Editor's note: This adds information about how to donate items to the surf collection.
Surfing culture may be synonymous with "The O.C.," but there was a time when the water sport was new here.
On Wednesday, UC Irvine's Langson Library opened a display of surfing-related items, including photographs, travel journals and magazines. Some of the items date to the 18th century but most have local roots.
One item is an archival photograph taken in Corona del Mar of the first surf contest staged on the U.S. mainland: the Pacific Coast Surf Riding Championships in 1928.
Steve MacLeod, the curator and public services coordinator in Special Collections & Archives at UCI, reflected on surfing's evolution since the late 1920s.
"Most people just made [their surfboards] right on the beach because they couldn't carry them anywhere," MacLeod said. "CdM was one of the really significant places where people surfed."