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SURF LIKE AN EGYPTIAN
The Surfing Heritage Foundation Unveils its Collection
By:
Ben Marcus
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May 11, 2005
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Think of King Tut's Tomb plus the Baseball Hall of Fame plus the Library of the Alexandrian Greeks, and you will have the Surfing Heritage Foundation archive. Like the Alexandrian Greeks -- who attempted to store all the written knowledge of man under one roof -- the Surfing Heritage Foundation is attempting to store a complete archive of surfing history in one place. Like King Tut's tomb, which managed to stay hidden and unraided for centuries, the Surfing Heritage Foundation hides its treasures in an innocuous, easy-to-overlook building in the deserty backlands of San Clemente. Stored carefully and lovingly in a brand-new, 8,000-square-foot building is an epic collection of surfboards, which begins with Greg Noll's recreation of a Hawaiian olo, then a lot of hardwood boards from Duke to Pacific System Homes to Kivlin and Quigg. Plastics begin with Dale Velzy's first try at a Styrofoam board and then through the late 50s, 60s and up to the present -- a tow board from Laird Hamilton and one board from the quiver of three time world champ Andy Irons. All in all, the Surfing Heritage Foundation has more than 350 historic surfboards and they are collecting more and more every week, as people walk into the place, get their minds blown and turn over some or all of their collectible quivers. There are surf museums at Santa Cruz, Oceanside, Huntington Beach and various places around the world, but the surfing world has never seen the likes of this -- and as of now, they're tentatively showing it to the world. "They" are Dick Metz and Spencer Croul -- the Surfing Heritage Foundation's Ptolemy I and Ptolemy III. Perennially youthful, Metz was one of the founders of the surf-industrial complex-the brains behind Hobie Sports which was one of the first surfwear retailers to go big. Going back to the early '60s Metz has been consciously, deliberately collecting surfboards, books, magazines -- everything -- and has one of the best collections of early wooden surfboards. Forty-nine-year-old Spencer Croul is a Newport Beach resident who grew up surfing during the 70s. Croul was a casual collector for many years but really caught the fever at Danny Brawner's 1st surrfboard auction held at Newport Beach back in December of 1996. Through the Croul Family Foundation Spencer has sponsored a number of projects including Gary Lynch's biography about surfing pioneer Tom Blake that was published in 2001, and an upcoming book by Paul Holmes on the surfboard shaper Dale Velzy. Metz and Croul are aided and abetted by their hard-working historian/curator Barry Haun and a growing group of founding partners like Walter Hoffman, Hobie Alter, Don Hansen, Pat Magee, Sparky Longley, Fernando Aguerre, Ron Jon, Flippy Hoffman, Steve Pezman and a couple dozen others who are donating boards, time, money and knowledge. King Tut's tomb was divided into the Antechamber, Annexe, Burial Chamber and Treasury, that room measuring only 15' 7" by 12' 5 5/8". The main room of the new building could be called the Treasury because in its 4000 square feet and 16-foot ceilings there will be more than enough room to give all those hundreds of beautiful surfboards space to breathe. The Surfing Heritage Foundation surfboard collection grows from month to month and will probably blossom when the world sees what these guys are up to. Along with the surfboards, the floor of the Surfing Heritage Foundation has a recreation of an authentic 50s shaping shack, with Dale Velzy's original shaping tools scattered around: "We've been promised items from Bruce Brown that will include his own photo archive," said museum curator Barry Haun. "We have personal items that belonged to Tom Blake; things like his Waikiki Surf Club membership card from 1951. We have much of surfing historian Gary Lynch's taped interviews with legends such as Blake, Tommy Zahn, Mary Ann Hawkins, Doc Ball, and other notables of this ilk. We have a fairly extensive surf library (which includes Doc Ball's 1946 California Surfriders, Blake's tapa-covered Hawaiian Surfboard, Ron Drummond's The Art of Wave Riding, and Phil Edward's You Should Have Been Here an Hour Ago). We have a nearly complete set of SURFER Magazines, all of The Surfer's Journals, the complete Longboard library, Surfing magazine from 1978-2000, assorted Reef magazines, many surf movie posters, a surf movie library, early bathing suits and original items from Duke Boyd and the infancy days of Hang Ten. We also have pieces on loan, items such as Linda Benson's Makaha trophy that she won in 1959 when she was just 15 years old." The Surfing Heritage Foundation is off to a solid financial start, but it will not be entirely self-supporting. The goal of the SHF is to find 100 co-sponsors who will commit to $2000 a year for the next three years. An annual operating budget of $200,000 is a nice chunk of change, but it will go to worthy causes. One of the first projects of the Surfing Heritage Foundation will be to digitize the entire photo archive of Leroy Grannis. The Surfing Heritage Foundation archive in San Clemente will grow with the help of the surfing community and the surf-industrial complex. They are providing a safe, permanent home for surf culture and are looking for contributions of time, money and artifacts from the surfing world. "Hopefully what has been started here, over time will benefit countless future generations," Haun said. "All this having sprung from the efforts of an initially small group of individuals who did so because of their love for surfing, surf culture and the preservation of a lifestyle that has given us all so much enjoyment over the years." The Surfing Heritage Foundation is "unofficially open" as of now, but please don't just show up to their San Clemente offices -- they're not a public museum just yet. Check out surfingheritage.org for info on how to call ahead to make an appointment. |
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