Designate the Site of the 1938 Nat'l Surfing + Paddleboard Champs. (Long Beach, Calif.)

Please join us and our partners, Surfrider Foundation - Long Beach Chapter, to support listing the former site of Long Beach's 1938 National Surfing And Paddleboard Championships contest as a California Point of Historical Interest.

ABOUT THE CONTEST // The 1938 National Surfing and Paddleboard Championships site was Los Angeles County’s first surfing and paddleboard competition billed as a national event. The event was both a successful visitor attraction for the city and a notable contest for Southern California’s pre-war surfers and paddleboarders.

On Sunday, November 13th, 20,000 spectators gathered on the shore and along the Rainbow Pier to watch over 100 athletes (representing 12 clubs) compete in the National Surfing and Paddleboard Championships. The event was decidedly a visitor attraction: organized and produced by the Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Long Beach Amusement League, and covered by newspaper and newsreel. Mary Ann Hawkins (Del Mar Surfing Club), champion swimmer, diver, and paddleboarder --as well as a Hollywood stunt double -- won the Women’s Division. Preston “Pete” Peterson (Del Mar Surfing Club), a Santa Monica lifeguard and 4-time winner of the Pacific Coast Surf Riding Championships, won the Men’s Division. The Venice Surfriding Club took top honors in the Team Paddleboard Relay. While the paddleboard events did not require surfable waves, it was clear to organizers and competitors the surfing competitions could not take place due to poor conditions.

The surfing events were rescheduled to December 11, 1938 at the same location as the previous paddleboard events. Surf clubs competed for the 44-inch Dick Loynes Perpetual Trophy-named for the Long Beach resident, speedboat and yachting champion, and director of the Chamber of Commerce. The Long Beach Amusement League donated gold trophies for the individual top places. Sixty-five competitors were led to the beach by Santa Ana Band majorettes and “Doc” Ball, the Los Angeles dentist and early surf photographer, as the starter. Two women who competed earlier in November in the National Paddleboard Championships returned to compete in the surfing competitions: Mary Ann Hawkins (Del Mar Surfing Club), the women’s paddleboard champion, and Dorothy Fincannon (Long Beach Surfing Club), the paddleboard second-place medalist and a Long Beach Polytechnic High School senior. 40,000 spectators viewed the contest from the shoreline as well as the piers. Los Angeles’ Manhattan Surfing Club won the team competition and Arthur Horner (Venice Surfing Club) the Open division.

ABOUT THE NOMINATION // The nominated area -- about 28.5 acres and representing the former contest site -- is entirely contained on public property. Generally the area incorporates a portion of the former West End waterfront, extending 1,640 feet (500 meters) south of Seaside Way between Pine Avenue and Cedar Avenue on property owned by the City of Long Beach.

ABOUT CALIFORNIA POINTS OF HISTORICAL INTEREST // California Points of Historical Interest are sites, buildings, features, or events that are of local -- city or county -- significance and have anthropological, cultural, military, political, architectural, economic, scientific or technical, religious, experimental, or other value. Unlike other programs, California Points of Historical Interest nominations can commemorate historical resources which no longer exist. A California Point of Historical Interest listing will not impact public access, public safety, or the current uses of the area. The listing will have no environmental impact.

YOUR SUPPORT // State commemoration of historical surfing areas is important to understanding the broad patterns of our history and promotes a richer interpretation of our coastal environment.

Please use the COMMENTS section to express your support and share personal and family stories of early surfing in west Long Beach. Join us in making surfing history. Your signature counts!