Surfing, the art of standing upright on a board and
guiding it across the face of a breaking wave, exists today as both a hedonistic pastime or subculture and a
highly disciplined professional sport. Two sets of conditions frame the social history of modern surfing: (1)
the cultural contexts in which surfing developed as a
hedonistic pursuit and a competitive sport and the various attempts to reconcile the respective philosophies
of these two forms and (2) the development of surfboard technology and its influence on riding styles and
the codification of surfing.
History
Polynesians surfed in premodern times. Early European explorers and travelers in the Pacific wrote highly
of their skills, especially those of the Hawaiians. U.S.
missionaries in Hawaii, however, took a different view.
They considered surfing an “evil and immoral activity,”
allowing as it did unrestrained intermingling of the
sexes. They banned surfing, and by the end of the 19th
century only a few dozen Hawaiians surfed. Young
haole (European-American) Hawaiians “rediscovered”
surfing early in the 20th century. Surfing’s reemergence
coincided with a new culture of pleasure sweeping the
Western world, which cast it as a healthy, thrilling, and
acceptably hedonistic pastime. Surfing diffused to the
Pacific Rim following its “rediscovery.”
Distinctive beach cultures in Hawaii, Australia, and
California shaped the growth of surfing. The Hawaiian
beach, especially Waikiki, symbolized early 20th-century hedonism. It was the archetypal paradise with
grass skirts, leis (flower necklaces), the hula (a “suggestive” dance), and surfing. In Waikiki beach boys and
wahines (beach girls) preserved Hawaii’s relaxed, casual, and hedonistic culture.
In contrast,Australian surfing developed within the
SLSA’s peculiar cultural milieu of militaristic athleticism. In return for safety and rescue services for beachgoers, local councils and shires ceded control of
beaches to SLSA clubs, which cast a shadow of discipline over local beaches. The typical Australian surfer
was a duty-bound lifesaver with little time to ride
waves for pleasure.
California was the early center of technical and cultural developments. Traditional Hawaiian alaia (long)
boards were long, heavy, flat-bottomed, and hence extremely difficult to maneuver. The cumbersome boards
slid down the face of waves, and surfers changed direction by dragging one foot in the water. In the 1920s,
Californian Tom Blake (1900–?) developed lighter “hollow boards” and added a fin. Although Blake’s hollow boards were long, they were relatively light, stable,
and maneuverable. Surfers could now “trim” (set their
boards to run at the same speed as the wave) and
change direction by leaning and shifting their weight
and by bending their knees and pushing. More stylistic
body movements—bent knees, arched backs, outstretched arms—accompanied finned hollow boards;
grace and deportment replaced the rigid, upright
statue-like stances associated with the alaia boards.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Californians Bob
Simmons (?–1954) and Joe Quigg ushered in a second
revolution in board technology. Simmons placed Styrofoam between plywood and balsa wood and experimented with resin-soaked fiberglass cloth to seal his
“sandwich boards.” Quigg developed the short and
highly maneuverable malibu boards, named after the
California beach where they first became popular.
Wooden boards “died” in 1958 when polyurethane and
improved catalysts (used to harden the fiberglass
resin) became commercially available.
Unlike surfers in Hawaii and Australia, where limited transport and a more formal club environment
confined devotees to local beaches, more affluent California surfers traveled in search of better waves. Cheap
air travel in the late 1940s took many Californians back
to Hawaii where they had observed idyllic conditions
on Oahu’s North Shore during wartime postings. “The
search,” or “surfari,” became synonymous with escapism; combined with “the warm aloha of Hawaii,”
which pioneer California surfers took back to the
mainland, it became the foundation of a distinctly hedonistic lifestyle and subculture. Surfers adopted their
own argot, humor, rituals, and dress.
Surfing subculture burgeoned in California in the
late 1950s. It spread internationally through Hollywood-produced surf films, notably Gidget, “pure” surf
films made by devotees, including Slippery When Wet,
The Big Surf, and Surf Trek to Hawaii, and specialist
surfing magazines such as Surfer and Surfing. Surfing
subculture challenged accepted limits of social tolerance. The “brown eye” (exposing the anus to public
view from a passing vehicle) was a popular antisocial
act among surfers in California. Such behavior, as well
as concerns about the utility of “the search,” which conjured up images of subversive “itinerants,” “nomads,”
and “wanderers,” fueled a social backlash against allegedly undisciplined surfers. Some local authorities
closed beaches; others banned surfboards.
In 1954, the Waikiki Surf Club organized the first
International Surfing Championships at Makaha,
Hawaii. Judges awarded points for length of ride, number of waves caught, skill, sportsmanship, grace, and
deportment. The Makaha championships founded a
new sport. Surfers were divided on the issue of competition. Renowned big wave rider, Australian Bob Pike,
articulated the sentiments then held, and still held, by
many surfers when he said that “competitions are
against the spirit of surfing, which is supposed to be a
communion with nature rather than a hectic chase for
points.” The development of competitions sparked an
internal debate over the meaning of surfing. Some
surfers defined themselves as pleasure seekers, others
as disciplined athletes.
Social antagonism toward hedonistic surfers provided the impetus for them to organize regional and
national associations around the world in the early
1960s.At the first World Surfing Championships (1964)
in Manly,Australia, representatives of national associations formed the International Surfing Federation.
