The Lifestyle of Surfing: Beyond a Sport

The sport of surfing is unique in that it has become much more than a simple activity or pastime. Surfing has become an actual lifestyle and has helped to shape beach culture as it is known today. Bill Hamilton, a professional surfboarder from California, describes the surf culture and lifestyle as selfish-- that it involves isolation from all others. This represents the conflicting opinions of surfing being a type of “immortal” culture and being a solitary sport (Sands 2002: 73).

The word “selfish” in this statement, however, is not necessarily negative.

Instead, it refers to the connection that surfers make with nature and the ocean more so than other people; but with the rise of competitive surfing and surfer groups who fight for marine and environmental protection, there are many positive aspects of surf culture that benefit more than the surfers themselves. Surfing is often thought of as a fairly modern sport that developed throughout the twentieth century.

The art of using a board in order to ride waves, however, is much more ancient than what most people realize.

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Studies have suggested that people in the northern Peruvian region may have been surfing as far back as 3000 B. C. , along with other groups that lived in coastal areas with warm water (Warshaw 2005: 13). This version of surfing, of course, was the primitive version of surfing as it is known today-- a sport that was developed in the Hawaiian Islands and other parts of Polynesia.

Kneeboarding and bellyboarding were already a part of island culture by the time stand-up surfing was developed approximately around A.

D. 1000. Once Hawaiian men and women of all ages learned how to surf, “Villages were nearly deserted when a good swell arrived, as everyone took to the waves; top surfers met in competitions that drew hundreds of spectators and featured wagering at all levels-- from fishing nets and pigs to servitude or even life itself” (Warshaw 2005: 13).

It is clear that surfing was revered as a major part of island culture, and that high-stakes competition existed well before the more modern tournaments that are featured in today’s society. The fact that so many people came together to surf, whether it was just for fun or for a competitive thrill, shows how surfing was never classified by the original surfers as an isolated sport. Of course, many people enjoying solo surfing; but this does not mean that the sport lacks a sense of community and sharing.

In order to surf, one must lie belly-down on top of their surfboard while using their arms to paddle out to sea. Once they are out far enough to feel some waves, they turn around so they are facing the shore; and then they wait until a sizable wave comes, they begin paddling quickly towards land, and then hoist themselves up into a standing position once they have enough speed (Cralle 2001: 8). Surfing requires a great amount of physical strength and endurance, especially when people choose to surf competitively (Mendez-Villanueva and Bishop 2005: 58).

Once surfing was well-established within the islands, people began to design more ways to improve the surfing experience-- for example, designing surfboards that would go faster and that were geared towards different surf levels. From the bulky wooden planks that were used by Southern Californians in 1907 to the enormous big wave riders designed by Pat Curren in 1955, surfboards underwent several transformations (California Surf Museum 2010).

Today, the majority of surfboards that are used are modeled after Simon Anderson. As a professional surfer from Australia, “…Anderson used the tri-fin concept to create a square-tail model he called the ‘Thruster. ’ It not only held in the steepest part of the wave, but also in the hollowest part of the tube-- allowing riders to go off the top, slash, turn and cut back like never before” (California Surf Museum 2010).

The development of surfing led to the further development and expansion of surfing in general. Once the sport of surfing reached California in the early 1900s, it spread all throughout Californian culture and the people were quick to adopt the Hawaiian-based surf traditions. Today, surf culture is automatically associated with California; but in reality, it is a Polynesian sport that began more than a millennium ago.