Republished from Life Magazine- August 26, 1940:
SURF RIDING ON A CALIFORNIA BEACH IS A FAVORITE SUMMERTIME SPORT
Two hundred yards from the shoreline, like a huge sleepy giant, a big wave rises. Slowly it lifts itself into the air, a thin line of silver spray bubbling along its crest. Higher and higher it goes. Then suddenly, beginning at one end it starts to break. With a crash and a churn, it tosses toward the beach.
This is the sort of wave that body surfers dream about and the sort they hope to find whenever they go to the seashore. Actually nowhere do they have a better chance of finding these big waves than on California beaches. There almost every boy and girl is a expert surf rider. After school, after work, over the weekend, or just any time as all they trek down to the beach, spend hour after hour playing in the waves, swallowing water, scraping stomachs on the sand, occasionally getting a long, spectacular ride which leaves them belly-down, high and dry on the beach
A novice will not find find body surfing easy. He must be a strong swimmer, not afraid of getting thorooughly ducked. He should wade out in the water to the spot where the waves are breaking. Then he should start swimming fast in front of a big wave just before it starts to break. He mustn’t feel discouraged if at first all the water in the Pacific Ocean seems to crash on top of him.
“Surf Riding on a California Beach is a Favorite Summertime Sport.” Life Magazine Aug. 26, 1940. 50-2. Google Books. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
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