Rincon Point - Paperback

by Vince Burns (Author), Stephen Bates (Author)

Rincon Point is renowned as the Queen of the Coast, one of the premier surfing spots in the world, but that is only a fragment of its rich history. Before the arrival of Europeans, it was a Chumash village called Shuku. In the 19th century, it was part of Rancho El Rincon, whose owners included a rich but illiterate Californio rancher, an English physician who made house calls by bicycle, and a Chilean pharmacist who dispensed drugs out of an old ship's cabin. It was the site of a scandalous love-triangle murder in the 1870s, a rickety highway on stilts in the 1910s, and a raunchy honky-tonk in the 1920s. Banditos, nudists, movie stars, long-boarders--they have all shaped Rincon Point, a place immortalized by novelists, poets, painters, photographers, and the Beach Boys.

Author Biography

Authors Vincent Burns and Stephen Bates have deep roots in the area. Burns helped build his grandmother's house on the point and writes regularly on surf history. Bates's great-grandfather acquired Rancho El Rincon in 1885, and it remained in the family for more than a century. This book features unique photographs from the Bateses and other early settlers, pioneer surfers of the 1950s and 1960s, the Carpinteria Valley Museum of History, and elsewhere.