Balboa is being danced all over the place; it's a great dance for super-fast tempos like Dixieland. I've gone to swing dances in Seattle, L.A, Chicago and Miami, and have seen Balboa in all those fine cities.

These folks look to be doing the "Balboa," a dance that started in the mid-teens in SoCal. Not much is known about the dance, but likely stems from the same roots as Lindy Hop, Collegiate Shag, and other forms of swing dance. Bal was often done on beaches as opposed to other swing dances because it is more of a shuffle step.

Oh, and there was the small matter of it typically being a full-body contact dance... most of the lead was in the body connection. Although, in these bathing suits, a full-body lead would be... erm... a bit interesting for the guys, to say the least.

The (swim?) dresses with the stripes that those girls have one (like the girl far right next to innertube guy) are too cool.

Poor kid with the innertube would have had a tough time hanging onto that skinny thing. My dad was in heavy construction, and we would occasionally be gifted with a huge truck tire tube which was almost too big to climb up on while in the water. Plus, we wore out our arms inflating those things with a scrawny bicycle pump.

Third from the left (with his arms folded across his chest) appears to be the same person from "When We Were Young", also standing on the left side of the photo (note the logo on the bathing suit).

[Same guy, but the swimsuits are different. - Dave]