New exhibit opening at Texas Surf Museum

The Texas Surf Museum is open daily. Exhibits change periodically. Set to open on the evening of Friday, June 4, the newest major exhibit at the Texas Surf Museum in downtown Corpus Christi will trace the history of surfing in the Coastal Bend through photos, video, vintage surfboards and more.

Titled “Fifty Years of Stoke – Surfing the Coastal Bend,” the exhibit will remain on display throughout the summer.

The exhibit’s creators are South Jetty reporter Dan Parker and his wife, Michelle Christenson, a multi-media journalist at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Parker and Christenson are Port Aransas residents who moonlight as curators of the surf museum.

Many of the surfers in the exhibit are Port Aransans and former Port Aransas residents. The exhibit also displays photos of towering local hurricane surf and lays out some of the history behind Port Aransas area surf spots like San Jose Island and Horace Caldwell Pier.

The Texas Surf Museum stands at 309 N. Water St., next-door to the Executive Surf Club eatery, in downtown Corpus Christi. It’s Texas’ only museum dedicated to the sport of surfing.

The museum explores surfing’s general history and showcases the Lone Star State’s unique place in that history. The facility contains hundreds of photos and artifacts that tell the story of how surfing came to Texas more than 70 years ago and eventually flourished. An estimated 20,000 surfers now inhabit Texas.

Admission, like the waves, is free, but the surf museum appreciates donations.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The phone number is (361) 882- 2364, the same as for the attached Surf Club Records shop. On the Web: www.texassurfmuseum.com.