Surf Shack
Windansea Beach is home to a popular surf break in La Jolla, California.
In 1919, Arthur Thorpe Snell, a La Jolla hotelier ran a naming contest to re-brand his oceanfront Strand Hotel. The winning name, Windansea, eventually carried forward to the beach, and the neighborhood that grew around it, after the hotel burned down in 1943.
In 1946, three local men built a surf shack to provide some beach shade for kids, and it became a surfer's hangout. There were huge annual celebrations of the shack that became unruly and subject of multiple police raids over the years. A group of surfers and locals, the "Mac Meda Destruction Company," continued the parties through the 1960s, earning a mention in Tom Wolfe's novel, 'The Pump House Gang', about the territorial teenage surfers at Windansea Beach.
The shack has been rebuilt and moved over the years due to the destructive forces of the waves. It's current location on the rocks back from the beach, should keep it around a bit longer; it was designated an Historical Landmark in 1998.
Surf Shack
Windansea Beach is home to a popular surf break in La Jolla, California.
In 1919, Arthur Thorpe Snell, a La Jolla hotelier ran a naming contest to re-brand his oceanfront Strand Hotel. The winning name, Windansea, eventually carried forward to the beach, and the neighborhood that grew around it, after the hotel burned down in 1943.
In 1946, three local men built a surf shack to provide some beach shade for kids, and it became a surfer's hangout. There were huge annual celebrations of the shack that became unruly and subject of multiple police raids over the years. A group of surfers and locals, the "Mac Meda Destruction Company," continued the parties through the 1960s, earning a mention in Tom Wolfe's novel, 'The Pump House Gang', about the territorial teenage surfers at Windansea Beach.
The shack has been rebuilt and moved over the years due to the destructive forces of the waves. It's current location on the rocks back from the beach, should keep it around a bit longer; it was designated an Historical Landmark in 1998.