Coventry museum makes waves

| 10 Nov 2011

An exhibition dedicated to classic surfing vehicles has opened at Coventry Transport Museum.

Wheels & Waves celebrates cars, buggies and vans used by surfers over the past 60 years with a display of vehicles, from a couple of Ford Model Ts – including a 1923 Model T bucket hot rod and a 1927 Woodie – to a 1966 Beach Buggy (below) and a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle.

Also on show will be Britain’s take on surfing cars, starting with a1940 Humber station wagon and a 1960 Sunbeam Rapier Mk3 and extending to a 1964 Morris Minor Traveller.

Other popular surfers’ wheels on show include a 1966 Volkswagen Samba Deluxe Camper and a couple of ‘bay window’ Volkswagen campers, along with the modern take on the iconic T2 shape, a 2011 Danbury.

Peter Robinson from the Museum of British Surfing was enthusiastic about the display. “The exhibition is actually genius,” he said,”because surfers have been turning to novel forms of transport since at least the 1930s in that desperate quest to get themselves and their surfboards to the beach.”

Robinson added: “Anything from a modified pram, a skateboard, an old hearse or the ubiquitous VW camper – the vehicle often defines the surfer and has become an essential and vibrant part of beach culture.”

The exhibition opened on 20 October and runs to 18 March. See Wheels & Waves for more.