Skip to main content

Up Next

Back to Show
Lost LA

Beach Culture

Season 3 Episode 3

One of Southern California’s great international exports has been its beach culture. This episode explores how surfers, bodybuilders and acrobats taught Californians how to have fun and stay young at the beach — and how the 1966 documentary “The Endless Summer” shared the Southern California idea of the beach with the rest of the world.

In this episode, we cover the evolution of surfing with surfer Dick Metz, including the contributions made by legendary early Hawaiian surfers George Freeth and Duke Kahanamoku. Metz inspired Bruce Brown’s film “The Endless Summer,” and his collection at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center covers every development in surf technology, which has been heavily influenced by aerospace. We also chat with the first female professional surfer, Joyce Hoffman, about the appeal of Southern California beach culture and its export to the rest of the world.

Support Provided By
Season
Tiki Bars and Their Hollywood Origins
26:40
Tiki culture isn’t a Polynesian import — it’s a Hollywood creation.
Tuberculosis: The Forgotten Plague
26:49
Archives reveal the “forgotten plague” that shaped Southern California: tuberculosis.
Eternal City: Los Angeles Cemeteries
26:50
Visit Hollywood Forever, Evergreen and Forest Lawn, where L.A. reinvented the cemetery.
Hiking Trailblazers
26:40
The hiker-activists who led Angelenos into their hills and onto the trails.
Historic Filipinotown
26:39
How Filipino Americans in Southern California are making their heritage more visible.
Fast Food and Car Culture
26:47
Iconic fast-food chains from McDonald’s to Taco Bell were born in SoCal.
From Little Tokyo to Crenshaw
26:37
After internment camps, Japanese Americans made L.A.'s Crenshaw neighborhood their home.
German Exiles
26:04
During WWII, L.A. became a sanctuary for Europe’s accomplished artists and intellectuals.
Prehistoric Landscapes
26:46
Dig deep into Southern California’s past to reveal lessons for our climate-changed future.
Winemaking
26:41
Explore a forgotten age when winemaking was Southern California’s principal industry.
Who Killed the Red Car?
26:46
Why did Los Angeles dismantle one of the greatest rail transit systems in the nation?
Shindana Dolls | Still from "Lost LA" S4 E6: Shindana Toy Company
26:40
Explore the lasting impact of the Shindana Toy Company, created out of the need for community empowerment following the 1965 Watts uprising, whose ethnically correct black dolls forever changed the American doll industry.
Active loading indicator