Surf Culture

[ClaySurf26]

I am a student at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. I am writing a qualitative research paper on surf culture and would love to have input from real life surfers. What's your favorite thing about surfing? Do you have a favorite surf story you would like to share? Thanks!

[jaffa1949]

Here’s one, from the east coast of Australia just north of Sydney!
Late afternoon to early evening sun is about to set behind the cliffs/ hill shoreward, dusk is shark time!
The actual break is about 800 metres out to sea around an almost island rock reef, with deep channel leading into the break.

Older guys telling grommets who came out their oft repeated shark encounter stories.
It is whale migration season , so big tigers and great whites follow the path,, snack morsels sit dangling their legs from their boards.
The wave is big today and the drop goes from being in full sunlight into the dark shadows of the hill and cliffs.
The surfers are tense and edgy for all the above reasons, somebody asks has anyone seen the whales yet this year?

The sea erupts immediately behind the two outer most surfers about 15 metres from them in the deep channel.

Two fully grown humpback whales have launched themselves skyward and crash down and submerge, underwater one defecates*, I think we surfers did too!
Raw prawn smell and a partially digested plankton oil slick washes towards us.
Time to go in, post surf stubbies ( short beer bottles ) were drunk.
Tomorrow the swell is up we surf again.

[billie_morini]

Dude, you have this thread going about your qualitative paper about surfing: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=36520&p=224475#p224475

After receiving some input that barely makes the grade for a qualitative paper, now you're asking for real life stories. You baffle me. How in the heck social media input from strangers achieves acceptable research boggles the mind. Whatever became of real research? Yeah, I know, you're a starving student, live far from the ocean, and don't know any surfers. Once upon a time, I was one. Once upon a time, I actually worked in television, radio and print media -- sometimes conducting on the ground reporting. Research involved card catafalques, trade magazines, BOOKS, telephone, and on the ground research. This is usurped by social media attempting to pass as journalism, reporting and, worse, academic research. Bleach! Vomit! One student turned in a paper citing "Ask Jeeves" as one his three trivial references. He was offered a choice: 1) properly repeat the assignment, or 2) fail for being so lazy.

[billie_morini]

Jaffa, you're a gentleman.

[jaffa1949]

Just a note for your research, there is a massive amount of material in reading this forum.
Guys and girls in all these locations, Indonesia, Japan, Hawaii, Australia, UK , France, Morocco, Taiwan, New Zealand, US Canada, Spain Portugal, Brazil, South Africa , Sri Lanka, just a few but these are where most of the post come from,
Much is already written or videos that you can gain insight from.
Much will be incomprehensible to a non surfer, but it may prompt you to ask questions that give you specifically helpful answers.
There was an advertisement, “ Only a Surfer knows the feeling’’ and I know you are far from the beach , so really only reading through or going and interviewing on the beach are your best options, but Hawaii, Australia, and California are geographically challengeing for that!

Find the questions there lies the answers!

[oldmansurfer]

Here is a bit of stuff https://surfing-waves.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=22487

[jaffa1949]

There’s a mine of culture right there in OMS writings!

[oldmansurfer]

One of the things about surfing is that the culture is not universal. It is not only different from place to place but also from individual to individual although there are themes. Surfers are just people from all walks of life and all levels of involvement in surfing as well as skill levels. But if you can read about surfers from Hawaii or surfers from Australia you will find themes but they are not universal as surfing is and will always be a sport that attracts individuals who say screw culture I am going to do what I want. Perhaps that in itself can be described as culture of sort or not But if you only look at written culture you will miss most of it which is what happens on the beaches. Even if you look at surfing culture of say the USA the culture in Hawaii is different from that in the rest of USA. Not to mention that there will likely be differences depending on which breaks you are looking at. I have read a bunch of books about surfing and the thing that is always interesting to me is how different the experiences of each surfer are from what I experienced except for the book Barbarian Days which was written by a surfer who learned to surf around the time i did in Hawaii as well (I also learned in Hawaii) however he liked to travel which I never had the desire to do. There is a little subset of surfing culture, the surf trip. Anyway since the OP is not a surfer they will have to make a judgement about what is surfing culture without experiencing it. But jaffa he did ask for our favorite stories

[Oldie]

My 80 yo mother gave me Barbarian Days for Christmas. And even for an old, landlocked beginner like me who lives in a completeley different world, it was a very enjoyable read. At the same time, being that, I would never comment on surf culture, let alone write a thesis about it. Shaky ground at least.

..off to Portugal in two days

[jaffa1949]

Enjoy thoroughly