The figure shows an award I won in a meet between South Sea Surf Club and Point South dated December 7, 1966. It's difficult to trace the origin of HBSA itself. The club was originally called Huntington Beach Surf Club and had some rowdy types as members in the early 1960s. The party got a little wild and basically we wrote the place off. A story got into the paper about the club being made up of bad guys, and at that time it was invited to never have a contest again.
Nothing lasts forever except the surf in Surf City.
HBSA didn't fold but its members did start keeping a low profile. While some clubs basically were made up of people who all surfed in one area and had no officers or meetings, several of the clubs were well organized with dues and regular meetings. The clubs with dues or sponsors usually also had jackets, T-shirts, patches, board and window decals, and other similar identifiers. However, major changes took place beginning around 1966, both in surfing and in individual thinking, which severely effected the established surfing organizations. With the coming of shorter boards, a great many of the older, more organized individuals who kept these clubs together simply refused to transition.