Text by Yvon Chouinard, Steve Pezman, Steve Roper.
The story told by the photographs in California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties takes place against the larger backdrop of postwar America: Truman and Eisenhower, the Korean War, the Cold War and the Red Scare. Young people were embracing new symbols of non-conformity: Elvis Presley, Jack Kerouac, Marlon Brando and James Dean. All along the California coast, surfing became popular as heavy balsawood boards were replaced with lightweight ones crafted from polyurethane foam, fiberglass and resin. Meanwhile, climbers descended on Tahquitz Rock in the south and Yosemite Valley to the north to test handcrafted equipment that would set new standards for safety, technique and performance. The photographs in this volume include images of legendary surfers such as Joe Quigg, Tom Zahn, Dale Velzy and Renny Yater, in locations such as Rincon, Malibu, South Bay, Laguna and San Onofre; and famous climbers such as Warren Harding, Royal Robbins and Wayne Merry among others, photographed mostly in the Yosemite Valley by the likes of Bob Swift, Alan Steck, Jerry Gallwas and Frank Hoover. Soaked in surf, sun and adrenaline, the photographs in California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties depict the birth of an era and an exhilarating moment in Californian history.
Featured image is reproduced from California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Conde Nast Traveler
Both Tribes are captured in the black-and-white and color images in the book California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties, out this month. The candid, casual snapshots depict early pioneers like Bob Simmons (who shaped some of the first Styrofoam surfboards) and Royal Robins, the first person to climb the vertical face of Half Dome, in 1957. Looking through these images, you'll find it hard not to fall under their spell - or daydream about buying a one-way ticket to the Golden State.
Details
Joel Patterson
While Jack Kerouac and co. were on the road, a new generation of casually stylish, deeply tanned daredevils were test-piloting the first modern surfboards and scaling Yosemite's last unclimbed granite faces. They're celebrated in 'California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties,' featuring 102 photographs that capture legends--surfer Bev Morgan at play in the Malibu waves, rock climber Warren Harding ascending El Capitan--back when they were just kids with an itch for adventure.
STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely.
FROM THE BOOK
"The fifties were the easy years in California. With full employment from the Korean War, we were enjoying all the fruits of the fossil fuel culture. Gas was a quarter a gallon, used cars could be bought for twenty-five dollars, campgrounds were free, and you could easily live off the excess fat of society. Those of us in the counter cultures of climbing and surfing were as climber Pete Sinclair said, 'the last free Americans.'" - Yvon Chouinard, from his Introduction to California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties
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FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 12 in. / 84 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $39.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $55 GBP £35.00 ISBN: 9781938922268 PUBLISHER: T. Adler Books AVAILABLE: 12/31/2013 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by T. Adler Books. Text by Yvon Chouinard, Steve Pezman, Steve Roper.
The story told by the photographs in California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties takes place against the larger backdrop of postwar America: Truman and Eisenhower, the Korean War, the Cold War and the Red Scare. Young people were embracing new symbols of non-conformity: Elvis Presley, Jack Kerouac, Marlon Brando and James Dean. All along the California coast, surfing became popular as heavy balsawood boards were replaced with lightweight ones crafted from polyurethane foam, fiberglass and resin. Meanwhile, climbers descended on Tahquitz Rock in the south and Yosemite Valley to the north to test handcrafted equipment that would set new standards for safety, technique and performance. The photographs in this volume include images of legendary surfers such as Joe Quigg, Tom Zahn, Dale Velzy and Renny Yater, in locations such as Rincon, Malibu, South Bay, Laguna and San Onofre; and famous climbers such as Warren Harding, Royal Robbins and Wayne Merry among others, photographed mostly in the Yosemite Valley by the likes of Bob Swift, Alan Steck, Jerry Gallwas and Frank Hoover. Soaked in surf, sun and adrenaline, the photographs in California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties depict the birth of an era and an exhilarating moment in Californian history.