Photographer Kenny Braun will make two stops in South Padre Island this weekend to promote his book “Surf Texas.” Braun’s book spotlights Texas surf culture, where cowboys, happy-go lucky hippies and extreme athletes converge for the search of the elusive perfect swell, according to a press release. “If you know when to look and if you look hard and patiently enough, it’s there,” Braun said Braun about the hunt for high-quality surf along the coast. “No one would confuse the surf in Texas with some famous break on the Pacific Ocean, but that doesn’t matter. Texas surfers are as maniacally devoted to the sport as surfers are all over the planet.”
Braun will be at Harpoon’s Surf Bar & Grill on Saturday, July 19 from 6-10 p.m. A portion of the proceeds from book sales that night will go to support the Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter.
On Sunday from 1-3 p.m., Braun’s book tour will stop at Paragraphs on Padre bookstore.
“Surf Texas” offers a distinctive look into the surf culture that dominates the coastal towns from Galveston to South Padre Island and everywhere in between.
“There is a certain reverence here – for a place and a people and a time – that allows the soul an important opportunity to pause and be charged anew,” Roy Flukinger, senior curator of photography at the Harry Ransom Center, said about the collection of photos that Braun acquired over a 15-year period. The black-and-white images in the 144-page photo essay evoke feelings of nostalgia and desire, capturing the essence of what it truly means to be a Texas Surfer, according to a press release. From photographs revealing the simple life of coastal cities to riders chasing and catching waves, Braun substantiates the notion that one can find beauty in unexpected places when looking through a passionate lens.
