I may never actually surf. I'll bogey board and body surf and swim as far as I can without the aid of floaties on each arm, but the actual balancing act of getting on a Dewey Weber piece of fiberglass and foam and navagating through a three-foot swell off the South Bay coastline -- maybe it's a better dream than reality.

Surf history is a much safer venture. If you live near Hermosa Beach, you can walk on the pier and check out the legends of the sport who made their mark in the area. Further south, you can visit one of several standing monuments to the surfing legacy. We dropped into the California Surf Museum in Oceanside the other day to check out the longboard competition they were having at the local pier.

The place at 223 North Coast Highway, about a mile South off the Coast Hwy exit on Interstate 5, is half gift shop and half display of either surfing photography, a timeline of board making and great conversation with who ever is behind the counter (Jane Schmauss, the acting director who happened to be around that day I came in, is pretty cool).

There's a 155-pound redwood plank made in 1930 that someone named Eddie McBride used to ride off San Onofre. A year earlier, Tom Blake's "cigar" paddleboard, hollow in the middle, actually floated.
There's a restored '50s era Hobie balsa board. One of the strangest things is this thing called a Jet Board, made in the 1960s. It sold for $1,700. Why so expensive? It had a McCullough chain saw engine embedded in it. The board is made of aircraft aluminum. Jet Board actually had a shop on Sunset Blvd. in L.A. back in the day, and you can read up more on its history at www.powerboarding.com, more specifically at this link.

The collection of surf books, DVDs, posters, music and collectables is something pretty special, too. An exhibit currently up by photographer Tom Kech, who has been documenting the sport since the late '50s, is worth the visit alone.

Our pitch really doesn't do it justice. You have to see it with your own eyes, and feel it with your soul.
Oceanside's California Surf Museum, on the corner of Pier View and Coast Hwy, across from the Longboard Cafe and four blocks up from the pier, can be found on the web at www.surfmuseum.org. Or call 'em at (760) 721-6876. Open daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.
The International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach (aka, Surf City) (www.surfingmuseum.org) should be a must-pitstop on that southward journey. And if you're ever in Santa Cruz, there's another to seek out (www.santacruzsurfingmuseum.org).

We'll leave you with this quote from famous author Jack London from his book, the Cruise of the Snark, which sits in the Oceanside museum on a tiny plaque: "The man who wants to learn surf-riding must be a strong swimmer, and he must be used to going under the water. After that, fair strength and common sense are all that is required."
Maybe its the latter I lack. Maybe a wack with a loose board will bring some my way someday.