SANTA CRUZ >> Here’s a fun activity: Ask anybody — it doesn’t even need to be somebody local — what things they most associate with Santa Cruz. If surfing is not the first thing they bring up, it definitely will be one of the first few.

With its plethora of beaches and large but manageable swells, it is no secret that surfing is one of the most popular pastimes in Santa Cruz, and it has been that way for more than a century. Even the Beach Boys recognized this when coming up with a list of popular surfing haunts for their 1963 hit “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

But how exactly did Santa Cruz become the surfing mecca that it is today? How has it evolved over time? That story is told in the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History’s new exhibit “Princes of Surf 2025: He?e Nalu Santa Cruz,” which opens Friday.

The origins of surfing in Santa Cruz can be traced to three Hawaiian princes — David Kawananakoa, Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana’ole and Edward Keliiahonui — who brought the activity to the mainland when visiting Santa Cruz in 1885, making it the first documented instance of surfing in California.

Ten years ago, to commemorate this milestone, a cohort of longtime surfers including Kim Stoner, Bob Pearson, Geoffrey Dunn and Barney Langner brought some of the princes’ original surfboards to the Museum of Art & History for its first “Princes of Surf” exhibit. Now, just in time for the 140th anniversary of this milestone, the exhibit is back and expanded upon.

“It’s a beautiful story of how our surfing culture started and how it’s thriving today,” said Pearson, the founder of Pearson Arrow Surfboards.

The three princes grew up in royalty, having been adopted by their respective uncle and aunt, King Kalakaua and Queen Kapi?olani, in the waning decades of the Hawaiian Kingdom. With Polynesia having a strong surf culture for centuries, they were also avid surfers. In 1885, when they were attending Saint Matthew’s School in San Mateo, they commissioned the Grover brothers’ timber mill to create olos, long surfboards popular in Hawaii, out of redwood planks. They surfed at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River, and the seeds of a new culture in Santa Cruz were planted.

Pearson created replicas of the princes’ boards after measuring the originals at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, where they are currently housed.

“I took templates of the rails, noses, bottom curves, etc.,” he said. “I spent a couple hours measuring a board, so they are exact replicas.”

These replicas, which Pearson created with wood from Big Creek Lumber, are displayed at the exhibit alongside a variety of other surfboards, including a 1950 balsa board, a 1985 Hot Curl board and a 1920s-era board in the style of Hawaiian surfer and Olympic medalist Duke Kahanamoku.

Also represented in the exhibit is a poster from Kahanamoku’s 1938 visit to Santa Cruz. He visited the area several times over the years, and this visit was for his participation in the Great Plunge Carnival at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.“My family participated in these events, so I heard about it as a kid,” said Dunn, a local surfing historian. “It’s kind of neat to have this story you heard of as a kid come to life.”

The new exhibit will have two new features from the 2015 exhibit. The first is a replica of a board from Princess Ka?iulani, who surfed with the three princes. Stoner, who co-founded the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, said Ka?iulani introduced surfing to the United Kingdom when she went there for schooling.

“She was next in line to be queen before the overthrow of the monarchy,” he said. “While she was over there in Great Britain, she surfed at Brighton Beach and attended the school there (and) was the first woman surfer over there in Europe.”

The other is a replica of an 1830 board from Abner Paki, a high chief under King Kamehameha III.

“That’s the oldest board on record right now,” said Pearson. “This is a copy of it.”

Another major feature of the exhibit is surfboards Pearson created for the movie “Chasing Mavericks,” the 2012 biopic of young surfer Jay Moriarity who was mentored by seasoned surfer Richard “Frosty” Hesson and gained international attention after surviving a massive wipeout while surfing Mavericks in 1994.

Pearson, who was portrayed by Channon Roe in the film, was commissioned to make boards for the movie.

“It started out with 37 boards,” he said. “When it finished, I made 240 boards for the movie.”

This included 20 boards for the red-carpet premiere and 10 to 15 replicas of each board for the producers and actors. Pearson has exhibited these boards before, including at a discussion with the actors, and will have many of them lining the walls of the gallery.

Pearson recalled Moriarity, who died in 2001 in a free-diving accident in the Maldives, as a beloved surfer.

“Jay was a superhuman,” he said. “It’s amazing how mature he was at a young age and how impressive he was at charging big waves, and he did it all with the right attitude. He did it for fun. There was no ego involved.”

Other features of the exhibit include a replica of the façade of the Santa Cruz Surf Clubhouse at the end of the Municipal Wharf, information on Antoinette Swann who hosted the princes when they visited Santa Cruz, boards by Dorothy Becker — the first female mainland surfer in the United States — and surf champ Sam Reid. Additionally, there will be boards from nine surf shops from throughout Santa Cruz’s history, from Haut to O’Neill’s to Johnny Rice. The latter is also represented through a neon sign and rear handle from a Volkswagen bus with logos in the window.

Stoner said the exhibit will also have information on Rice’s wife, Rosemari, the first woman on the Dewey Weber surf team in Southern California, as well as her surfboard and wetsuit.

On Saturday, 140 years to the day of the princes’ surfing exhibition in Santa Cruz, the museum will be honoring the occasion with a paddle out, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Rivermouth of Main Beach, 400 Beach St., Santa Cruz.

“We’re taking some of the exhibit outside,” said Marla Novo, the museum’s deputy director.

Novo said it was an exciting exhibit, even for people who have never surfed.

“It really is relevant to us in Santa Cruz and our relationship to the water and each other,” she said.

The exhibit is on display through Jan. 4, 2026, at the Solari Gallery on the second floor of the museum, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. The museum’s hours are noon to 8 p.m. Thursday through Friday, noon to 6 Saturdays and Sundays, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays. For information, go to Santacruzmah.org/exhibitions/hee-nalu-ma-2025.