Dick Dale is a legend a lot of great musicians owe something to. Most (though not all) modern surf, some of which is fucking great, follows in his footsteps while also borrowing from psych rock and other genres.

Always give Dick his due, he is the king after all.

Edit: at the same time, it’d be a mistake to ignore the influence of The Ventures as well.

Edit edit: Since this has lead me to fire up my ‘face melting surf’ playlist again, I’ll take the opportunity to give a shout out for my aquaintence-of-an-acquaintence’s weekly radio show Storm Surge of Reverb.