Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Surfing culture'

Critical literature on surfing is concerned primarily with its development as a competitive sport, focusing on ‘stand-up’ surfing in the USA and to some extent in Australia, resulting in a body of work populated almost exclusively by young white males. However, in Cornwall, forms of surfing including belly and body boarding have been enjoyed for almost a century by all ages and ethnicities, both sexes, at every level from international competition to non-competitive leisure, from daily practice to holiday novelty. The area has developed a distinctive clothing culture stemming from this plethora of surfing activities. This study asks, how has the material culture of bellyboarding and surfing in Cornwall developed historically, and how does the clothing culture in the area relate to the global phenomenon of surf style? The contemporary scene is evaluated by means of a visual ethnography of a Cornish seaside village where surfing is the focus of social events and commercial endeavours. Through an examination of the clothing culture in the area, it explores how gender and sexuality, class and consumption, community and belonging are negotiated and articulated. The historical and cultural contexts in which this complex relationship developed are discussed with reference to archival material from regional museums, personal collections and interviews with amateur and professional surf historians. Oral histories of surfing, bellyboarding, bodyboarding and beach life compiled for the study and from existing collections are additionally used to interrogate existing narratives of surfing history. Drawing on and extending theoretical perspectives on subculture, taste, consumption, space and place, this will be the first study that investigates how the clothing culture of surfing explores and constitutes, constructs and reconstructs gender, class and regional identity, and how it defines and redefines the region’s surfing locales by its visible presence.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is a socio-cultural history of the sport of surfing from 1959 to the 2000s in South Africa. It critically engages with the “South African Surfing History Archive”, collected in the course of research, by focusing on two inter-related themes in contributing to a critical sports historiography in southern Africa. The first is how surfing in South Africa has come to be considered a white, male sport. The second is whether surfing is political. In addressing these topics the study considers the double whiteness of the Californian influences that shaped local surfing culture at “whites only” beaches during apartheid. The racialised nature of the sport can be found in the emergence of an amateur national surfing association in the mid-1960s and consolidated during the professionalisation of the sport in the mid-1970s. Within these trends, the making and maintenance of an exemplar white surfing masculinity within competitive surfing was linked to national identity. There are three counter narratives to this white, male surfing history that have been hidden by that same past. Firstly, the history women’s surfing in South Africa provides examples of girl localisms evident within the masculine domination of the surf. Herein submerged women surfer voices can be heard in the cultural texts and the construction of surfing femininities can be seen within competitive surfing. Secondly, surfing’s whiteness was not outside of the political. The effects of the international sports boycott against apartheid for South African surfing were two-fold: international pressure on surfing as a racialised sport led to sanctions in the late 1970s against the amateur national surfing teams competing internationally or maintaining international sporting contacts; and, as of 1985, the boycott by professional surfers of events on the South African leg of the world surfing tour further deepened South African surfing’s sports isolation. By the end of the 1980s, white organised surfing was in crisis and the status of South African as a surfing nation in question. Lastly, the third counter-narrative is the silenced histories of black surfing under apartheid. Alongside individual black surfer histories, the non-racial surfing movement in the mid-to-late 