[This feature originally appeared as “Hall of Strange” in the spring issue of our 60-year-anniversary volume. Click here to pick up a copy, or here to subscribe.]

In SURFER’s six decades of print publication, during the selection process for every one of its hundreds of covers, there have been safe options and not-so-safe options. Playing it safe typically looks like a guy getting nicely barreled with something interesting in the foreground, accompanied by text meant to ignite your curiosity about this heavenly setup. That’s fuel for surf fantasies, it’s the model to which our most iconic covers adhere, and it doesn’t hurt that it typically sells pretty well.

Yeah, these aren’t those covers.

Below, you’ll find 33 glorious examples of when the SURFER staff has looked at the safe option, said, “Yeah, screw that,” and threw something straight out of left field onto Page One. Some of these quirky covers have aged beautifully and have become iconic in their own right. Others not so much. All have been grouped below by the common theme of their strangeness.

I don’t love all of the covers below, but I sure as hell respect them. Here’s to 60 years of sporadic weirdness, and many more to come.