KERN COUNTY — TROPICAL ENOUGH For years, Kern River Surf Co has been accused of exaggerating Bakersfield’s tropical qualities. The palm trees, the inland surf breaks, the yacht clubs, the tiki resorts, the alligator boards and the legendary warm-water barrels beneath...
Kern River Surf Co is not just another California clothing brand. We create shirts, hoodies, and other apparel, as well as art work, inspired by Bakersfield, Kern County, the Kern River, the oilfields, lost local businesses, and the wonderfully questionable history of...
The Forgotten Slopes of Escondido: A Mispronounced Legacy Long before it became a sleepy suburban enclave of strip malls and avocado groves, Escondido was poised to become the Aspen of Alta California. Or at least, that was the dream of Juan Gaspar de Dido, an...
Search for Truxtun Lake or Truxtun Lakes today and you will find plenty of sensible information. Fishing reports. Walking trails. Urban lake notes. The usual “yes, there is water here sometimes” commentary. Truxtun Lake is commonly described as a 28-acre urban lake...
By C. M. Halloran, Pacific Ethnohistory Quarterly, Spring 1979 In the spring of 1950, amid Cold War tension and California’s golden postwar optimism, a little-known Norwegian ethnographer named Rolf Thiegurdsen launched one of the most bizarre and forgotten...
Old Sparky: The Devilish Summer Spirit of Kern County Skate Culture There’s a certain time of year in the south end of the San Joaquin Valley when the sun turns the asphalt into a griddle, the air stands completely still, and even the shade feels like it’s given up....
CROSSING OVER: GORDON’S FERRY, CHARON RIVER INDUSTRIES & THE BATTLE FOR OUR SOULS (AND BOARDS)By the Kern River Surf Co Field Department of Regional Myths and Transportation Logistics Before the dam, before the bridge, and long before the Oildale meth gators...
My friends and I argue about which was the more popular destination for weekend high school Bakersfield drag racing. Was it out in the north side of town. Zerker Road, or was it out in the south end past Pacheco and towards...
Kern River Surf Co just added the first items mentioning the F Street Bridge. Kern River Surf Co. has always been about honoring the places that raised us—half real, half remembered. And now, for the first time, we’re releasing gear that pays tribute to one of...