Surfers recognized that organized competition was essential for public acceptance.
Codification of the sport proved difficult. In the late
1950s, surfing styles reflected regional variations. Californian and Australian surfers introduced creative maneuvers such as “cut backs” and “nose riding,” trying to
preserve the poise that had characterized surfing since
the introduction of the hollow board. The malibu ushered in “hot-dog” surfing, a style based on maximum
turns and tricks (stalling, walking the nose, dipping the
head into the wall of the wave). The Hawaiians resisted
the new style. But the most intense debate over style
was between Californians and Australians.
Debate over style had major ramifications for the
development of competitive surfing. It fueled dissension over judging methods and scoring and led to accusations of corruption, cronyism, nepotism, and bias.
Competitive surfing declined in the late 1960s under
these conditions, and codification stalled as debate
raged over style.
Style, however, was not the sole cause of the decline
in competition. The counterculture, an amalgam of alternate lifestyles (typically utopian) and political activism, also penetrated surfing. Soul-surfing (surfing
for “the good of one’s soul”) became an oppositional
cultural practice symbolizing the counterculture’s idealism. Soul-surfers applied increasingly esoteric interpretations to surfing: waves became dreams, playgrounds, podiums, and even asylums, and the search
for perfect waves became an endless pursuit. Surfing
signified escape, freedom, and self-expression. Most
importantly, soul-surfers scorned competitions.
The counterculture’s anticompetition ideals delayed
professional surfing by perhaps a decade. It only developed apace after the counterculture, unable to reconcile
alternative independence in an interdependent society,
waned in the early 1970s. As pervasive as the counterculture was, it never totally subsumed the sport. Not all
surfers embraced its alternate philosophies; its disjointed tenets made absolute subscription impossible
anyway. For example, neither kamaaina haoles (nonindigenous Hawaiians born on the islands or residents
there for a lengthy period) nor indigenous Hawaiians
welcomed soul-surfers. They viewed them as a threat to
paradise. Nonetheless, the counterculture also had a
positive impact on professionalism. Its work-is-play
philosophy enabled a group of perspicacious Australian surfers to reevaluate competition. They recognized that professionalism could offer competitors, administrators, and a host of small business people an
avenue to eternal hedonism.
The 1968 Duke Kahanamoku contest in Hawaii
marked a turning point in the development of professional surfing. The objective was to establish a professional circuit and a surfers’ association to govern the
sport and give it credibility. What followed was years of
wrangling about interests, philosophies, competition,
commercialization, and virtually all other issues related to surfing.
The early 1970s witnessed the beginning of a third
revolution in board technology. Tom Hoye and other
Californians developed “twin-fin”boards, which allowed
radical maneuvers anywhere on the face of the wave.
Twin-fins, however, were slower than single fins and
tended to “slip.” In 1980, Australian professional surfer
Simon Anderson introduced the “thruster”—a design
utilizing three fins, one set on the midline and one on
each side. Three fins gave surfboards more “thrust”
(power and speed) when turning and solved the instability problem associated with twin-fins. Although
polyurethane and fiberglass still remain the principal
materials of construction, surfboard shapers continue
to experiment with thinner, lighter, faster, and more maneuverable boards. These boards, combined with the intense competition of professionalism,have progressively
transformed surfing into a more “gymnastic” activity.
Rules and Play
Competitions on the Men’s World Championship Tour
consist of three preliminary rounds and three finals.
Surfers can catch a maximum of 10 waves but only the
best 4 waves count toward the surfer’s total score. Five
international judges adjudicate all heats and finals.
Judges look for “the most radical controlled maneuvers” performed with “speed and power in the most
critical section of a wave.”
Professional surfing has grown remarkably since
the first year of the circuit when men contested 14
events for less than $78,000 prize money, and women
competed in 5 events for under $20,000. In 1990, men
met in 21 events for nearly $2 million, while in 1992
women competed in 15 events for $320,000. The ASP
restructured its grand prix circuit in 1992 and introduced a two-tier structure—a World Championship
Tour and a “feeder”World Qualifying Tour. In 1995, the
former comprised 10 events for men worth $1.15 million, while the latter included 60 men’s events worth
$1.5 million. There is only one professional surfing circuit for women. The 1996 Women’s World Tour comprises 15 events worth $320,000.
Despite growth and restructuring of the circuit,
several factors constrain professional surfing. First, unlike stadium sports, corporate advertisers have free access to ocean, wave, and surfing imagery, allowing
them to create images at little cost to themselves. Second, official associations cannot manufacture the conditions that make surfing a dramatic spectator sport.
Lastly, most surfers still aspire to a peculiar hedonistic
lifestyle rather than a competitive sport.
—DOUGLAS BOOTH
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(1992) Australia’s Surfing Life 50: 88. Booth, Douglas.
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Keartland Publishers. Lueras, Leonard. (1984) Surfing the
Ultimate Pleasure. New York: Workman Publishing. McGregor, Craig. (1968) Profile of Australia. Chicago: Henry
Regnery. Noll, Greg, and Andrea Gabbard. (1989) Da Bull:
Life over the Edge. South Laguna, CA: Bangtail Press. Timmons, Grady. (1989) Waikiki Beachboy. Honolulu: Editions Limited. Young, Nat. (1983) The History of Surfing.
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