Revisiting the iconic 1951 Rincon Cove photograph

Let’s dive for a minute deep into Rincon Point’s surfing history. One of the most iconic photographs from the Point’s early surf history is the marvelous scene reprinted here to the right, capturing exuberant surfers and friends. The photograph dates to 1951, and the scene is Rincon Cove. Behind the merry group of friends is the old seawall that ran along the Point’s eastside, further in the background are the railroad tracks, and, just out of eyeshot, the old, pre-freeway coast road. The historic boards framing the scene complete the perfect shot.

It’s a wonderful scene all around, all the more so since photographs of pre-Gidget surfing at Rincon are relatively rare. We turned up the photo in the Dick Metz Photograph Collection at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center (SHACC) in San Clemente, part of Metz’s collection of Rincon and Santa Barbara photographs from the early days when the surfing life was just beginning to catch on and mixing with the spirit of non-conformity stirring on California campuses and beaches.

Recent development

Now, thanks to a delightful set of twists and turns, we know the photographer of our iconic Rincon shot: Sandy Barnes. Sandy got in touch with us after Dick Barr (one of those pictured) flagged to her our “Rincon Point” (2022) book, which has the photo on its cover. Thanks to Sandy, we now know the photo’s context and a bit more about our local surf scene 70+ years ago. 

Sandy revealed that the heretofore unidentified man dominating the scene is her husband George H. “Gerry” Barnes, who is holding the scarfed-nose surfboard in the photo. Sandy remembers the photo this way: she and Gerry were enjoying Rincon Point as they often did in the early 1950s. (The couple met at Rincon Point, but that’s another story!) Also on scene was Conway “Jiggs” Pierson (1927-1989), longtime art professor and ceramicist at UC Santa Barbara. Jiggs was also an amateur boardmaker and surfer himself. He dabbled with photography too, and during that magical day in 1951, had his camera trained on the Rincon surfers in the Cove. 

He asked Sandy to take a look; she liked what she saw through the lens and pressed the shutter with Gerry’s rakishly dangling cigarette and the scarfed board nicely framing the shot. Even at the time, Jiggs and Sandy knew they had a winner, and copies of the photograph were handed out to subjects and others, with one eventually making its way into the Metz archives at the SHACC. It can be found there online, along with a collection of Dick Metz’s own photos from his days in our area while attending what was then known as the Santa Barbara College of the University of California. We’ve written about Dick several times in this space: suffice to say, he is one of the most important figures in surf history alive today. 

This month, Sandy Barnes had no difficulty – despite the intervening years – conjuring up the identities of those in our photo. The left-to-right lineup in the foreground: Gene “Mac” McCafferty, Joe Riddick (1931-2023), Dick Barr (b. 1930), and Gerry Barnes (ca. 1927-2015). All were part of the local surf scene and are namechecked in early accounts of Rincon in the 1950s. For example, Riddick and Barr show up in another photo from the Metz Collection, this one from 1952, carefully waxing a board (probably using a candle, since surf wax had not yet been invented). We got in touch with Dick Barr (now of Montecito) this month, who likewise remembered the long-ago surfing days at Rincon, trips down south to find Bob Simmons-made boards, and roaming the coast from San Onofre to Santa Cruz in search of great surf. 

Another source mentions Riddick, Pierson and Eugene McCafferty as contemporaries and surfing buddies of the legendary Billy Meng. Larger than life but little known today, Meng (b. 1930) is a key figure in the 1950s SoCal scene, turning up in stories about surfing’s first generation. Sandy Barnes remembers Meng, saying he would often greet her and Gerry at Miramar with a hearty “want a cup of mud (coffee)?” and then proceed to tease them that they had just missed out on the best set of the day. Around this time Meng and Dick Metz lived together in a Miramar beach house. 

For her part, Sandy Barnes is still going strong. She lives in the redwoods north of Santa Cruz. Sandy’s life has been well lived and adventurous. Highlights: after graduating (like so many of the principals in our story) from the Santa Barbara College, she stayed in the area to have two daughters with Gerry. The couple had a stint at Santa Barbara’s fabled Mountain Drive enclave, where a special brand of bohemian and communal living was lubricated with much home-grown wine, poetry, nudity, arts and crafts and other good fun. Then there was a spell in Las Vegas where Sandy coordinated and appeared regularly on a 1970s TV show hosted by “Godfather” actor and casino/restaurant owner Gianni Russo. A return to Santa Barbara had Sandy and her daughter running an arts and crafts co-op on State Street. Then came a period as art consultant in San Francisco. Looking back, Sandy remembers her “hippie” days in Santa Barbara fondly, whether it was up on Mountain Drive or living in a rented barn owned by bohemian Iris Tree on Padaro Lane. “I really enjoyed all the people we were friends with, everyone was so carefree then,” remembers Sandy. 

Through it all, Sandy held on to her “Surf’s Up” photo from 1951, fortunately for us. The photograph and Sandy’s memories allow us to relieve a sweet moment in Rincon’s surf history when the hot shot “Malibu boys” were just beginning to discover Rincon and the Gidget wave had yet to break on Southern California, before all the crowds and commercialism. Thank you, Sandy!