The Dean of Surf City

Dave Brooks

Eight miles of beach, a thundering tide and throngs of bikinis

immortalize Huntington Beach as Surf City. Dean Torrence just gives

it a little more credibility.

Every town has its own celebrity, and Huntington Beach is no

exception, home to the second half of surf-music icons Jan and Dean,

who put this city on the map with the 1963 hit “Surf City.”

A key figure in Huntington Beach’s turf battle with beachside

Santa Cruz over which city is the true Surf City, Torrence is

directing his energies back to the creative side with a 6 p.m. show

Saturday of re-released vintage surf images at the Gallery HB,

located at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa.

The focus of the opening will be the unveiling of his latest

piece, a print of a Woody surf car popular in the 1950s and ‘60s for

moving bodies and boards down to the ocean.

The image is one of about a dozen re-released by Gallery co-owner

Mark Burkhardt. Torrence is an accomplished graphic artist who has

designed dozens of album covers for bands like the Beach Boys and

Canned Heat and, in the process, amassed a library of images of the

surfing lifestyle that impressed the gallery owner.

“Once Mark saw them, he wanted to release them as limited-edition

prints,” Torrence said.

After rescanning and editing the images -- everything from old Jan

and Dean concert posters to redesigned orange crate labels -- the

pair sent them to a printer and crafted several hundred canvas

giclees, sold exclusively at the gallery for between $150 to $500.

The fine-artist gig is a new arena for Torrence, who in the past

viewed his work primarily as functional art for his graphic design

firm Kittyhawk Graphics.

Torrence first made headlines in 1959 when he and old high school

football teammate Jan Berry earned a gold record for their

self-titled album. The duo would release six more gold albums, all

while Torrence was pursuing a degree from USC in advertising design.

After Berry was critically injured in an automobile accident,

Torrence started his own graphics art company and designed more than

150 album covers, winning a Grammy for his work.

Berry would eventually recover, and the two would continue playing

music together and touring, but Torrence soon found himself taking an

interest in the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitor’s bureau and

becoming a staunch advocate for branding Huntington Beach “Surf City

USA.”

“For a long time nobody got it,” he said. “They would just smile,

nod at me, give me more chocolate and worry about parking meters.”

The atmosphere changed when the group brought current director

Doug Traub on board, who earlier this year led the charge to

copyright the name “Surf City USA” for exclusive use by the city.

Much of Torrence’s artwork now is shaped around retaining the

continuity of that brand name. In each piece, Torrence tries to

incorporate multiple elements of Huntington Beach, changing the

lettering on a lemonade crate to read “Surf City,” or using Photoshop

to throw a surfboard into a stock image of a convertible woody.

“It’s really just recycling,” he said.

Gallery co-owner Peggy Howell said the pieces are doing well

because many visitors to the hotel see the artwork as a chance to

capture their own visits to California and Huntington Beach.

“I think for a lot of people, it’s not something that is only for

now, it’s something that lasts forever,” she said.

Financial manager John Cooke, a sponsor of the show, said

Torrence’s celebrity status adds credence to his work.

“For a lot of people, this represents the marriage of an entire

genre that has lasted for over five decades,” he said. “There’s a

fascination with the California lifestyle, and Dean’s work really

epitomizes that. It captures a carefree lifestyle that has touched so

many people across the world.”

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall. He can be reached at (714)

966-4609 or by e-mail at dave.brooks@latimes.com.