Dick Dale & the Del-Tones began holding weekend dances at the Rendezvous
Ballroom in Balboa, California, in the summer of 1960. Over the next
year and a half, Dale developed the sound and style that came to be
known as surf music. The result was the development of more powerful
guitar amplifiers, a dramatic increase in the sales of Fender guitars
and amplifiers, and a shift from New York to West Coast recording
studios. More and more people were drawn to the sport of surfing, which
became an important part of teen beach culture at the time. Even
landlocked teenagers were captured by the moment, carrying surfboards
atop their woodies in Phoenix or bleaching their hair blonde in St.
Paul. For hundreds of thousands of kids, though, the attraction was not
the connection to surfing; it was the connection to the music pioneered
by Dick Dale.