Surf culture includes the people, language, fashion and life surrounding the art and sport of surfing. The history of surfing began with the ancient Polynesians. That initial culture directly influenced modern surfing which began to flourish and evolve in the early 20th century, with popularity spiking greatly during the 1950s and 1960s, principally in Hawaii, Australia, and California. It continues to progress and spread throughout the world. It has at times affected popular fashion, music, literature, films, jargon, and more.
The fickle nature of weather and the ocean, plus the great desire for the best possible types of waves for surfing, make surfers dependent on weather conditions that may change rapidly. Surfer Magazine, founded in the 1960s when surfing had gained popularity with teenagers, used to say that if they were hard at work and someone yelled "Surf's up!" the office would suddenly be empty. Also, since surfing has a restricted geographical necessity (i.e. the coast), the culture of beach life often influenced surfers and vice versa. Localism or territorialism is a part of the development of surf culture in which individuals or groups of surfers designate certain key surfing spots as their own.
Aspects of 1960s surf culture in Southern California, where it was first popularized, include the woodie, bikinis and other beach wear, such as boardshorts or baggies, and surf music. Surfers developed the skateboard to be able to "surf" on land; and a number of other boardsports. Of these the most popular being snowboarding and skateboarding, in addition to other spin-offs that have grown out of the sport ever since.
Read more about Surf Culture: Big Wave Culture, Localism, Surf Terminology, Issues Affecting Surfers, Surf Environmentalism, Surf Tourism, Spirituality, Fashion, Surfing Organizations, Television Shows
Famous quotes containing the words surf and/or culture:
“Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Without metaphor the handling of general concepts such as culture and civilization becomes impossible, and that of disease and disorder is the obvious one for the case in point. Is not crisis itself a concept we owe to Hippocrates? In the social and cultural domain no metaphor is more apt than the pathological one.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)