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Surfing Florida: A Photographic History
A Traveling Exhibition and Book Project
Schmidt Center Gallery
date: to be determined

Surfing Florida seeks your participation! To learn more about the proposed exhibition and catalogue, click here for the full Project Description Brochure.

We are interested in the community angle, grom shots, epic swells, memorial events, paddle-out ceremonies, benefit events, contests and clubs. We are also considering an impossible listing of every Floridian who has played a significant role in the sport, either in or from the state, whether surfer, shaper, manufacturer, shop owner, activist, politician, etc. To provide materials for consideration, suggest a collection, or nominate a related individual or organization, click here to suggest and fill out a survey indicating a willingness to assist in this effort (submit via e-mail). To view those already on-board and enlisted, click here for organized by Florida region, click here for organized by name alphabetically, or click here for organized by professional category.

Surfing Florida: A Photographic History is a traveling exhibition and book project organized by the University Galleries at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. Paul Aho, a lifelong Florida surfer and shaper who actively competed as a teenager is the project’s editor and curator. Aho is an artist and a world-traveled surfer.

To achieve the initial research and gathering of materials Aho has divided Florida into seven geographic regions. Representing these regions as surfing communities, documenting the state’s surfing history chronologically and representing the phenomena of surf culture in Florida are the aims of the project. As a traveling exhibition, Surfing Florida: A Photographic History will combine a thematically organized historical panel style exhibition combining digital reproductions of vintage photographs and interpretive texts along with many original photographic portfolios of the state’s best known surf photographers and most significant historic photo collections. In addition to chronicling the state’s emergence as the east coast epicenter for surfing in America, the exhibition will feature the work and archives of the state’s most esteemed surfers, professional surf photographers and collectors of surf photography and memorabilia. While the traveling exhibition will not include surfboards and other surfing related artifacts, each exhibition venue will be encouraged to work with surfboard collectors in their region to showcase surfboards and other materials appropriate to the size and resources of their exhibition facility. The exhibition’s graphic panels will include texts relating how surf culture shaped popular culture, tourism and commerce in Florida’s surfing centers, as well as how local, national and international events shaped the  the evolution of surfing in Florida. Interestingly, this tide flowed and continues to flow both ways, with the state of Florida boasting a legacy of male and female world champions, as well as extraordinarily talented and visionary pioneers who bested the best in the days before surfing could become a truly professional career.

Images (clockwise from left):

Florida and the East Coast’s first champion surfer Gary Propper, who rose to international prominence with a flair that was impossible to ignore. The highest paid surfer of his generation, with a top selling Gary Propper model by Hobie Surfboards that was ridden by the winning surfer in every division of the 1967 East Coast Surfing Championships.
Photo: Tom Duggan. Permission of The Propper Archives, all rights reserved.

Jeff Crawford, 1984. The central coast of Florida has produced exceptional surfers from generation to generation, earning international recognition in the media and contest circuit. Among the standouts in the 1970s was Jeff Crawford, who along with Kelly Slater, was one of only two east coast surfers to ever win the prestigious Pipeline Masters. Crawford took the crown in 1974, after having placed third in the Duke Classic in 1973. Photo: Permission of Tony Arruza, all rights reserved.

Florida has certainly produced a lion’s share of world class talent. Centered here is a young Kelly Slater, now nine-time world champ, with (l to r) Todd Holland, Scott McCranels, Rich Rudolph, Matt Kechle and Charlie Kuhn. Photo Permission of Tony Aruzza, all rights reserved.

The Ship – Surfers in the Palm Beaches were treated to the creation of a spectacular new wave with the grounding of the Amaryllis during Hurricane Betsy on September 9, 1965. Shown here are locals, Eddie Scozzare (right) and Fred Salmon.Photo: Permission of M.E. Gruber Archive and the Palm Beach County Surfing History Project, all rights reserved.

The Cocoa Beach Pier has been home to major contests since the sport’s early days. Pictured among other Floridians are John Eakes, Bruce Valluzzi (in hat), Betsy Twombly, Gary Propper, Claude Codgins, René Eisler and Gary Freeman. Photo courtesy of Pat Valluzzi

Yancy Spencer held court in the Panhandle for decades and his sons Yancy IV and Sterling continue to set the standards. Yancy is widely regarded as the best west Florida surfer of his generation, with titles as Gulf, East Coast and U.S. Longboard Champ.
Photo: Larry Pope, all rights reserved.

The University Galleries, FAU acknowledge that all of the images on this page have been provided with express written permission by photographers and collections who hold exclusive copyrights.


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