Oh, Swell, Another Surf Dispute

First there was the playful battle over which beachfront city deserved to carry the banner of Surf City. Now it’s down to which seaside city should be recognized as having the state’s one true surf museum.

While some patrons of the arts may be unaware there even are such things, town leaders in Oceanside and Huntington Beach are going to great lengths -- all the way to Sacramento, in fact -- to make sure their modest surf museums get the respect they deserve.

The dispute over which city is home to the state’s top surf museum comes in the wake of the dust-up between Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz over the right to be known as Surf City. At stake was a name that became an anthem to surf, sun and the perfect wave after the Jan and Dean song hit the airwaves in the 1960s.

Huntington Beach boasted that its wide beaches, sun-kissed waves and signature pier made it the obvious choice. The town even trademarked the title -- “Surf City, USA.”

Santa Cruz, where surfers claimed to be a hardier breed, braving rocks and chilly water to search out monster surf, countered with its own trademark, “Original Surf City, USA.”

The fight over the surf museums is shaped from the same material.

In Oceanside, State Sen. Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) agreed to draft legislation calling for the town’s surfing museum to be recognized as the state’s official repository for all things surfing.

Huntington Beach launched a counterattack, asking Assemblyman Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) -- the town’s former mayor -- to oppose the request.

“I don’t think there’s any reason for them to have done that,” said Harman, vowing to fight the measure. “We are known as ‘Surf City.’ It seems like we should be the one to have the official museum if there’s going to be one.”

The Oceanside facility is all of 1,200 square feet in a city known more for its next-door neighbor -- the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base -- than its surfing legacy. The museum displays more than 70 years of photographs and is a shrine to San Onofre State Beach and Trestles, a renowned surf break. Neither, however, is within 15 miles of Oceanside.

“We can’t predict what somebody else’s reaction might be,” said Jane Schmauss, co-founder of the California Surf Museum in Oceanside. “I think the outcome of this is not going to change what any of us do one iota, except the outcome of us working better together.”

In Huntington Beach, the International Surfing Museum is 800 square feet larger, tucked a block off Pacific Coast Highway. The collection includes a bust of Duke Kahanamoku, credited with popularizing surfing worldwide in the 1920s, and a tribute to the first “Endless Summer” movie, including director Bruce Brown’s original camera. Huntington Beach is not depicted in the movie, though neighboring Newport Beach is.

“We love Oceanside, but there should be criteria so we can all have the opportunity to compete before anyone is actually declared the official state museum,” said Natalie Kotsch, co-founder of Huntington Beach’s museum. With both surfing shrines operating on a shoestring budget, Huntington Beach officials fear that designating one official surf museum could peel tourists, funding and donations from the others.

Visions of building a grand, luxurious surfing museum should preempt any one museum from claiming the official title now, said Huntington Beach Mayor Dave Sullivan.

“I think it’s premature,” he said. “I think all the surfing museums should work together and there shouldn’t be one designated as an official one.”

And there is no shortage of surf museums in the state. Santa Cruz has one inside a lighthouse. San Clemente has one too, as does Santa Barbara.

For the most part, however, beachgoers in Huntington Beach seem indifferent to Oceanside’s advances.

“We are Surf City; they can be called Museum City, if they want,” said Tom Knight, an employee at the 5th Street Surf Shop.

“I don’t know any of my friends who would take this seriously,” said Church Tran, 35, as he applied sunscreen before surfing near the city pier. “It’s a little trivial.”

Because Santa Cruz has a stake in the matter, the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) asked Morrow to hold off for now.

“I was more than a little amused at the strong opposition of the voice in Huntington Beach,” Simitian said. “The same people who trademarked ‘Surf City USA,’ were in opposition to an official state surfing museum.”

Jenifer Lienau-Thompson, the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum curator, said she was taken aback by the measure. “It seems a little unsportsmanlike,” she said.

It’s even possible that Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz, who are still battling over the Surf City moniker, could work together to oppose the Oceanside legislation, which has yet to come up for a Senate vote.

“I wouldn’t put it past working with Santa Cruz, if need be,” said Doug Traub, president and CEO of the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau.

Morrow and the California Surf Museum say the measure isn’t meant as a slight to other surfing museums, just a tribute to their own as they celebrate the museum’s 20-year anniversary.

“All of the museums should be recognized,” Morrow said. “On the other hand, [the California Surf Museum] focuses on California surfing history. The other museums focus on different areas.”

If the measure passes, the California Surf Museum would become the state’s first “official” museum of any capacity, according to the California State Archives.

Still, for all the hubbub, the battle over surf museums and naming rights may be lost on most surfers.

“The average guy who paddles doesn’t care the slightest bit if they have the official museum,” said Steve Hawk, former editor of Surfer Magazine and brother of skateboard legend Tony Hawk. “He just worries about how good the next wave will be.”

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Bragging rights

Oceanside’s bid to have its surfing museum named the state’s official surfing museum prompted protests from two other cities with surfing museums.

Santa Cruz Surfing Museum

Opened: June 1986

Location: Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse, Lighthouse State Beach

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International Surfing Museum

Opened: June 1990

Location: Art Deco building that was formerly a doctor’s office in downtown Huntington Beach

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California Surf Museum

Opened: February 1986

Location: Storefront in downtown Oceanside

Source: Museums listed, Times reports