Two of our obsessions come together this week at Coventry’s Transport Museum in the lovely looking exhibition Wheels & Waves.
Bringing together surf and car culture in the home of the British industry is an inspired decision — because the two have been intertwined since the very beginning.
The simple, green and serene (ish) pastime of surfing has always been faced with the conundrum of how you get to the beach and how you manage to sustain yourself while you’re there.
Hence the profileration of surf wagons of all shapes and sizes that now clog up the coastal arteries of this and other surfing nations.
And as a group of people surfers are amazingly able to create a culture around the everyday objects they use.
Not only are the surfboards themselves made into fetish objects, the cars surfers use to load, stash and live are created as totems to their lifestyle too.
Curator of the exhibition Pete Robinson has worked with the museum to fuse the material together in what looks like a refreshing take on the the place of cars in our lives.
Expected to see the totemic split screen Kombi — but going back to huge Chevy woodies, Morris Travellers and all sorts of lesser-known rides that have played a part in creating surf culture on wheels.
Add music, film, artwork and other good stuff and there’s a little bit of beautiful beach culture parked up in the West Midlands, helping us all to get through the winter.
image: Magneto Photography
