![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gidget-166x300.jpeg\")
<\/a>Sandra Dee<\/p><\/div>\n
As a native Californian, I was of course attracted to surfing at an early age. I think it was in 1959<\/strong> when the first Gidget<\/strong> <\/em>movie came out \u2013 OK, so maybe I wasn’t attracted to surfing as much as I was\u00a0 attracted to Sandra Dee!<\/strong> I figured if MoonDoggie<\/strong> could get a girl like that by surfing, sign me up. But I was raised in a rural dairy community in northern California where surf is rarely up on the surrounding farms and ranches.\u00a0 I will<\/em> say that the iconic 1964<\/strong> movie, Endless Summer<\/em><\/strong>, had some appeal to me as someone who\u2019d been going to school for most of my life \u2013 I thought I was starring in the movie, Endless School<\/em><\/strong>. Even a move to southern California, or as my northern friends say, \u2018the dark side\u2019<\/strong>, didn\u2019t get me interested in surfing, but I did feel closer to Sandra Dee.<\/p>\n Why then am I writing about surfing? Two reasons: 1) it\u2019s only about a 20 minute drive from my house to surfing mecca, Huntington Beach or as it’s know to board riders,\u00a0\u2018Surf City\u2019<\/strong>, \u00a0where the N<\/strong>ational Surfing Championships<\/strong> are held every summer, but more importantly (to me) it’s the home of my favorite restaurant \u2013 Duke\u2019s!<\/strong>\u00a0 2) I thought I would start an educational series on various museums in southern California; although after this trip to the \u2018International Surfing Museum\u2019<\/strong>, it may be a series of one, and not very educational at that.<\/p>\n Mid-bite at Duke’s<\/p><\/div>\n It was an unusual rainy May morning when I started my safari to Surf City, but those are the kind of days that keep people away from the beach, so I was happy for a little precipitation as I headed to the coast.\u00a0 Before I hit the museum it was a must to get a burger and beer at Duke\u2019s<\/strong>, which I enjoyed as I watched the surfers and volleyball players warming up for summer. The \u2018International Surfing Museum\u2019 is just a short walk from Duke\u2019s down palm-tree-lined Main Street<\/strong>, which is bar & grill after bar & grill after bar & grill, with a Hawaiian-vibe. It wasn\u2019t very crowded on this midday Thursday, but guaranteed it’s wall-to-wall during summer.<\/p>\n The museum is not large; in fact the space was an old doctor\u2019s office and I\u2019m guessing the doctor didn\u2019t have a very large practice. The door was open, so I walked in and was greeted by Judy, the docent, who told me the museum was closed<\/strong>. I had just walked through the open door, saw the lights on and brochures out on a table and said, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like you\u2019re closed\u201d. She said, \u2018Well, we\u2019re open, it\u2019s just that we don\u2019t have an exhibit up now\u201d as she motioned to the adjacent vacant space. She encouraged me to take a look around and check out the surfing posters, the surf boards in the rafters and . . . the surfing posters. She gave me a quick history of surfing, starting with Duke Kahanamoku<\/strong> and continued to regale me with the I drove home still relishing my burger and beer from Duke\u2019s and having assuaged my guilt of living so close to the ocean and never hanging ten, or even one. But, hey Dude, it was still a bitchin\u2019 day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow As a native Californian, I was of course attracted to surfing at an early age. I think it was in 1959 when the first Gidget movie came out \u2013 OK, so maybe I wasn’t attracted to surfing … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Dukes-225x300.jpeg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Largest-surfboard-300x168.jpeg\")
<\/a>upcoming surfing events of the summer. I feigned interest for as long as I could and then told her I wanted to get a photo of the Guinness record, largest surfboard in the world<\/strong>, which held 66<\/strong> people and is hanging on the outside of the building next to their parking lot. It\u2019s gnarly!<\/p>\n