1980s is considered as a political and cultural protest against white organised surfing. The rationale for non-racial sport was challenged in 1990 as South Africa began its political transition to democracy. Nevertheless, the South African Surfing Union, the national non-racial surfing body, played a pivotal role in surfing’s unification in 1991 which led to South African amateur surfing’s return to international competition in 1992. However, it was an uneasy unity within organised surfing that set the scene for surfing development as a strategy for sports transformation in the post-apartheid years. The emergence of black surfing localisms after 1994 is located within that history, with attention given to the promotion of young, male Zulu surfers within competitive surfing, which point to emergent trends in the Africanisation of surfing in the 2000s. It is concluded is that while cultural change in South African surfing is evident in the post-apartheid present, that change is complicated by surfing’s gendered and apartheid sporting pasts.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie is ‘n sosio-kulturele studie oor die geskiedenis van die sport van branderplankry in Suid-Afrika vanaf omstreeks 1959 tot 2000. Dit behels onder meer ‘n kritiese bespreking van die “Suid-Afrikaanse Branderplank Argief” wat in die loop van navorsing opgebou is. Daar word veral op twee temas in kritiese sport historiografie in suidelike Afrika gefokus. Die eerste is die wyse hoe branderplankry in Suid-Afrika as ‘n wit manlike sport ontwikkel het. Die tweede is of branderplankry as polities beskou kan word. Hierdie onderwerpe word onder die loep geneem deur te let op die dubbele witheid van Kaliforniese invloede wat die plaaslike kultuur op “slegs blanke” strande onder apartheid help vorm het. Die rasgebonde aard van die sport kan gevind word in die totstandkoming van die amateur nasionale branderplank vereniging in in die middel 1960s en is gekonsolideer met die professionalisering van die sport in die middel 1970s. Vervat in hierdie verwikkelinge is die vorming en instandhouding van ‘n besondere tipe manlikheid wat as ‘n ideaal tipe voorgehou is en deurmiddel van mededingende branderplank kompetisies aan ‘n nasionale identitieit gekoppel is. Daar is drie kontra narratiewe tot hierdie wit manlike geskiedenis wat deur dieselfde verlede verberg is. Eerstens is daar die geskiedenis van vroue branderplankry wat blyke gee van plaaslike vroue se betrokkenheid in dié oorheersende manlike domein. Gedempte vrouestemme klink op in kulturele tekste en die konstruksie van vroulike identiteite binne mededingende kompetisies.Tweedens was branderplankry se witheid nie onverwant aan die politieke dimensie nie. Die uitwerking van die internasionale sportsboikot teen apartheid was tweeledig: internasionale druk op branderplankry as ‘n rasgebonde sport het in die laat 1970s tot sanksies teen amateur spanne gelei wat oorsee meegeding het of internasionale kontakte gehad het, en sedert 1985 het die boikot van professionele branderplankryers van kompetisies in Suid-Afrika die land se isolasie verdiep. Teen die einde van die 1980s was wit georganiseerd branderplankry in ‘n krisis en die status van van Suid-Afrika as ‘n branderplankry nasie in die gedrang. Laastens is die derde kontra narratief die vergete geskiedenisse van swart branderplankryers onder apartheid. Samehangend met swart geskiedenisse word die nie-rassige branderplankry beweging in die middel 1980s as ‘n kulturele en politieke protes beskou. Die rasionaal vir nie-rassige sport is in 1990 uitgedaag tydens die oorgang na volledige demokrasie in Suid-Afrika. Desnieteenstaande het die Suid-Afrikaans Branderplankry Vereniging ‘n bepalende rol gespeel in organisatoriese eenwording in die sport en die hertoelating tot internasionale kompetisies in 1992. Dit was egter ‘n ongemaklike eenheid waarop transformasie gedurende die postapartheid fase gebou moes word. Die groter teenwoordigheid van plaaslike swart branderplankryers moet in dié konteks gesien word, veral ten opsigte van jong Zoeloe ryers wat alhoemee navore tree en op die Afrikanisering van die sport sedert ongeveer 2000 dui. Daar word ten slotte op gewys dat hoewel kulturele verandering in die huidige bedeling merkbaar is, die sport se geslagtelike en rasgebonde verlede nog steeds sake kompliseer.

