pat, Kili and Mary Curren.

DROPPING IN Nearly 15,000 people visit the California Surf Museum each year. They come from every corner of the world - many are surfers, many are not. And while our museum is honored to display various historical facets of surfing – the boards, the people, the strong influence on our culture – we are constantly amazed at the many unexpected gifts our visitors bring us, all because of their passion for surfing. They bring us stories, and sometimes boards and artifacts, and we’d like to share a bit of their tales with you.

Here is a Dec.3, 2009 email that we were stoked to get from Fred Guedon, who visited CSM a few months ago: “Hi – My name’s Fred from Biarritz, France. I visited your ‘new’ museum a couple of weeks ago during the Festival, and I showed you some pictures of you and LeRoy Grannis that I had taken in 2004 when I first visited CSM. I will always (I mean: always) keep in mind the kindness of this wonderful man. I was able to meet this wonderful man, and even go to his house. We had a nice talk. He even showed me the little room where all his pictures were stored. Thousands of pictures from his beginning to nowadays. A real treasure. I wish I could have seen what HIS eyes have seen during his whole life. He’s a surfing legend as well as all the famous surfers he has pictured. He IS surfing history. LeRoy is so humble, so nice. Taking some of his time to receive an unknown French guy. It says it all. He told me he used to fly gliders, and small aircraft after the war. So we shared some stories of flying experiences together. After a while, I said goodbye. Having spent a real nice and amazing moment with a wonderful man. – Fred” After receiving this heart-felt piece, we asked Fred to tell us a bit more about himself, and how he discovered the California Surf Museum. He replied on Jan. 13: “Happy New Year to all the museum people. You are doing a lovely job. Now about me: I started surfing in Biarritz in 1975. I was 10 years old (I’m now 45). My first surfboard was bought in the ONLY surf shop in the whole area (maybe in all France), owned by Jo Moraiz (people from Biarritz and from that era knew his famous shop). That was a used American single fin. And since then, “Surfing, ocean, waves, wind, tide, sunset, glide, pleasure, stoke, incredible, super, boards, wax…” all those words belong to my vocabulary and are very often used. I’m sure you know what I mean. I struggled quite a bit to make my professional goal – it took me almost 10 years (and the money I could have spent on 200 new surfboards) to become an airline pilot in a small French company. I’m now a captain on Airbus A320 flying for medium haul. And that’s great. The first trip I wanted to make when I had the financial capacity to do it was a pilgrimage to California. Why? Because here lived most of the people I wanted to meet. Famous shaper, photographer, surf shop owner, surfers. And because I HAD to surf some of your spots. I could (almost) name your surf spots only looking at a picture or a movie, and now I was able to surf them. So, I October 2004 I spent two weeks from LA to San Diego, and I made a stop in Oceanside…and I met Mr. LeRoy Grannis. It was a highlight of my trip. If you see him in a near future, I would just love to be able to buy a picture from him where he could sign “for Fred.” This would make me remember for ever that memorable meeting. If there’s a slight chance, please let me know. I have enclosed some pictures for you. Fred”