Surfing Guide to Southern California
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Surfing Guide to Southern California has a black cover with a blue silhouette of a surfer and red printing. Written by David Stern and William Cleary in 1963, the Surfing Guide is a unique publication which provided readers a detailed guide to hundreds of surf spots along nearly 300 miles of the California coast—from the Mexican border north to Point Conception. According to the donor, "they utilize custom maps, exclusive aerial photographs, action photographs, and detailed descriptions of each and every surf spot, ‘the bible’ helped surfers know where to go, how to get there, and what they might expect upon arrival. In preparing the descriptions for each surf spot, Cleary and Stern canvassed the coastline for months, interviewing surfers, studying tide charts, taking photographs, and surfing waves, sometimes at beaches where surfers had never ridden waves before. Their exhaustive efforts are evident in the thoroughness of the information provided in the descriptions of each surf spot—information that’s still accurate today more than 50 years later. Many of the action photographs were taken by leading photographers of the day, in addition to those provided by locals who were paid $5.00 for each photograph printed in the book, along with a free copy of the book itself upon publication. SGtSC’s acknowledgements page, created by Stern and Cleary, is a virtual list of the who’s who of surfing in the early 1960s—most everyone seemed to recognize the potential importance of SGtSC’s contribution to surfing. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, by providing information about the waves and how to access them most experienced surfers felt SGtSC might lessen the ever-increasing crowded conditions at well-known and easily accessible surf spots like Malibu and San Onofre"
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: name of sport
content: Surfing
label: level of sport
content: recreational
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Sports & Leisure
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0084.03
label: accession number
content: 2022.0084
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0084.03
objectType: label: Object Name
content: book, surfing
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/2 in x 5 1/2 in x 3/4 in; 21.59 cm x 13.97 cm x 1.905 cm