Surfers: A Subcultural Perspective

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Surfing has been around longer than most sports. It has evolved from a tropical pastime to a world-wide competitive lifestyle. The surfing culture is rich and full of diversity. Surfing has been in multiple facets of media. It has influenced luxury retailers as well as budget brands. Surfing has even created its own universe of clothing and society. The sport of surfing originated in ancient Hawaiian culture. The first documentation of surfing was observed by Captain James Cook in 1778 when he stumbled upon an island called Hawaii. News spread about how these indigenous islanders stood upon long wooden planks and rode the waves to the shore. Duke Kahanamoku was the first revolutionary surfer. Born in 1890, Duke developed into a phenomenal waterman and athlete and is remembered today as the father of modern surfing. He later on went to win a gold medal in the 100 meter freestyle in the Olympics. In the early 1900s, Waikiki tourism exploded because of two famous American writers, Jack London and Mark Twain, writing about their Hawaiian surfing experience. This is seen as the first big movement of the assimilation of surfing. In the 1930s and 1940s surfing made its way across the Pacific Ocean and onto United States soil, California specifically. Tom Blake manufactured the hollow board, making surfboards lighter, faster, and more publicly assessable. In Malibu, California, surfing was seen as glamorous by Hollywood celebrities. The postwar boom in wealth, mobility, and leisure time brought people to the beaches in droves, many of them to surf. Even in Hermosa Beach and the rest of Southern California, surfing was getting picked up little by little by young men. Tiny organizations called surf clubs began forming in Santa Cruz, Malibu, and Australia. These clubs banded surfers together and are seen as the first step in creating the surfing lifestyle. Some of

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