Book Review: Leroy Grannis Surf Photography of the 1960s and 1970s

Taschen is a publishing house with a reputation for excess and exclusivity. Last year, when Taschen first issued this lush art book of surfing photography of the 1960s and 1970s by pioneer Leroy Grannis, it had the additional subtitle "Birth of a Culture" and it was boxed in a deluxe signed, numbered and limited edition. To get one of those today, you'd have to spend about $2,000. For those of us not likely to pay two grand for anything that can't be programmed, plugged-in or driven, here is an equally beautiful edition at a much more affordable price.

Between the covers are superb photos of the golden age of surfing, before the sport became bloated from corporate sponsorship. Grannis captured bronze gods in jams shooting the pier at Huntington Beach, board-laden vintage woodies trucking down the Pacific Coast Highway, the young Miki Dora hanging ten in Malibu, Greg Noll's modest surfboard shop in Hermosa Beach, Eddie Aikau jousting impossibly huge waves at the Duke Kahanamoku Classic in Waimea and spectacular wipe-outs at Pipeline.

The era captured in this collection is achingly nostalgic. Wetsuits were just starting to appear on the scene but were still a novelty. Palos Verdes Cove was pristine, Malibu was almost rural and everybody was riding Schwinn Stingray bikes with butterfly handlebars and back-pedal brakes. Sunscreen was unheard of. Earth Day was yet to be invented. One poignant photo is from the 1962 Huntington Beach West Coast Championships. The night before the competition, a U.S. Navy ship rammed an offshore oil tanker. The resulting oil slick drifted into the contest area during the tandem surfing event. Grannis' camera snapped the beleaguered young men and women slathered from head to toe in crude oil.

A visual kick from this age of innocence is Grannis' commemorative group photo of the inductees into the International Surfing Hall of Fame at an event held in Santa Monica in 1966. Together are legends such as Dale Velzy, Buzzy Trent, Duke Kahanamoku, Noll, Dora, Hoppy Swarts and Dewey Weber--all wearing tuxedos! Such quaintness is hardly imaginable now.

The essence of the Grannis images, which have been edited by Taschen's resident pop culturist Jim Heimann, is captured in the big boards, the even bigger waves, the matching windbreakers, the cool jalopies, the fresh faces and the hard bodies that were foundational elements of cutting edge surf culture. This book stirs your blood and makes you want to run to the beach.

Leroy Grannis: Surf Photography of the 1960s and 1970s
Edited by Jim Heimann
Taschen, 276 pages, $40