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Surfing is a byzantine phenomenon. With a global army surpassing 30 million participants, the wave riding culture has escalated from an underground lifestyle into a mainstream colossus. This thesis investigates a unique population of the surfing culture, the Cape Naturaliste surfing subculture. Located in the South West of Western Australia, Cape Naturaliste is home to the Cape Crusaders.

Questa tesi è un’analisi etnografica del surf e della “cultura sportiva” che esso alimenta nella regione/città della Gold Coast, all’estremità sud-orientale dello Stato del Queensland, in Australia. In questa area turistica dal clima mite e costantemente battuta dalle onde, infatti, il surf ha trovato un’accoglienza particolare, ed è diventato parte integrante del paesaggio, segnando l’identità del luogo e contribuendo a definirne il patrimonio. In questo processo, nella «surfing culture» della Gold Coast hanno trovato espressione istanze locali così come questioni di più ampio respiro, come il rapporto col mare e con la spiaggia che in Australia ha storicamente assunto una rilevanza sociale particolare, un’idea di identità nazionale fondata su moderatamente aggiornati principi coloniali e la co-costruzione delle categorie e degli attributi di genere (e in particolare di quelli legati alla mascolinità). A partire da una concezione delle pratiche sportive come “passioni ordinarie” e come “pratiche di consumo”, vale a dire come attività cui ci si dedica per vocazione e che danno di conseguenza vita a un sistema di senso entro il quale i nostri gesti prendono valore, ho ripercorso le traiettorie culturali secondo le quali il surf diventa qui particolarmente significativo per i suoi praticanti. La tesi si divide in sette Capitoli. Nel Capitolo 1 si è cercato di offrire una panoramica critica introduttiva sulla letteratura esistente sul surf. Nel Capitolo 2 ho cercato di proporre una visione comprensiva del surf in quanto disciplina ibrida, che non può essere ridotta, se vogliamo renderne conto, a una sola delle categorie epistemologiche attraverso cui simili attività sono state lette, come quelle di “sport”, di “gioco”, di “danza”, di “performance”, eccetera. Nel Capitolo 3 vengono trattate le metodologie adottate e cerco di riflettere criticamente sul mio posizionamento sul terreno. Il Capitolo 4 e il Capitolo 5 analizzano le modalità socialmente e culturalmente orientate secondo le quali in Australia, e sulla Gold Coast in particolare, si sono storicamente costituiti peculiari “modelli di apprezzamento” del mare e della spiaggia, che contribuiscano a orientare l’esperienza dei surfisti. Nel Capitolo 6 vengono descritti i modi e le strategie attraverso i quali il surfista in Australia è diventato una sorta di incarnazione contemporanea dell’eroe romantico, nonché, allo stesso tempo, un’espressione emblematica di alcune delle caratteristiche associate con l’idea di un “carattere” e di un’identità “tipicamente” australiani. Il Capitolo 7, infine, cerca di chiarire come di fatto questa associazione tra surf e “australianità” dia vita, soprattutto sulla Gold Coast, a una cultura sportiva prevalentemente maschile e quasi esclusivamente bianca, organizzata attorno a due principi fondamentali: quello della reciprocità (nei confronti delle onde e dell’oceano), e quello della competizione con gli altri surfisti per stabilire la priorità e l’ordine di avvicendamento sui picchi.
This thesis is an ethnographic analysis of surfing and the surfing culture on Australia’s Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia). In such a touristic region, the mild climate, warm water and the quantity and quality of waves have attracted many surfers, that have created a real surfing legacy. Surfing here contributes to shape the landscape and has become an integral part of the cultural heritage and of a socially constructed idea of “a life in the Gold Coast style”. Therefore, in the process of definition of the local surfing culture, both local and more wide questions are involved. Firstly, the particular relation with the beach and the ocean Australian people have historically developed deeply influence the way surfers enjoy riding the waves. Secondly, an “imagined” sense of Australian-ness rooted on the colonial history of the country is reflected and reproduced in the local surfing environment. Finally, surfing actively participate to the co-construction of the gender categories and attributes (especially those linked to masculinity). In this thesis, surfing is conceived as an “ordinary passion” into which practitioners invest their time and resources in order to give a deeper meaning to their lives. As happens to the consumption practices which are based on a free individual choice, surfing reflects the “character” and values of those who show their commitment to it. In this way, it constitutes a cultural “frame” in which the surfers’ gestures make sense. The thesis is divided in 7 chapters. Chapter 1 is a critical review of the existent scientific literature on surfing. In Chapter 2, surfing is conceived as a hybrid bodily practice that cross the boundaries between “sport” and “game”, “sport” and “performance”, “sport” and “dance”, and so on. Chapter 3 is about the methodologies adopted for this research. Moreover, a broader reflection on reflectivity and the body in the ethnographic study of sporting activities is proposed. The socially and culturally ways through which in Australia and on the Gold Coast particular “modality of enjoyment” of the beach and the sea have been historically produced are investigated in Chapter 4 and 5, that also describe the way these modes of appreciation inform surfing culture on the Gold Coast. In Chapter 6, a view of the surfer as an athletic, contemporary version of the “romantic hero” is discussed. On the Gold Coast, this image also epitomizes some of the main features attached to the Australian “character” and identity. Chapter 7 describes how this reciprocal relationship between the surfers’ image and an idealized Australian identity has built a mainly manly and white sporting culture, organized around two ambivalent but coherent principles of social relations: on the one hand, the reciprocity between the surfer and the ocean that offers him so much “fun”; and, on the other hand, the competition among surfers to establish the priority on the line-up (that is, to establish who has the right to enjoy that reciprocity with the sea and who is instead excluded from it).

