Location is Everything
A Hollister Ranch beach shack from the 1960s epitomizes the Southern California indoor-outdoor lifestyle, with a deck for sunbathing and the ocean just steps away.
Written by Joan Tapper
Photography by Jeff Kruthers
The HOLLISTER RANCH BEACH SHACKS, haphazard structures of driftwood and other salvaged materials, were hardly things of beauty, but they do represent a bygone era of Santa Barbara surf history that began with the legendary waves that broke along eight miles of shore on the 14,400 acres owned by the Hollister family. Initially, in the 1950s, a handful of local surfers kept knowledge of the place to themselves, but in the next decade, when word began to spread and out-of-towners arrived, landowner Clinton Hollister (so the story goes) made a deal with the fledgling Santa Barbara Surf Club—which had Renny Yater as president, a board of directors, and $25 dues—that members could have access if they kept vandals out.
By the ’60s, their shoreside huts had gone up, providing casual shelters for gear and overnights stays with easy access to renowned surf breaks like Razor Blades, Drake’s, and Cojo Point. Then, around 1970, as the ranch was developed into 100-acre private parcels, the shacks disappeared—destined to live on only in photographs and surfing lore.
