The Eighties at Echo Beach

You won t find Echo Beach on any map. But for a band of surfers from Newport Beach the stretch between 52nd and 56th street was an entire universe of 80s cool. These Day-Glo surfers singlehandedly demolished the laid-back 70s style with a loud blast of Devo and attitude. Out of the water, they wore Aquanet pompadours, Wayfarers, and neon boardshorts. In the water, they ripped up the wave two feet from local photographer Mike Moir s Canon fish eye. The photos he published in the surf magazines ignited a counter culture that grew into the 80s as we know and love them. Echo Beach captures the marriage of surf and fashion that was ground zero of the 80s, when a zebra-striped twin fin surfboard and a hot yellow wet suit was the ticket to happiness.