Annual SHACC benefit vintage surf auction set for Sept. 26 in LA
This Lightning Bolt Pipeliner shaped and ridden by Gerry Lopez will be among the offerings at this year’s SHACC California Gold Vintage Surf Auction. Photo: Courtesy of Surfing Heritage and Culture Center/Scott Bass
By Andrea Swayne
The Surfing Heritage and Culture Center’s California Gold Vintage Surf Auction each year provides collectors, historians and surf culture enthusiasts a chance at owning an important piece of surfing history. This year’s event is no exception, offering a large selection of important historic boards and memorabilia while supporting SHACC’s mission to preserve, present and promote surfing’s heritage for current and future generations.
This year’s event, set for Sept. 26, comes with a few “firsts.” For the first time it will be held in Los Angeles at the Culver City Veterans Memorial, 4117 Overland Avenue in Culver City, be hosted by Griff’s Grooming and Barbering and proceeds will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as well as SHACC.
The auction’s “California Gold” theme will feature boards and artifacts “with a California flair,” from the 1920s through the 1980s including the famous Tom Curren stickerless Maurice Cole 7’ 8” gun, Chuck Linnen’s 11’ 4” elephant gun and Wayne Rabbit Bartholomew’s Deep Six Allan Byrne Hawaiian 7’ 8” gun, said Scott Bass, SHACC member and the auction’s executive director, in an event preview.
Altogether, the auction committee—Keith Maynard Eshelman, Randy Hild, Dick Metz, Linda Michael, Dan Pincetich, Randy Rarick, Cindy Rincon, Erwin Spitz and Cary Wiess—expects to offer more than 200 silent auction items (boards and memorabilia) along with 40 to 50 prime vintage surfboards at the live auction.
“There are some really cool boards this year,” Barry Haun, SHACC’s curator and creative director said. “We just unloaded some the other day—some beautiful 60s guns. We have Marge Calhoun’s Dale Velzy balsa board she took with her to Hawaii in 1958 and won the Makaha contest on. George Downey did the ding repair on it and we also have her trophy from that contest. We also have some items from George Greenough—credited for kicking the shortboard revolution into high gear—and those don’t come up too often.”
Doors will open at noon for an auction preview and the silent auction will be held from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The live auction will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and the event will close at 10 p.m.
For tickets, bidding packages and more information, including a sneak preview of auction items, visit www.thevintagesurfauction.com.