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Santa Cruz, California: First Surfers Plaque, Museum with Shark Bite Board

First Surfers plaque is bolted to outside of the world's first -- and smallest -- surfing museum, a one-room lighthouse, with historic boards hung from the ceiling, including a board with a large chunk bitten off by a hungry shark in 1991.

Address:
701 W. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, CA
Directions:
Plaque is in the outside and the museum is on the inside of the small Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse on W. Cliff Drive. From the Dream Inn Hotel, walk along the metal railing overlooking the ocean for a quarter mile. The lighthouse is directly in front.
Phone:
831-420-6289
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Surfing was first brought here by Hawaiian Princes.

Surfing Museum - Shark Bite Board

Small one-room museum, but full of boards and background.

[Ed Eldridge, 08/13/2011]

One highlight is a board with a big shark bite taken out of it, and a couple of the teeth pulled out of the board. A plaque outside notes that surfing came to Santa Cruz during the summer of 1885, courtesy of three Hawaiian princes.


Nearby Offbeat Places

Dead Surfers MemorialDead Surfers Memorial, Santa Cruz, CA - < 1 mi.
Surfing MonumentSurfing Monument, Santa Cruz, CA - < 1 mi.
Kitchen's Court of MysteriesKitchen's Court of Mysteries, Santa Cruz, CA - 1 mi.
In the region:
William McKinley, Auctioneer of Allegory, San Jose, CA - 28 mi.

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