Jim Kempton

Jan 13, 2025 | surfertoday.com | Jim Kempton |Claudia Lebenthal

At the California Surf Museum's gala, dinner plates have been cleared, and the live auction has finished. Gerry Lopez's auction contribution, a striking red beauty with a bright golden pin line and logo accents, has gone for well over $10,000 - a record for the event. The other guests of honor have received their awards.

Sep 12, 2024 | surfer.com | Jon Coen |Jim Kempton

There’s a tale that has circulated around New Jersey for decades and only recently been more widely told. In 1969, Asbury Park drummer and surfer Vini Lopez was putting a band together and asked a 19-year-old Bruce Springsteen to join. They played the now infamous Upstage Club on Cookman Ave. Lopez had found them a practice spot in nearby Neptune in the back of the Challenger East Surfboards Factory.

May 31, 2024 | atlasobscura.com | Eden Gordon |Jim Kempton |Anna Kusmer |Tao Tao Holmes

Hope you brought your boards for this deep dive into the world of surfing. In the Atlas Obscura archives, we found the Hawaiian princess who saved the sport from extinction, the man who made California’s beaches a more inclusive place, and an intrepid community that turned surfing the Great Lakes in winter into an actual thing. Icy wind rolls off the shores of Lake Ontario, blowing past rows of pines and naked birches and reeling through the deserted streets of Rochester, New York.

Nov 21, 2023 | surfer.com | Jim Kempton

It's Not Just About Eating the Turkey. It's About Who You Eat It With.