EXHIBIT ARCHIVE

Stars Cars and Guitars Archive Exhibits

Stars Cars and Guitars

Grand Opening event on Sunday, June 9, 2024, this “blast from the past” exhibit demonstrates how, in less than a decade, from the years from 1958 to 1965, surfing related elements came…

CSMJune 5, 2024

3rd Annual AR Gurrey Jr. Surf Photography Competition Archive ExhibitsStories

3rd Annual AR Gurrey Jr. Surf Photography Competition

3rd Annual A.R. Gurrey Jr. Surf Photography Competition Results ~Joel T. Smith, author of The Illustrated Atlas of Surfing History In an effort to encourage creative and marketable skills related to photography,…

CSMJune 6, 2025

2nd Annual AR Gurrey Jr. Surf Photography Competition Archive ExhibitsStories

2nd Annual AR Gurrey Jr. Surf Photography Competition

2nd Annual A.R. Gurrey Jr. Surf Photography Competition ~Joel T. Smith, author of The Illustrated Atlas of Surfing History In an effort to encourage creative and marketable skills related to photography, the…

CSMJune 3, 2024

Legendary surf photographer Jeff Divine shares John “Doc” Ball’s early career of surf photography Archive ExhibitsStories

Legendary surf photographer Jeff Divine shares John “Doc” Ball’s early career of surf photography

John Heath “Doc” Ball 1907-2001 Doc Ball, a Los Angeles-area dentist and avid surfer, was one of the first photographers to seriously document the sport, using a waterproof box system that he…

CSMJuly 28, 2023

The Science of Surfing Archive Exhibits

The Science of Surfing

The Science of Surfing Come see this eye-opening fun and informative exhibit as we explore the many surprising connections between science and the advancement of modern surfing. Funded by a City of…

CSMApril 26, 2023

Donald Takayama: Shaping Boards and Lives Archive ExhibitsStories

Donald Takayama: Shaping Boards and Lives

It can be said that something becomes “magical” by its effect and the resulting charmed condition it imbues upon the beholder. The term has often been applied to describing certain surfboards.

CSMApril 17, 2022

Let’s Boogie! Tom Morey and the Evolution of the Boogie Board Archive Exhibits

Let’s Boogie! Tom Morey and the Evolution of the Boogie Board

Then, in the early 1970s the modern bodyboard was launched — a soft, flexible piece of foam that offered a path to limitless fun in the ocean. It ultimately became known as…

CSMJuly 12, 2021

Riding Giants Archive Exhibits

Riding Giants

Big wave surfboards and photos of where they are being ridden around the world.

CSMSeptember 10, 2020

Artistry in Wood Archive Exhibits

Artistry in Wood

Surfboards made of various exotic woods by local famous board makers.

CSMSeptember 10, 2020

Bob Simmons Foam Sandwich Surfboard 1950 Archive ExhibitsCSM SurfboardsStories

Bob Simmons Foam Sandwich Surfboard 1950

Simmons Airplane Wing Construction Technique by John Giles (Aug. 13, 1923 – July 12, 2010) as told to Larry Balma in 2009 When Bob Simmons and I were building these boards, I…

CSMMarch 29, 2020

Healing Power of Wave-riding Archive Exhibits

Healing Power of Wave-riding

“Surfing is not about one person, it’s not about me, or you. it is about us. It is about bringing people together and sharing the stoke, the Aloha. It is Ohana.” —…

CSMApril 7, 2019

Making Waves: Hunter Pochop Archive Exhibits

Making Waves: Hunter Pochop

CSM is proud to feature 14-year-old Hunter Pochop as our current grom in the Making Waves display area. The sport of surfing has its share of teens who take to the ocean…

CSMMarch 5, 2020

Making Waves inductee Zack Flores Archive Exhibits

Making Waves inductee Zack Flores

In April, 2019 the California Surf Museum featured local phenom Zack Flores as our very first Making Waves honoree.  Zack, who lives in Leucadia, was born at Scripps Hospital, Encinitas, on January…

CSMMay 26, 2019

China Beach: Surfers, the Vietnam War, and the Healing Power of Wave-riding Archive Exhibits

China Beach: Surfers, the Vietnam War, and the Healing Power of Wave-riding

“China Beach: Surfers, the Vietnam War, and the Healing Power of Wave-riding” is a ground-breaking exhibit consisting of photos, first-hand accounts, surfboards, and memorabilia from those who were there. The story of…

CSMApril 8, 2019

Nat Young – Nat’s Nat and That’s That! Archive Exhibits

Nat Young – Nat’s Nat and That’s That!

Robert “Nat” Young was born in 1947 in Sydney, Australia. He began surfing at age 10. Six years later, he won the open division of the 1963 Australian Invitational Surfing Championships, as…

CSMApril 9, 2019

Eddie Aikau Archive Exhibits

Eddie Aikau

Eddie Aikau had the lineage of a king, and he became a modern member of Hawaii’s royal pantheon. A descendant of Hewahewa, the kahuna nui (high priest) King Kamehameha I and his…

CSMApril 9, 2019

The Legendary Greg Noll Archive Exhibits

The Legendary Greg Noll

Colorful, charismatic, headstrong, and larger-than-life, Greg Noll was born in 1937 and decided early on that being around the ocean was to be his life. When he was a youngster, the family…

CSMApril 9, 2019

The 1966 World Championships – A Defining Moment in Competitive Surfing Archive Exhibits

The 1966 World Championships – A Defining Moment in Competitive Surfing

Although the competitive field was full of excellent surfers from seven nations, the matchup between California’s David Nuuhiwa and Australia’s Nat Young was considered as the ultimate test of both skill and…

CSMApril 9, 2019

Making Boards the Hurley Way! Archive Exhibits

Making Boards the Hurley Way!

Bob Hurley started out as a surfboard shaper in Huntington Beach in the 1970s. Throughout the years, Bob has shaped thousands of board for surfers like Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew, Jay Adams, Carissa…

CSMApril 9, 2019

Billabong Salute to Pipeline Archive Exhibits

Billabong Salute to Pipeline

Three factors inspired the concept of this exhibit: the legendary reputation of the wave at Pipeline, the epic history of the Pipeline Masters contest, and the virtuoso skills and equipment of the…

CSMApril 8, 2019

A Brief History of Surfboards: Wood, Foam to Fiberglass Archive Exhibits

A Brief History of Surfboards: Wood, Foam to Fiberglass

Beginning with wooden plank surfboards reminiscent of surfing’s roots in Polynesia, the exhibit follows surfboard evolution through the foam and fiberglass advances, the shortboard revolution, to surfboards being ridden by today’s champions.…

CSMApril 9, 2019

Surfing and Pop Culture Archive Exhibits

Surfing and Pop Culture

A display of just a few of the commercial products (from Monopoly to Barbie to comic books) that have used surfing to sell more product. After the unexpected success of the film…

CSMApril 9, 2019

Reflections of Tom Keck Archive ExhibitsStories

Reflections of Tom Keck

Tom Keck started shooting surfing in California in the 1950s – and he’s still at it! To quote Tom: “Not daily now, but some surfing and events, and interesting people. I always…

CSMDecember 5, 2018