to honor surfing monument

Point Santa Cruz is a fun place to check out the ubiquitous surfers. Also check out the surfing museum and lighthouse. Good people watching the locals.

This statue, a famous bit of Santa Cruz culture, is a testimony to the importance of surfing in the area. The statue depicts a young man, seemingly standing at "surfer attention", gazing thoughtfully toward the horizon, and holding his surfboard behind him. There's a beautiful overlook here and a place to sit for awhile.The statue holds a certain fascination and cult following for the surfing community. People have climbed up the base of the monument to unceremoniously place humorous tee shirts, Hawaiian leis, Santa hats and other items of CA surfing culture on the good-natured young guy. Surfer Guy is also very photogenic. Photographers capture his image at various times of the day and in different seasons--Surfer Guy in morning light, in full sun, in fog, in rain, at sunset, in moonlight--you get the idea.Whether you take the surfer theme seriously or not, you have to admit that it's a nice piece of public art and is very effective in achieving an emotional response from people.The monument is on West Cliff Drive. If you go a little further down West Cliff, you will find the surfer museum and a lighthouse. If you like surfing, this is a must see.

I can never walk past this magnificent piece of public art without feeling that the sculptors, Brian W. Curtis and Thomas Marsh, have captured something transcendent in their depiction of a solitary surfer holding his board to his back and with his back to the ocean. The expression of the surfer captures this perfectly, and the placement of the statue is brilliant: Were the stature rotated to have the surfer facing the ocean instead of away from it, the message would have been completely trivialized. As it is, the statement made by the setting and the placement is about something fundamental in the human spirit bigger than surfing. When in Santa Cruz you should make a point of visiting this monument (and sunrise on a clear day is a particularly good time) to see what statement it makes to you.

Imperdivel. Um visual incrivel, não podem deixar de visitar. Minha familia amante do surf amou demais!