--- title: The Few, the Proud, the Totally Chill: LIFE With Beach Bums description: Vintage photos of surfing-obsessed southern California "beach bums" in 1950. canonical: https://time.com/3877900/the-few-the-proud-the-totally-chill-life-with-old-school-beach-bums/ author: Liz Ronk article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-08-30T16:23:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:50.844Z og:title: The Few, the Proud, the Totally Chill: LIFE With Beach Bums og:description: Vintage photos of surfing-obsessed southern California "beach bums" in 1950. og:url: https://time.com/3877900/the-few-the-proud-the-totally-chill-life-with-old-school-beach-bums/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt311ffc65d9061fe0/69884a8c3c163982a3457482/16_00723190.jpg?branch=production&width=987&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 987 og:image:height: 555 og:image:alt: Beach Bums 1950 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Few, the Proud, the Totally Chill: LIFE With Beach Bums twitter:description: Vintage photos of surfing-obsessed southern California "beach bums" in 1950. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt311ffc65d9061fe0/69884a8c3c163982a3457482/16_00723190.jpg?branch=production&width=987&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Few, the Proud, the Totally Chill: LIFE With Old-School Beach Bums by [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Aug 30, 2013 4:23 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. Sloppy bartender, "Hammerhead" Gravage, pours cold beer for "Burrhead" Grever. Caption from LIFE. Sloppy bartender, "Hammerhead" Gravage, pours cold beer for "Burrhead" Grever.Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Aug 30, 2013 4:23 PM UTC In February 1950, LIFE published a feature on what the magazine called “the gold-bricking existence” of ski bums at Sun Valley, Idaho. Eight months later, in its August 28 issue, LIFE published a follow-up piece with the wonderful title, “LIFE Revisits the Ski Bums (and Finds That They Are Now Beach Bums).” “Photographer Loomis Dean,” LIFE told its readers, “looked up his cold-weather friends and found them still leading a bum’s life.” --- > “” --- --- > “” --- Here, in tribute to that rare individual self-assured enough to scoff at societal expectations and embrace his or her inner bum, LIFE.com remembers the few, the proud, the charmingly, unrepentantly feckless.  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Beach bums, San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Beach bum, San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ![Tossing crutches up on the beach, \[surfer\] hobbles over to his surfboard and waits for receding wave to wash him out where swells have broken.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ee2f667f5e92b1f/69884a8ee20a87fc77a8ac2c/04_1153804.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. Tossing crutches up on the beach, \[surfer\] hobbles over to his surfboard and waits for receding wave to wash him out where swells have broken. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Surfers, San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Beach bums, San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Hammerhead Gravage "dozing inside blanket after surfing all day," San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Sloppy bartender, "Hammerhead" Gravage, pours cold beer for "Burrhead" Grever. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Haircutter to all the beach bums is Myra Roche, mother of three children. She helps friend Warren Miller make ends meet by shearing his hair free. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  San Onofre, Calif., 1950. Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3877900/the-few-the-proud-the-totally-chill-life-with-old-school-beach-bums/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3877900/the-few-the-proud-the-totally-chill-life-with-old-school-beach-bums/"},"headline":"The Few, the Proud, the Totally Chill: LIFE With Old-School Beach Bums","datePublished":"2013-08-30T16:23:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:50.844Z","description":"LIFE photos from 1950 pay tribute to those rare individuals self-assured enough to scoff at societal expectations and embrace their inner layabout.","url":"https://time.com/3877900/the-few-the-proud-the-totally-chill-life-with-old-school-beach-bums/","keywords":["Culture","California","Surfing","beach","black and white photography","1950","Loomis Dean"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt311ffc65d9061fe0/69884a8c3c163982a3457482/16_00723190.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Liz Ronk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt311ffc65d9061fe0/69884a8c3c163982a3457482/16_00723190.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Beach Bums 1950","caption":"San Onofre, Calif., 1950.","creditText":"Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/culture/","name":"Culture"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3877900/the-few-the-proud-the-totally-chill-life-with-old-school-beach-bums/","name":"The Few, the Proud, the Totally Chill: LIFE With Old-School Beach Bums"}}]}] ```