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Riding a photographic wave back in time

Thousands of slides from numerous photographers await digital scanning by archivist Steve Wilkings at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente. Wilkings, a noted surf photographer in the 1960s and '70s, pioneered bolting a camera to the front of notable surfers' boards and triggering it from the beach by radio control.

Thousands of slides from numerous photographers await digital scanning by archivist Steve Wilkings at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente. Wilkings, a noted surf photographer in the 1960s and ‘70s, pioneered bolting a camera to the front of notable surfers’ boards and triggering it from the beach by radio control.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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The Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente has been collecting and preserving photos from the golden age of surfing, yielding a treasure trove of more than 200,000 images.
Read more: Treasure trove of surfing photos is a wistful wave to the past

Shots from the past

Photographer and archivist Steve Wilkings looks through Kodachrome slides. He has digitized and edited about a quarter of the center’s collection. At 66, he figures someone else will have to finish the job. “We got so much stuff, sometimes it’s overwhelming,” he said.   (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A sport caught on film

Steve Wilkings looks through Kodachrome slides by the late surf photographer Warren Bolster. Some of the 140 collections held by the center are encyclopedic -- thousands of photos of surfers hanging ten on longboards, dropping into steep pitches or shooting through curls.   (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A way to ride to waves

Surfboards from the early days of the sport to the present are displayed at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center. “Surfing has an origin story that everyone loves,” said Matt Warshaw, author of “The Encyclopedia of Surfing.” “It’s the story of kids on the beach inventing this whole thing that today is a zillion-dollar industry.”  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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