The graceful sport of surfing originated in Hawaii and migrated to California in the early 1900s. It remained a fringe activity, though, held back by the cumbersome weight of the koa-wood boards—sometimes topping 100 pounds —and by clothing and music styles that seemed old-fashioned to stateside audiences. The traditional grass skirt is seen here on the 1930s Hawaiian band Poi George and Kahuna Club.
As was the case with seemingly every other American art form, modern surf culture and its attendant music were pioneered by African-Americans and profited upon by whites. In this scene from the 1960 movie Beach Blanket Negro, a young Stevie Wonder evokes the elemental force of a crashing wave while, behind him, guitarist Dick Dale takes notes. Within a year, young white surfers had appropriated the culture as their own. That included their attire: guys wore Jack Purcell tennis shoes or white ducks, khakis and Pendleton woolen shirts over white Ts. Girls wore white deck shoes or pedal pushers, slacks and sleeveless button-front shirts.
Dale's contribution to surf music was the addition of the “wet” sound of the Hammond reverb. Unfortunately, the effect was only available on the hulking Hammond organ, for which Dale abandoned the guitar. Despite the carefree theme of this illustration from Dale's 1962 album Surf Organ Oligarch, the Hammond proved uniquely unsuited to the beach lifestyle. A devastating hernia sidelined Dale's career for decades. On a happier note, this album cover's island-themed clothing highlights the surf scene's commitment to total action and total relaxation.
With surf films and bands like the Beach Boys spreading the gospel of surfdom, even kids living thousands of miles from an ocean adopted the surfer lifestyle and lingo. Seen here in their trademark Pendletons, only one of the Beach Boys actually surfed, and none of them could steer for shit. This final photo of the band captured them in 1963 embarking on a tour of the South Pacific. All drowned, and their wagon was never recovered. Their manager/father, Murray Wilson, got another band, the Sunrays, to impersonate the Beach Boys for the remainder of their career. More Surf Fashion History
