WindanSea,
La Jolla, California
From California to Cal(i)oundra. The roots of the WNS go all the way back to the early 1960s where Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern surfing himself, started a profound surfing movement alongside Phil Edwards, Mike Hynson, and Skip Frye.
From day one, WindanSea was where the sport's most serious talent gathered. The club set out to be the best in the world and membership was initially by invitation only. An invite into the club was considered an extremely prestigious honour.
The WindanSea La Jolla is not only remarkable for its surf talent and the titles it brought home over the years. The club and its young surfers became the subject of Tom Wolfe's essay "The Pump House Gang," one of the defining works of American New Journalism. WindanSea holds a lot of weight in how surf culture has been shaped across continents.
The 1966 documentary ‘The Endless Summer’ starred Mike Hynson and took a crew of surfers around the world, including Australia. In 1967, Thor Svenson led a WindanSea team on a South Pacific tour - New Zealand, Fiji, Australia and Tahiti, travelling up the NSW/Queensland coast to Coolangatta - with a 20th Century Fox film crew in tow, aiming to compete as well as learn from the Australians. On that trip, club member Skip Frye met Australian surfer and shaper Bob McTavish, and came home inspired to shift from longboards to the shorter, more manoeuvrable boards the Australians were riding, which led to the invention of the now iconic Egg shape.
Leaning into the rich history and impact WindanSea La Jolla carries for international surf culture, carrying the name WindanSea is a huge honour. There were other WNS clubs across Australia, such as Bondi, Sydney and the Gold Coast, as well as in Mexico and Hawaii, which sadly haven't stood the test of time. This brings even more pride,Y that the WNS Clubhouse and Boardriders have such a strong foundation, and keep growing consistently.
We couldn't be more delighted, excited and proud to be a franchise continuing the legacy in Australia, with the original WindanSea possibly being one of the oldest, most famous, and most respected surf groups in the world