The Honolulu Surfing Museum first sprang to life as the work of a Santa Barbara, California surfer and antique collector named James O'Mahoney.
O'Mahoney grew up riding the waves in Long Beach, California and spent a considerable portion of his young life traveling from Kenya to Hong Kong with globetrotting grandparents and his stuntman/actor father Jock - one of the first actors to portray ‘Tarzan’ on movie screens across America. Over the years, O’Mahoney collected not only antiques from around the world, but a stunning collection of surfboards and memorabilia from the most formative days in the history of surfing. Indeed, a few of his finds could be seen as crucial to the very evolution of Hawaiian and surfing culture.
For several decades, O'Mahoney used his connections, a skilled eye and a keen sense of the past to turn a richly filled yet remarkably tiny space on Helena Street in downtown Santa Barbara into The Santa Barbara Surfing Museum.
One day while on a surfing trip up the California coast, Jimmy Buffett stopped into O'Mahoney’s museum and was astonished at the scope of the collection. Jimmy was in the early stages of planning for the opening of ‘Jimmy Buffett’s at the Beachcomber’ restaurant and bar in downtown Waikiki. He instantly recognized that much of what O'Mahoney had found - from early Tom Blake surfboards, to some of the first ukuleles ever made, to the ring that Captain Cook wore when he first discovered the Hawaiian Islands - might find a fascinated audience of surfers, musicians, history buffs and Parrotheads in downtown Waikiki.
The result is the collection of living artifacts you’ll now find at 2300 Kalakaua Avenue. We hope that what you’ll find today will offer a fascinating glimpse into the deep, rich history of surfing and an insight into a still evolving culture that saw its earliest origins right here on Waikiki.
Please stop in for a visit - and stay for a Margarita and a Cheeseburger!
Welcome to the Honolulu Surfing Museum!