Ventura Surfing Museum Initiates Search for Long-Boarding Memorabilia

The 12 directors of the “C” (for California) Street Surfing Museum had no trouble deciding on their first display--the vote was unanimous for a Tom Morey exhibit--but they are still not quite sure what to do next.

“The challenge is to make the museum interesting to draw people more than once or twice,” said Teri Gilliard, curator of the museum. “Anybody who grew up and surfed in Ventura is going to go there, but what’s going to bring them back?”

The museum is limiting its exhibits to Ventura surfing pioneers, primarily long-boarders from the 1960s. Gilliard, who owns a collectibles store in Ventura, will supply apparel from the era. Stan Fujii, who owns a surf shop in Ventura, will put his old long boards on display.

Photos and other memorabilia are also being sought.

“I just bought two Hawaiian shirts with surf riders on them,” Gilliard said. “I had to get them for the museum--they’re too cool.”

Surfing memorabilia is getting expensive--a complete set of Surfer magazines sells for $5,000--so the museum is depending on loans. “If we had to buy stuff, it would be impossible to do things,” Fujii said.

Surfers from such storied surfdoms as Malibu and Huntington Beach are probably asking themselves: Why a surfing museum in Ventura?

The answer, Fujii says, is that “a group of people felt this area had the energy to put a museum together.” In 1985, Fujii, a surfer since 1966, got together with a group of fellow long-boarders and decided to hold a reunion and a surfing contest. About 750 showed up for the party, including 170 surfers who took part in the contest.

The interest of the long-boarders provided inspiration for the museum.

“After the contest we said we should do something with this, some sort of higher ideal,” Fujii said.