Carol Schuldt Interview, 2013

Carol Schuldt Interview

Introduction | Schuldt interview, page 1 | Schuldt Interview, page 2

Carol Schuldt
"Queen of the Beach" from Kelly’s Cove at
Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California

Interview conducted by
Stephen “Woody” LaBounty
May 9, 2013

Interview Description — Carol Schuldt

Carol Schuldt, Queen of the Beach. Photograph by Tommy Bensko. - Photograph by Tommy Bensko

No history of Kelly’s Cove can be written without Carol Schuldt. Her connection with Ocean Beach reaches back sixty years. Her pink house facing the ocean on La Playa, brightly adorned with sea-life murals, tile work, and her riotous gardening, is a local landmark. Her decades-long presence at Kelly’s Cove, along with her vibrant personality and openness, has made her known by many as “Queen of the Beach.”

Born in 1933, Ms. Schuldt grew up in San Francisco and attended Lowell High School. Her early memories of the city during the Depression and World War II include scenes of poverty and desperation downtown mixed with childhood freedoms of playing in Golden Gate Park and Playland at the Beach. In the 1950s, Carol worked on fishing boats, was drawn to the beat scene of artists and intellectuals in North Beach, and also began visiting Ocean Beach frequently to swim and socialize. She met her first husband Tambi Tavasieff there, and the couple, with their children, became fixtures around the Kelly’s Cove bonfire. Now in her ninth decade, Carol still swims and suns herself at the ocean.

The interview took place in Ms. Schuldt’s house on La Playa in the Sunset District of San Francisco. It was recorded on a digital recorder, transcribed, audited, and lightly edited for clarity before being given to Ms. Schuldt for review.

Kelly's Cove has been a retreat for fitness-oriented San Franciscans from at least the 1940s. Tucked under the famous Cliff House restaurant, the curve of sand at the north end of Ocean Beach became a meeting place for cold-water swimmers, runners, and practitioners of calisthenics who used rocky outcrops and a nearby iron pier to exercise. After World War II, Kelly's Cove became an early body and board surfing spot. A dedication to physical development in a natural environment kept company with a companionable party atmosphere. One Kelly's bodysurfer, Jack O'Neill, opened a surf shop at the beach in 1952, and developed the first commercially available wetsuit in response to the frigid water of Ocean Beach. The O'Neill Company is now a leader in beach lifestyle sportswear and sells the majority of the world's wetsuits.

Beyond the roots of surf technology and commerce, Kelly's Cove visitors reflected and developed a California surfing ethos with roots in Polynesian culture as well as alternative and counterculture movements developing in postwar San Francisco.

Western Neighborhoods Project launched Tales from Kelly’s Cove to bring about a greater public understanding of the role a cold-water cove in San Francisco had in creating the world's view of surfing, and by association, California life.

Western Neighborhoods Project (WNP) is a California nonprofit organization formed in 1999 to preserve and share the history of western San Francisco. In 2013, WNP initiated the Tales from Kelly’s Cove project to collect and share the oral histories of men and women who have frequented the northernmost corner of San Francisco's Ocean Beach, an early surfing and community gathering spot. The primary objective of Tales from Kelly’s Cove is to increase public awareness of the area's nascent role in the history of California's surfing, fitness, and counterculture movements. More information on the project, photographs, and other Kelly’s Cove interviews can be found on this website.

This project was made possible with support from Cal Humanities, an independent non-profit state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information, visit www.calhum.org. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this interview do not necessarily represent those of Cal Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About Oral History

Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Firsthand historical information is collected through recorded interviews between a subject and interviewer. The recordings are transcribed, edited for clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee for a final edit. The recordings and corrected manuscripts for the Tales from Kelly’s Cove interviews are held at Western Neighborhoods Project and other research collections for review and scholarly use. More on oral history principles and best practices can be found on the website of the Oral History Association: www.oralhistory.org

Citation and Use

All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between Western Neighborhoods Project and Carol Schuldt dated May 9, 2013. Copyright is shared between Carol Schuldt and Western Neighborhoods Project. The manuscript is available for research purposes. Excerpts up to 1000 words from this interview may be quoted for publication without seeking permission as long as the use is non-commercial and properly cited. Requests for permission to quote should be sent to Western Neighborhoods Project.

Recommended citation:

Carol Schuldt “Queen of the Beach from Kelly’s Cove at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California” conducted by Stephen “Woody” LaBounty, Western Neighborhoods Project, San Francisco, California, 2013.

The digital recording files and transcript of this interview are available for research use at the Western Neighborhoods Project office. A copy of the transcript has also been deposited at the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Public Library.

Stephen “Woody” LaBounty
Western Neighborhoods Project
San Francisco, California
August 2014

[Begin reading the interview.]

Introduction | Schuldt interview, page 1 | Schuldt Interview, page 2

This project was made possible with support from Cal Humanities, an independent non-profit state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information, visit www.calhum.org.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Web site do not necessarily represent those of Cal Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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