Cardiff California’s “Cardiff Kook” is making world headlines as the Wall Street Journal’s Conor Dougherty reports on the awkward statue and the pranksters who have made ridiculing it an art form.
Recently, Mr. Hardtke topped his wave with a new piece: Just before dawn on July 24, he and a dozen friends carried the 15-foot shark—crafted out of papier-mâché over a wooden frame—a few blocks to the beach, installing it in just 15 minutes. Those were merely the final moments of a two-week project for Mr. Hardtke, who guesses he spent roughly $450 building the shark. . . Police have mostly ignored pranksters like Mr. Hardtke, and local officials have quietly praised the various Kook-inspired works because they bring attention to their tiny beach town. In fact, Mr. Hardtke recently learned the city has been storing his wave sculpture inside at a dusty warehouse that belongs to Paul Ecke Ranch, a grower of poinsettias and other flowers in Encinitas, Calif., the city which surrounds the community of Cardiff.
Another example of how surfers will make use of anything that moves them.
[Link: Wall Street Journal]
