Dick Dale Leads the Way : Huntington Beach Site for a Surfing Museum?

Huntington Beach, where surfers still hold the economic key to the city’s aging downtown, has surfaced as a proposed site for a national surfing museum.

Organizers of the proposed museum hope to tie in the structure with the city’s recently approved $50-million downtown redevelopment project. Among the organizers of the Surf Museum Foundation is Dick Dale, the so-called “King of the Surf Guitar” who lives on the Balboa Peninsula and has long appealed to the surfing crowd with his records, movies and concerts.

“This won’t just be a museum where you walk in and see surfing trophies,” Dale said in an interview at his home. “People will see, hear and feel what surfing is all about.” Among the proposed exhibits for the museum are video collections of surfing movie classics, a complete library of surfing music and an exhibit that organizers said would simulate the sense of surfing for non-surfers.

The museum, which would charge admission, would be something of a cross between an amusement park and a local history museum, organizers say.

The group plans to raise thousands of dollars through benefit concerts, fairs and raffles, and intends to seek grants from oil companies whose wells dot the city’s landscape and shoreline. Organizers say they will soon seek nonprofit status for the foundation.

Along with Dale--one of the first rock stars to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show--the other founding members of the museum are Natalie Kotsch, former president of Huntington Beach’s Downtown Merchants Guild and an owner of Pier Realty Inc., and Grace A. Ruecker, owner of Newport Beach-based Horizons Advertising & Public Relations.

The group hopes to raise $25,000 over the next year and set up temporary museum quarters near the city’s famous pier by next summer. But the eventual museum would likely be a “multimillion-dollar structure,” Kotsch said. As its first fund-raiser, Dale has scheduled a benefit concert Friday night at Huntington Beach’s Golden Bear.

Other Cities Mentioned

Huntington Beach is not the first city to be considered for a surfing museum, according to Paul Holmes, editor of Surfer Magazine. Coastal cities such as San Diego and San Clemente have also toyed with the notion, he said. A surfing museum was recently built in Australia on land donated by the state and a privately owned surfing museum in Hawaii recently closed because of lack of attendance, Holmes said.

Because people associate California and Huntington Beach with surfing, the location would probably be a good one, Holmes said. “I’d have been reluctant to say this 10 years ago, but it’s an idea whose time has come.” He said that surfing has gained better public acceptance in recent years.

Organizers believe the museum could eventually rank as one of the city’s top tourist attractions. “The visitor who just goes down to the beach might not come away with the full picture,” said Ruecker. “A museum like this could spell out the area’s culture in a distinguished manner.”

And the group also says the museum could bolster business for Main Street merchants.

Some merchants, however, expressed doubts that a museum would pump much new business into town. “It’s not like a baseball or football hall of fame, where people will travel great distances,” said Jeff Osthus, sales manager at Huntington Surf & Sport. “I can’t see it being a very big draw.”

Although city officials have yet to be approached by the group, at least one city department head said that such a project could find city support. “Huntington Beach is known for surfing throughout the world,” said Max Bowman, director of community services. “This is the type of thing that we’re looking at constantly.” In 1958, Huntington Beach hosted one of the country’s first national surfing competitions. And the annual Op Pro Surfing Championships which runs through Sunday.

Museum organizers say they want to document the positive effects that surfing has had on American culture. For example, many of today’s most popular clothing lines have their roots in surfing, Dale said. Ocean Pacific Sunwear Ltd., the $300-million Corona del Mar recreational wear manufacturer, was founded by a couple of surfers who wanted to make more durable surfing clothes.

“We want to take away misimpressions that surfers are just a bunch of little kids who are skipping school or older guys with nothing else to do,” Dale said.

By spearheading the campaign, Dale, 47, could help bolster his own image, which was muddied in 1983 when he fought 12 charges of molesting a 13-year-old girl. Two of the charges were eventually dropped and an Orange County Superior Court jury acquitted him of the other 10 charges.

Dale has suffered other personal and professional setbacks in recent years. A year ago he was severely burned in a fire at his Balboa home, and, as part of a divorce settlement with his wife, he lost his popular Orange County nightclub, Rendezvous.

Beside the fund-raising concerts, Dale, who has surfed for 30 years and vows to continue surfing “until the day I die,” also plans to help the museum by seeking donations and artifacts from his friends.