Why Galveston’s Surfers Show Up Even When the Waves Don’t

Growing up in a small coastal town across from Galveston Bay, I was on the water often—fishing, failing at water-skiing, mastering the art of mediocre but enthusiastic wakeboarding. Surfing was always the thing I admired from a distance.

Fast-forward some decades, and that admiration has turned into a full immersion. For nearly two years, I’ve been documenting surf culture in Southeast Texas—and what I’ve found has less to do with the quality of the waves than with the people who ride them.

Ask an outsider to picture a Texan, and they’ll likely conjure boots and Wranglers. “Surfer” rarely makes the list, despite 350 miles of open coast. It’s true that barreling waves aren’t a guarantee in Galveston, but its waters—clean, mushy, brown or blue—still draw in curious tourists and passionate board-riders alike. The Upper Gulf Coast produces a tight-knit community of surfers of all ages with a gritty determination to make the most of whatever conditions roll in.

Many are BOI—born on the island. Others are transplants or people who’ve made their way in from Houston just to get time on the water. The coast has even counted astronaut and avid surfer Christina Koch, the mission specialist of Artemis II, among its own.

These aquaphiles all seem to know each other, or at least someone who knows someone. If the waves are calling—especially if the offshore winds are blowing—you’ll find them waxing up boards on the seawall. Some surfers hope for storms, which can produce the best waves Texas sees. Others show up, happy to take whatever the Gulf gives, but no one can resist the pull of the water.

Even when the water’s flat, surfers find a way to keep the stoke—they tanker surf, a rare sport that involves riding waves created by freighters and oil tankers in the Houston Ship Channel. James Fulbright, owner of Strictly Hardcore Surf Specialties, takes regular trips to Galveston Bay and drops longboarders in for minutes-long rides. Surfers hand-shape Gulf-ready boards into works of art, practice bottom-turns and tail-snaps at Johnny Romano Skatepark, and hit the gym, because paddling arms aren’t built overnight.

Hang around Galveston long enough, and you’ll find that surf culture bleeds into other aspects of life. Gallery walls are lined with coastal-inspired art. Surfboard-stained-glass car charms by Brackish Blonde Glass dangle on display at Southern Spears, the area’s only female-owned surf shop. Local nonprofit La Izquierda hosts summer concerts featuring surf-rock bands like Galvezton. Meanwhile, the best of surf’s past and present fill the Texas Surf Museum year-round.

As Herman Melville once wrote in Moby-Dick, “There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries—stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water.” In Galveston, that magic is real. The waves may not be legendary, but the culture that surfers have built certainly is.

Published in the After Hours issue of Houstonia Mag.