Review by C.J. Bunce
All I need is a tasty blue wave…
From an introduction by the woman who inspired the real-life Gidget to a deep dive into the foundations of surf culture in Hawaii to its accompanying sound beyond The Beach Boys, to even deeper cuts into the changing Bohemian lifestyle and the surf boards themselves, get ready for your own trip through an endless summer. Writers Brian Chidester and Domenic Priore have revisited their 2008 edition of the book, Pop Surf Culture: Music, Design, Film and Fashion from the Bohemian Surf Era, available now here at Amazon. It updates the original with more photographs and details, and a less defensive take on the subject matter based on their own perception of surf culture becoming more mainstream and accepted. It also moves past the surf athletes vs. surf artists struggles of the past and includes a bigger explorati0n of surfing in Australia. Did you know The Beach Boys originally were known for their plaid Pendleton jackets and played under the name The Pendletones? Readers will find plenty of interesting tidbits and pop culture ties as they enjoy images of everything from posters to famous photographs, to album covers, and ephemera across nearly a century of this fascinating niche.
The book opens with forewords from none other than Kathy Kohner and Billy Al Bengston, the real-life people behind Gidget and Moondoggie in Kathy’s dad Frederick Kohner’s surfer teens novel Gidget that became the movie starring Sandra Dee and James Darren (who’d go on to play Deep Space Nine’s Vic Fontaine decades later), and a TV series starring Sally Field and Stephen Mines. It’s sort of a wacky starting place, but it makes sense. Both the movie and TV series brought surf culture to kids and adults all over.
The authors cite Bruce Brown from his documentary Endless Summer: “Hawaii is truly a land of an endless summer,” and of course it all started there with Polynesians for hundreds of years developing something ripe for future Olympian swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his pals the Waikiki Beachboys to teach tourists about surfing in the early 1900s, including one Jack London who would write about it and share it even further. Surfing became a phenomenon in the 1950s, then would explode in the 1960s and splinter, like many pasttimes, into an insider vs. outsider culture. The authors expose all the ugliness while at the same time sharing that light at the end of the tunnel: a culture where everyone gets out of the way of each other so they can enjoy what they enjoy.
Do you like Tiki bars? it all comes back to soldiers in the Pacific Theaters in World War II bringing all things Tiki back to the states, particularly to Los Angeles. Tiki art led the way for the culture both via art design and fashions. Surfboards were decorated with the evocative imagery, fabrics tapped into the print designs, and music–rock and roll–picked up inspirational beats. From Dudie Miller leading a Hawaiian musical troupe to the Panama-Pacific Expo in San Francisco in 1915 to the popularity of Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki raft adventure to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’s sounds in their song and album The Lonely Bull, you can see how all the parts came together and drew in factions from all corners. Surfing came to California and the rest is history.
The authors take readers through the men who created, designed and refined the surfboard as an art and a craft used for sport, development spanning the 1930s to the 1950s and beyond. Photographs accompany the journey, pictures of shops, symbols, and advertising materials. Miki Dora is highlighted as someone who defined the life of the young Bohemian. The writers lay it out plainly: “teenagers, disposable income, health, energy, and natural surroundings–an environment where the creeping sense of stress and burdens inherent to the outside world is to be held off for maybe the last time ever. We’re talking about surfing waves, surfing boards, surfing trunks, surfing hair, surfing wagons, surfing language, surfing magazines, surfing films, and surfing bandwagons.” There’s movies at the drive-in with Jan & Dean, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, and pull in Beatniks, jazz, Elvis Presley, bongos, crazy cars, and even The Munsters and The Addams Family played into the designs that became part of the surf culture.
The authors even point to Topps trading card design for facilitating the way surf magazines created surf sports heroes. And Bruce Brown’s documentary The Endless Summer is still a timeless encapsulation of some big moments of surf history. Who didn’t know someone who had that film’s poster on their college dorm walls well into the 1990s? The exploration of surf magazines shares a rich history of the individual preserving moments in time–it’s like the home grown fanzines of the major pop culture sci-fi franchises. Novels and non-fiction, swimsuits and beachwear, the beach party, nightclubs, and a wide array of LPs are reflected in book covers, clothing ads, vintage ticket stubs, and album covers. You’ll probably be humming The Surfaris’ “Wipeout” or The Beach Boys’ “Surfer Girl” as you read along.
Even Dell Comics and underground comics make an appearance along with Barbie, the doll, having her own surf vacation shared with kids via View-Master reels–and even Jeff Spicoli of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Truly, no grain of sand is left unturned if it was related to or became part of surf culture.
I’ve enjoyed the clear blue waves in Hawaii and Jamaica. I’ve worn the beach garb at Germaine’s Luau. I’ve played The Beach Boys’ Endless Summer too many times to count. And I’ve enjoyed Bruce Brown’s documentary The Endless Summer more than once. But I wasn’t prepared for the giant scope of Brian Chidester and Domenic Priore’s definitive treatment of all things surf culture in their book Pop Surf Culture: Music, Design, Film and Fashion from the Bohemian Surf Era. If you’re never ready to let go of the summer, get your copy now, available here at Amazon.
