In 1961 Carrie Birdwell Mann transformed her small Southern California home into a sewing room and store, launching Birdwell Beach Britches. It was one of the first businesses specializing in surfwear, making her living room one of the first surf shops. Her first customers were lifeguards in Newport Beach.

Mrs. Birdwell’s first product? Two-ply nylon beach britches built for surfing, her own invention. When Mrs. Birdwell got her first order of 100 pairs of beach britches from a shop in Huntington Beach, she hired one seamstress and put the rest of her family to work. Over the years, all seven Birdwell children worked for the company, sweeping floors, making coffee, and running errands.

For more than 50 years, Birdwell Beach Britches has become a multi-generational part of families and the stories they tell: an ocean rescue made possible by red Birdies being waved overhead, the strength of Birdwell’s two-ply britches saving a surfer from being cut by a reef, or the Beach Britches worn by a man who proposed to his wife on the beach 30 years ago.

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