This project examines the conservative evangelical response to 1960s era sexual revolution in order to explain how and why evangelicals both resisted and adapted tenets of sexual modernity in a process that transformed the theological foundations underlying the conception of Christian marriage and sexuality. Though evangelicals and conservatives are typically portrayed as resistors to cultural and sexual change, my research reveals the ways in which conservative evangelicals agreed with key critiques of the sexual status quo in the 1960s, and deliberately worked to change Christian teachings and attitudes to keep them vibrant and attractive to postwar generations. Previous examinations of evangelical thought on sexuality has focused on rhetorical analysis and social history to the exclusion of examinations of the close ties between evangelical marital theology, sexual practice, and political activism. This project seeks to integrate all three into a cohesive historical framework that reveals evangelical response to sexual revolution as more complex and adaptive than it is typically described. Close readings of conservative evangelical texts from 1960 to 1980 combine the long term editorial trajectory of Christianity Today magazine with ideological and theological texts from the 1960s with popular, practical texts from the 1970s to demonstrate that the evangelical marriage project was deliberate, deeply rooted in a modern hermeneutic of Biblical interpretation, and nimble in its ability and willingness to adapt changing sexual attitudes to accommodate Christian theology and practice. The resulting portrait of evangelical response to sexual revolution is more complex, contextualized, and nuanced than previous narratives.

The primary purpose of this ethnographic study is to contextualize Mexican American surfers experiences with sport as a lens into race, gender and class relations. Specifically, it seeks to understand how a history of gender, race, and class oppression has played out in this understudied terrain of sports. This study offers empirical insight into the ways in which Mexican Americans navigate and (un)successfully infiltrate predominantly white, male, middle-class sporting arenas. In this study I also examine the relationship between access and barriers, specifically how access to public recreational spaces are constricted by participants’ real and imagined barriers. By exploring Mexican American surfers’ everyday experiences, I unearthed the varying ways Mexican American surfers experienced discrimination and marginalization across intersecting and interlocking identities.

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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
Discusses the history of the relationship between body, nature, memory and culture in the Titanzinho Beach, east coast of Fortaleza. The clipping set is located mainly in the 1960s to 2010. The Beach Titanzinho, traditional fishing area, became internationally known in the 1970s for surfing. In the 1990s, however, factors such as rapid population growth and the crime outbreak provided the end of sporting events and the location has become stigmatized in the city. More recently, with the opening of surf schools and especially with the emergence of young native champions, have changed many important aspects in the local experience. Based on orality, magazines specializing in surfing, documents from the neighborhood associations and other research sources, discusses the formation of community, suggesting the emergence of surfing as body practice that emerges from new desires and sensibilities towards nature
Problematiza a história da articulação entre corpo, natureza, memória e cultura na Praia do Titanzinho, litoral leste de Fortaleza. O recorte estabelecido situa-se, principalmente, nas décadas de 1960 a 2010. A Praia do Titanzinho, tradicional região de pesca, ficou internacionalmente conhecida nos anos 1970 pela prática do surfe. Nos anos 1990, porém, fatores como o crescimento demográfico acelerado e o surto da criminalidade proporcionaram o fim dos eventos esportivos e a localidade passou a ser estigmatizada na cidade. Mais recentemente, com a abertura de escolinhas de surfe e, principalmente, com a emergência de jovens campeões nativos, modificaram-se diversos aspectos importantes na vivência local. Com base na oralidade, revistas especializadas em surfe, documentos oriundos das associações de moradores e de outras fontes de pesquisa, problematiza-se a formação da comunidade, sugerindo a emergência do surfe como prática corporal que emerge dos novos desejos e sensibilidades em relação à natureza

This thesis aims to develop an intermodal surf travel writing through the exploration of, and engagement with, Haïti’s coastline. Actor-network-theory (ANT) provides the methodological and theoretical framework to explore and explain how the key topics - surf, travel (Haïti) and writing - are brought into productive conversation through translation across persons, artefacts and ideas as an expanding network. Fieldwork is structured and informed by postmodern ethnography as the primary research method of ANT approaches. The entire coastline of Haïti is explored through four research trips, where potential surfing locations are mapped, bringing together my practices as writer, traveller and surfer, theorised through ANT. Engagement with Haïti operates at two levels: the macro level is the rhythm and cycle of anabasis (moving from coast to interior) and katabasis (interior to coast); and the micro level is the activity of surfing and mapping of surf breaks, offering tropes for writing with surfing in mind. The resultant intermodal writing is also a means though which Haïti is both represented and celebrated. The core areas of study - surf, travel (Haïti) and writing - afford equal status (in correspondence with the methodological framework of ANT), as do the roles of geography, ethnography and writing. My holistic approach to research and writing is guided by the literal definition of both geography (‘writing out the earth’) and ethnography (‘writing out culture’). Both the practice based and discursive elements of the thesis also claim equal status. This research attempts to contribute original work to the subgenre of surf travel writing and its critical discourses, and writing on Haïti - each activity drawing on (and making particular contributions to) geography, and an ethnography that explicitly aims to ‘write out’ and celebrate Haïti’s coastscape (coastal landscape, seascape and culture).

