Stunning Black-And-White Photos Show Texas's Surprisingly Large And Vibrant Surf Culture

California and Hawaii may have long been America's unofficial capitals of surfing. But Texas has almost as storied a surf culture, though few outside of the state know about it.

The first generation of surfers in Texas appeared in the 1950s and 1960s along the Gulf Coast, at the same time surfing was entering American culture through Southern California and Hawaii.

Though photographer Kenny Braun was too young for that first wave, he has been surfing the Texas coast since the 1970s and has watched it explode in the intervening decades.

For the past 15 years, Braun has carried around his camera to Texas's best local surf spots to document the little known scene, which he says these days has "more surfers than Texas has real cowboys."

Braun shared a number of photos from his time in the scene here, but you can check out the rest in his new book, Surf Texas.