Surfing as an activity is more than three thousand years old, full of stories, culture and artifacts. All that history is on full display at the Honolulu Surfing Museum located at the Jimmy Buffett’s Beachcomber Restaurant, which does not fail to educate and enthrall even the most hardcore surfing enthusiasts. On a surf trip up the California coast, Jimmy Buffet discovered a tiny Santa Barbara Surfing Museum run by surfer and antique collector James O’Mahoney. Thanks to Buffet’s entrepreneurial spirit, ingenuity, and vision, today, surfers and historians can sample the intrigue of this surfing Mecca while recharging with a cheeseburger before heading back out to catch some waves!

 

The Honolulu Surfing Museum at Jimmy Buffets Lifeguard Bar in Hawaii is a work of A&ES art through and through. The museum itself houses a superb array of surfing and historical artifacts, all professionally presented in museum casing and mounts but with a definite, laid-back vibe. Visitors can see the development of some of the most significant surfboards from the last century of surfing or gaze in wonderment at pieces made famous by their owners. The Honolulu Surf Museum atmosphere keeps the expected, consistently chilled out ambiance. While it is informative and educational about the development and sport of surfing, the emphasis is clearly on fun as visitors stroll through the exhibits in their board shorts and flip-flops, with a cocktail from the museum bar in hand.