Through surfing man enters the domain of the wave, is contained by and participates in its broadcast, measures and is in turn measured, meets its rhythm and establishes his own, negotiates continuity and rupture. The surfer transforms the surfbreak into an architectural domain. This thesis undertakes a critical exploration of this domain as a means of expanding and enriching the territory of the architectural imagination.

The developments in technology and concomitant access to the Internet have reshaped the way people research in their personal and academic lives. The ever-expanding amount of information on the Internet is creating an environment where users are able to find what they seek for or add to the body of knowledge or both. Researching, especially for academic purposes, has been greatly impacted by the Internet’s rapid growth and expansion. This project stemmed from a desire to understand how student’s research methods have evolved when taking into account their busy schedules and needs. The availability and accessibility of the Internet has increased its use considerably as a straightforward medium from which users obtain desired information. This thesis was to ascertain in what manner senior undergraduate students at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal Pietermaritzburg campus use the Internet for academic research purposes which is largely determined by the individual’s personal preference and access to the Internet. Through the relevant literature review there arose pertinent questions that required answers. Students were interviewed to determine when, why and how they began using the Internet, and how this usage contributes to their academic work; whether it aids or inhibits student’s research. Through collection and analysis of data, evidence emerged that students followed contemporary research methods, making extensive use of the Internet, while a few use both forms of resources, unless compelled by lecturers when following assignment requirements. As a secondary phase, from the results received from the students, lecturers were interviewed. Differing levels of restrictions on students were evident; they themselves use the Internet for academic research purposes. Lecturers were convinced they had the understanding and experience to discern what was relevant and factual. Referring to the Internet for research is becoming more popular. This should continue to increase as the student’s lives become more complex. A suggestion offered by this research project is to academic staff. Equip students from their early University years on standards they should follow in order to research correctly, as opposed to limiting their use of the Internet leading in part to students committing plagiarism being unaware of the wealth of reputable resources available for their use and benefit on the Internet.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

This paper is concerned with how surf brands display females who surf through the companies’ visual narrative, which has been repeatedly linked to issues of gender discrimination and objectification, and how such a narrative is perceived by active female surfers. In particular, the paper explores the visual language published on the most relevant surf brands’ websites and focusses not on fashion, but rather on the section of surf gear. The brands Billabong, RipCurl, and Quiksilver/Roxy were chosen based on an analysis of their size and influence on the surf scene. The paper continues to compare the brands' vision and mission with the online content through visual diagrams, and also includes an analysis of an advertisement video released by ROXY, the first brand in the industry to design specifically and only for women, in 2013. The video was chosen due to the remarkable number of responses it caused throughout the online female surfing communities and other media channels. The analysis was established with knowledge from visual culture, image analysis and feminist issues and is based on qualitative aspects taking into consideration the technical and visual grammar of moving images. It was found that the video, which advertises a surf competition for women by depicting Stephanie Gilmore, seven times world surfing champion, showed strong heteronormative bias in the visual narrative construction as well as in the depiction of the surfer. A similar heteronormative bias and objectification of women has been identified in the visual diagrams of the surf brands websites afterwards. The following literature review aimed to investigate the impact of such a visual narrative on female surfers’ self-perception as well as the rationale behind it. It was discovered, that despite an increasing conversation about a more positive gender portrayal in advertising and action sports, a trend towards hyper-sexualized images and the impression that “sex sells” has led to a higher media coverage of women who comply with a heterosexist image. Active female surfers who are exposed to this kind of visual media find it increasingly disempowering and have taken a stance against gender inequality in the sport. A following in-depth field research containing interviews with industry experts and a survey demonstrated that gender-related power relations in surfing remain contradicting and impugned. Therefore, this paper encourages a radical dialogue regarding the role that visual representation plays in addressing this societal issue of gender portrayal in sports, particularly in surfing, and displays a powerful and potentially feminist way of interpreting the female surfer.