California has always been a political hotbed. Back in the early 1900s, there was an incessant tug-of-war battle over real estate, oil, and beach access. Over the past hundred years, beach access and real estate won the battle, but until the late 1930s, it was anyone's guess.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and we often forget how crucial the massive oil strike in the Los Angeles basin was for millions of Americans. It created jobs and transformed Long Beach harbor into a bustling shipping port.

Standard Oil was centered in Huntington Beach, right in the thick of it all, at the heart of the battle between oil producers and beachgoers. Oil derricks pumped right to the limits of the sand. Today, Huntington Beach, the birthplace of this conflict, has been symbolically renamed Surf City. Oil producers moved offshore, and surfing has become a big business—a cultural phenomenon.

The southern most tip of California was slower to catch on to surfing because there was more money to be made in the north, in the Los Angeles basin oil industry. Later, booming post-war employment opportunities in the entertainment, aviation, and aeronautic industries, mostly based in the San Fernando Valley, contributed to the rise of the recreational SoCal surf scene.

South of Pt. Conception, the coastline is more southern-facing, and the waves are gentler. Southern California has slower, more rolling surf breaks because of underwater mountains and outer islands that protect it from huge energy wave buildups.

But sometimes, especially during the winter months when typhoons and hurricanes form south of the equator, enormous tidal energy is generated. These massive bands of waves break through the natural barriers and create huge waves in Southern California. That’s when the cry “Surf’s Up” is heard from Del Mar to Malibu.

Surfing "Long Boards" started in Hawaii and are attributed to Duke Kahanamoku,  considered to be one of surfing's "fathers." He shaped his own ten-foot surfboard, way longer than the normal Hawaiian surfboards of the 1910s era. Duke was a tall, strong Hawaiian, but he found that the longer board made it easier to catch and ride waves.

Duke Kahanamoku, born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1890, was a legendary swimmer. He won an Olympic gold medal in swimming and later became a sheriff in Honolulu, but surfing remained his lifelong passion. People all over the world knew him as a “water-guy” because of his many Olympic competition victories. His Olympic appearances inspired people around the world to learn to swim!

Back in the late 1800s, swimming was seen as a low-class activity, and an unsanitary habit. But as the economy grew and people had more time for leisure activities, more and more people started to enjoy water-bathing, as it was called. This led to the building of public bathing palaces, which in turn, made people more interested in other water sports like surfing.

But surfing never seemed to leave Duke's mind. He would travel from Hawaii to surf the California coast when the waves were right. One night, while camping on Newport Beach, he and his friends rescued several people from a boating accident because they were such strong swimmers.

It’s easy to imagine this Model A Station Wagon belonging to Duke, with his long board mounted on top. This carefully restored wood-paneled Woodie Wagon might have been a work vehicle in a previous life when oil fields riddled the LA basin. But luckily, it's now a repurposed surf wagon, a true cultural icon.

Many of these workhorse Ford station wagons were originally purchased as farm vehicles because they were designed and manufactured in the Midwest, where farming was the main occupation. During World War II, metal was scarce, so the car companies in the U.S. used wood as a manufacturing substitute. This wasn't the best solution because wood is heavier than metal, but war rationing made it impossible to get other materials. If you look closely at the inside roof of this Woodie Wagon, you can see strips of wood covered by a leather top to make the vehicle lighter. After the war, Woodie Wagons from this earlier era, found new life as surf wagons.

Even though Duke worked myriad jobs all his life to support his surfing lifestyle, he never gave up on his passion. The Duke became a legend. When surfing became popular in California, corporate brands started using the "Duke" name to market their surfboards and memorabilia.

By the 1950s, California was the center of surfing culture. Long boards and surfing memorabilia became a status symbol for older baby boomers in the 1980s and ‘90s. Driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, you could see long boards floating on the waves in southern California, ridden by retired executives with gray hair.

Long may we ride.

This article about Car Culture is inscribed on blockchain, ensuring that it can be read for another hundred years and probably more. A new form (blockchain) for an old function—to educate and inform the future.
Collect the image from the box below. This is a limited edition of ten numbered NFTs for posterity.

Boards on Board

🚗 ⚙️ **CarMania: Woodie Wagon Series** Collect the Classics. Cruise the Future. This limited edition Woodie Wagon is part of the CarCulture: CarMania Garage collection. Each NFT provides exclusive access to our AI chat system where you can ask questions about your specific vehicle and learn its history.

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The accompanying CarMania artwork celebrating this Ford woodie wagon and surfing culture is also stored on blockchain. I inscribed this onchain as a sacred sign for the next generation of surfers who ride the elemental wave. Is this limited edition NFT the new collectible?

Collect this NFT, especially if you a surfer. It’s part of your heritage. SHARE the ride!