Abstract
A byzantine phenomenon, surfing has escalated from a countercultural lifestyle into mainstream. Surfing populations exist as tribes, isolated by time and space, distinguishable by beliefs, values, history and ecology. These subsets operate as idiosyncratic subdivisions of the wider parent surfing culture. Western Australia’s Cape Naturaliste surfing tribe is an example of this paradigm. Motivated by fun and driven by the search, the Cape Crusaders travel the planet to consume surfing. Surf tourism is big business, and like most surfing tribes, the Cape Naturaliste crew visit diverse destinations to supress their appetite for riding the cliché perfect wave. Using ethnography and autoethnography methodology as the basis of socio-cultural investigation, this chapter explores the Cape Naturaliste wave riders as a surf-tourism tribe, identifying and examining the motives and mechanisms for their travel predilection.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agar, M. H. (1986). Speaking of ethnography. California: SAGE Publications Inc.
Agar, M. H. (1996). The professional stranger. San Diego: Academic Press.
Bennett, A. (1999). Subcultures or neo-tribes? Rethinking the relationship between youth, style and musical taste. Sociology, 33(3), 599–617.
Blake, T. (1935). A Hawaiian surfboard. Honolulu: Paradise of the Pacific Press.
Brewer, J. D. (2000). Ethnography. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Buckley, R. (2002). Surf tourism and sustainable development in Indo Pacific Islands: The industry and the islands. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 10(5), 405–424.
Canniford, R., & Shankar, A. (2007). Marketing the savage: Appropriating tribal tropes. In B. Cova, R. V. Kozinets, & A. Shankar (Eds.), Consumer tribes (pp. 35–47). Oxford: Elsevier.
Chang, H. (2008). Autoethnography as method. California: Left Coast Press.
Cruikshank, J. (1990). Life lived like a story : Life stories of three Yukon native elders. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Cruikshank, J. (2005). Do glaciers listen? Local knowledge, colonial encounters, and social imagination. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Dahrendorf, R. (1968). Homo sociologicus. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Dixon, P. (1969). Men who ride mountains: Incredible true tales of legendary surfers. Connecticut: The Lyons Press.
Ellen, R. (1988). Malinowski: Between two worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Farmer, R. J. (1992). Surfing: Motivations, values, and culture. Journal of Sport Behavior, 15(3), 241–257.
Fetterman, D. (1989). Ethnography: Step by step. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications.
Fiske, J. (1983). Surfalism and sandiotics: The beach in Oz culture. Australian Journal of Cultural Studies, 1(2), 120–149.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. USA: Basic Books.
Gobo, G. (2008). Doing ethnography. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Gold, R. L. (1997). The ethnographic method in sociology. Qualitative Inquiry, 3(4), 388–402.
Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (2007). Ethnography: Principles in practice. New York: Routledege.
Hardy, A., Gretzel, U., & Hanson, D. (2013). Travelling neo-tribes: Conceptualising recreational vehicle users. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 11(1–2), 48–60.
Hardy, A., & Robards, B. (2015). The ties that bind: Exploring the relevance of neotribal theory to tourism. Tourism Analysis, 20, 443–454.
Hull, S. W. (1976). A sociological study of the surfing subculture in the Santa Cruz area. San Jose State University.
Hughson, J. (2008). Ethnography and ‘physical culture’. Ethnography, 9(4), 421–428.
Irwin, J. (1973). Surfing: The natural history of an urban scene. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 2(2), 131–160.
Kampion, D. (2003). Stoked! A history of surf culture. Utah: Gibbs Smith Publisher.
Langseth, T. (2012). Liquid ice surfers—the construction of surfer identities in Norway. JournaL of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 12(1), 3–23.
London, J. (2001). The cruise of the Snark: Jack London’s south sea adventure. Santa Barbara California: The Narrative Press.
Maffesoli, M. (1996). The time of the tribes: The decline of individualism in mass society. London: Sage.
Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press.
Marsh, P. (1988). Tribes. London: Pyramid Books.
Moser, P. (2008). Pacific passages: An anthology of surf writing. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Patterson, J. (2010). Charging: 1960–2010. Surfer, 51(1), 13–16.
Preston-Whyte, R. (2002). Constructions of surfing space at Durban, South Africa. Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 4(3), 307–328.
Prior, C. (2003). Living tribes. London: Constable and Robinson Ltd.
Rip Curl Website. 2019. Rip Curl: The history of The Seach. https://thesearch.ripcurl.com/en/the-search-history/
Roszak, T. (1970). The making of a subculture. London: Faber and Faber.
Sands, R. (2002). Sport ethnography. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics.
Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview. Orlando, Florida: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc.
Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant observation. Orlando, Florida: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc.
Sword, H. (2009). Writing higher education differently: A manifesto on style. Studies in Higher Education, 34(3), 319–336.
Twain, M. (1872). Roughing it. Washington: American Publishing Company.
Uekusa, S. (2019). Surfing with Bourdieu! A qualitative analysis of the fluid power relations among surfers in the line-ups. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 48(4), 538–562.
Waitt, G., & Warren, A. (2008). Talking shit over a brew after a good session with your mates’: Surfing, space and masculinity. Australian Geographer, 39(3), 353–365.
Wheaton, B. (2000). Just do it: Consumption, commitment and identity in the windsurfing subculture. Sociology of Sport Journal, 17, 254–274.
Woodward, K. (2009). Hanging out and hanging about: Insider/outsider research in the sport of boxing. Ethnography, 9(4), 536–560.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Holt, R.A. (2021). Searching the Seven Seas: Investigating Western Australia’s Cape Naturaliste Surfing Tribe as a Surf-Tourism Paradigm. In: Pforr, C., Dowling, R., Volgger, M. (eds) Consumer Tribes in Tourism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7150-3_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7150-3_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-7149-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-7150-3
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)