Rincon Point: The Queen of the Coast

  Did Gidget surf Rincon Point? By Vince Burns Facebook Twitter Email 1  of 4 Margaret Kesson and Ken Kesson at Rincon Point ca. 1957.   Jason Lumley, Courtesy of Steve Halsted Margo Halsted surfs Rincon Point ca. 1957.   Jason Lumley, Courtesy of Steve Halsted The cover for the original “Gidget” (1957), a fictionalized treatment of Kathy Kohner’s summer of 1956, was written by her father Frederick Kohner.   HA.com Mary Osborne shows off her skills and fancy footwork at Rincon Point.   Justin Bastien Facebook Twitter Email Print Save “Listen, Gidget,” he said with a big smirk, “there are other things than surf-riding, praise the Lord.”   “Are there? Well, you can eat them raw.…Bite it,” I said, and headed for the surf. So the real-life Gidget (actual name: Kathy Kohner) was saltier than the sanitized Hollywood film version (1959) that starred Sandra Dee as a hyperactive beach bunny. Or at least that’s the version of Gidget that appears in her father’s ...

Rincon Surf Pioneer: Ken Kesson (1928-2015) By Vince Burns Facebook Twitter Email 1  of 3 Ken Kesson at Rincon Point, ca. 1957. Note the Rincon emblazoned shirt Kesson wears was handmade as the big surf clothing and merchandise brands had yet to emerge – and in the background, the artificial Richfield Oil Island (construction completed 1958). Courtesy of Steve Halsted Photographer Jason Lumley at Rincon Point, ca. 1962. Courtesy of Steve Halsted Jason Lumley’s 1957 inscription in the Rincon surfing scrapbook included Christmas well wishes to the Halsteds. Facebook Twitter Email Print S A well-worn scrapbook of photographs and enthusiastic musings about the Rincon scene captured a pivotal moment in surfing’s rise in California, just as it began the transition from an outlaw sport for rebels like Dick Metz to a mainstream activity backed by a just-forming wave of films, television and music. Created by frequent Point visitor Jason Lumley, the scrapbook was given to the Halsted f...

  The Beat Generation comes to Rincon Point By Vince Burns Facebook Twitter Email Photo taken by Dick Metz of his friends and surf fans at Rincon Point, 1951.   Dick Metz/Surfing Heritage and Culture Center Archives Facebook Twitter Email Print Save These exuberant surfers were not the first to surf famous Rincon Point but they were among the first to rediscover the point after World War II, riding the waves of the Queen of the Coast on their monster wooden boards. Probably the most well-known of the 1950s Rincon surfers was Dick Metz who snapped this photograph in 1951. Dick grew up in Laguna Beach but found his way to Santa Barbara in the early 1950s to attend what was then the Santa Barbara College of the University of California. Like many beach lovers after him, Metz picked Santa Barbara for his studies mostly because of the excellent surf.   When not feuding with college officials over requirements like having to wear shoes on campus, Metz found plenty of time to su...