Sixties SURFER! - Museum of British Surfing

Our new exhibition for 2013 will be Sixties SURFER! – a unique and inspiring display looking at the decade when modern surfing culture first washed ashore on British beaches.

Exactly 50 years after the UK’s first surf shop opened its doors, the exhibition will tap into the source of this new wave of surfers, and the enduring footsteps they left in the sand for us all to follow.

Our founder Pete Robinson sets the scene: “In 1890 two Hawaiian princes & their English tutor became possibly the first people to surf in Great Britain. In the seven decades that followed, hardy pioneers with wooden surfboards & woollen suits took to our waves. But a massive sea change occurred in the swinging Sixties when the UK met Malibu, Bondi and the Beach Boys head-on, and a new surfing culture was imported from foreign shores.”

Sixties SURFER! will be the biggest display of original British surfboards and memorabilia from the 1960s ever seen, and will sample the films, photography, music and fashions of this groundbreaking decade. Make sure you come along and ‘hang ten’ with us this year, and check out the radical ‘baggies’, ‘malibu boards’ and first wetsuits that changed the face of British surfing forever.

The exhibition will take place at the Museum of British Surfing, located in Caen Street car park, Braunton North Devon and will run from March 29th to December 31st 2013. There will be fun for all the family with special children’s activities.

Opens Easter 2013 – admission charges apply. Photo by the late Doug Wilson showing Australian Glen Short demonstrating his effortless style on a surfboard at Newquay in Cornwall in the mid 1960s.