FROM THE ARCHIVES · BABYLON VILLAGE

It started in a basement.

Charlie Bunger began shaping surfboards in his parents’ basement for neighborhood kids. That project became Bunger Surf Shop, which has stood in the heart of Babylon Village for more than 60 years.

Along the way he founded the Bunger Surf Team and started the East Coast Surfing Championship, first held at Gilgo Beach in 1962 — which is a large part of why Gilgo became the center of Long Island surfing in the 1960s.

Surfer Magazine summed it up in 1994: “Charlie Bunger has been synonymous with New York surfing.”

That history got its own exhibition this month. Beyond the Break, a group show at the Christensen Gallery in Babylon Village, gathered 28 artists in paintings, photographs and sculpture built around the shop and its founder. It ran through September 5.

“Babylon has such a rich surf culture,” gallery owner and curator Theresa Christensen said. “I want people to feel a sense of nostalgia and tradition.”

The work ranged from Bradford Warren Schneider’s The Wave, a sculpture of roiling water made from recycled surfboards, to Shauna Carroll’s The Saltwater Bloom, painted directly onto a Bunger board. Chris Mason contributed a surfing sea monster called Gillman of Gilgo.

The subjects were local and specific: the waves at Gilgo, the lake at Argyle Park, the shoreline this town grew up on.

“In addition to the art, I want people to look at the photos and posters on the wall and learn about the history,” Christensen said.

The show is down now. The shop is still up the road.

Sources: Fire Island News · Christensen Gallery