Created by muralist Rob Tobin with the aid of nearly 300 volunteers and 64 donated surfboards, Pacific Beach Community Surf Garden has been installed at Pacific Beach Recreation Center, with a formal dedication expected soon.
“After four years involving vision, design, review, community input, city permitting, fundraising, structural engineering, patience, and tolerance, the Pacific Beach Community Surf Garden has been approved and installed,” said Brian Curry, who spearheaded the community/volunteer effort sponsored by the Pacific Beach Town Council. “Come by the recreation center and take a look. It is spectacular and will be an incredible artistic statement. It is a rec center beautification project that has evolved into a permanent City of San Diego Civic Art installation.”
Much of the work on the donated mosaic-tiled surfboards used as “flower petals” on the art piece adorning PB Rec Center at 1405 Diamond St., was conducted over several weeks during volunteer workshops led by muralist Tobin. He discussed the “flowering” of the surf garden.
“I came up with this surfboard idea, and flowers, which just popped into my head: It just kind of came together like this,” said Tobin, noting neighbors donated the surfboards used in the mosaic mural. “They also came out, about 300 of them, to work on the tiling process over the course of a few months,” he said.
“People love it,” answered Tobin, when asked about the reaction he received to the mural as he was installing it last week.
But the artist added the mural nearly took a different form. “The first concept I drew actually had the surfboards looking more like fish sideways,” said Tobin, who added, “It just wasn’t speaking to me as much. So we made them (fish) flowers. The surf garden theme (then) came from the flowers.”
Tobin pointed out he’s been doing murals for 20 years now for schools and nonprofits in places like North Park and National City, typically working with groups. “I rarely work alone,” he said.
Asked if this was one of his more ambitious projects, Tobin replied, “Yes, by far,” adding, “I’ve got a 300-foot-long project I did in National City.”
Even mounting the PB Surf Garden proved a monumental undertaking. “We had to X-ray the building to make sure we didn’t hit the rebar,” noted Tobin, who added the formal dedication ceremony will likely be on a Saturday sometime early this summer.
Curry added some challenges remain with the mural. “Costs, due primarily to the extensive engineering and more expensive materials, have exceeded our original budget,” he said. “Costs have not yet exceeded our fundraising donations but there are significantly fewer funds to complete the project as envisioned (e.g., lighting, landscaping, etc.) and the intended use of excess funds for other rec center improvements.”
Added Curry: “The good news is you can still donate to the Surf Garden project at pbtowncouncil.org. All donors get a tile (shaped like a surfboard) that will be permanently installed in the exhibit. Please tell everyone about the project and our need for additional funds to make the Surf Garden a one-of-a-kind example of a community-sponsored artistic beautification endeavor for the benefit of all the public be they residents, visitors, and workers here in PB.”
Tobin especially liked the “recycling aspect” of the art project, in that it utilized old surfboards that he said otherwise “would have ended up thrown away in the landfill. This project took an environmental stance and was more upcycle. It also got buy-in and involvement from the community.”
Of his new creation, Tobin concluded: “It’s been amazing. I would do it again. I would do it in every city up and down the coast and in Hawaii.”
