Along Water Street in Corpus Christi, tucked behind a restaurant and along the Music Walk of Fame is the Texas Surf Museum. It is free to enter and is a wonderful collection of eclectic surf boards and Gulf Coast surfing history. I’m not a surfer, so did not recognise any of the big names although I can appreciate the artwork in the boards and the obvious skills of the sportspeople shown.
One wall has a map of the ‘third coast’ which is covered in pictures and notes with stories of events which happened along its length from the 1960’s until today.
Along the other wall are more boards including this one, hand made in the 1930’s from instructions in magazine articles after a local teenager had see two visiting Californians surfing off the beach in Galveston. The owner admits he didn’t surf it often, but always kept it because of the hard work he had put into making it.
Really amazing to me were these four cabinets with miniature boards in them. each telling a story of board development or of a particular surfer. They demonstrate a real commitment to the sport, love of its history and people who had an influence as well as craftsmanship skills.
To a surfing aficionado and the public in general, this is a place of interest which documents the developments in technology and achievement of surfing through the 20th and 21st century – go have a look!
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