North Shore Surf and Cultural Museum

The North Shore Surf and Cultural Museum has been a laidback resource of local surfing history ever since it opened in 1999, on the town of Haleiwa’s centennial.

Even if you've never been tempted to hang ten, you'll find lots to enjoy in this friendly North Shore hangout. Compare the massive redwood surfboards of the 1950s to today's sleek, precision-engineered models and you'll wonder how the early beachboys ever survived the North Shore's notoriously huge waves. Surf fans can check out famous designs and foolish follies, including hollow wooden boards, long boards that weigh upwards of 100 pounds, and motorized surfboards. The first-ever snowboard is also on display here.

A model of the long-gone Art Deco façade from the Haleiwa Theater screens surf movies all day long. At the North Shore Surf Museum, you can explore surfing's history from the days when it was a sport reserved for Hawaiian royalty, through Duke Kahanamoku and the early 20th-century popularity of the sport. Surfing's place in pop culture is immortalized with posters of squeaky-clean beachgoers like Frankie Avalon and Sandra Dee. And real-life world champions appear in classic photography by renowned photographer LeRoy Grannis.