Surfing's New Wave: The Eighties At Echo Beach

[gallery] During the 1980s, a new breed of surfer -- brash, flamboyant and blasting the B-52s -- invaded a tiny stretch of Newport Beach, Calif., christened it Echo Beach, and changed surf culture forever. These pompadoured punks upended the anti-corporate, laidback attitude of '70s California with their polka-dotted surfboards, Day-Glo tank tops and neon Wayfarers, gaining the attention of surf magazines, photographers and fashion brands with their outsized personalities and wacky outfits. And though their reign was brief, Echo's athletes, entrepreneurs and board-makers would go on to influence street style, design and professional surfing throughout the '90s and 'aughts. Mike Moir, a Canadian photographer who had lived in Southern California since the 1940s, captured this dynamic subculture with his snapshots both in the water and on the boardwalk.  His dynamic, giddy photos are the subject of a new coffee-table book, The Eighties at Echo Beach, published by Chronicle with an introduction by journalist Jamie Brisick. The book is a delight -- and not just because of the gleefully loud '80s fashions. Moir's photos, as well Brisick's words, pulse with teenage rebellion and attitude, celebrating the innocent hedonism of youth that transcends time and place.