Georgia, USA

Surfers like Carlos Hudson, Mike and Rusty Fleetwood, and Chip Oar were shredding in the Tybee area right through the mid-1960s. During the ESA’s infancy, contests would be held at Tybee Island, and East Coast notables like Gary Propper would take on the local crew. The 4th annual Georgia State Surfing Championships, which took place on September 21st 1970, reportedly attracted most all of the surfers in the state – 100 entries. This small population remained static until the early 1980s, by which time a Hawaiian transplant working for the Coastguard, had opened High Tide Surf Shop. There had been another shop in the early 1970s, but a shrinking surf population put it out of business, so for a few years there was no place to buy surf equipment in Georgia. The recent East Coast surfing explosion has extended to Georgia, bringing more industry infrastructure, surf shops and, yeah, surfers.