Abstract
This chapter outlines the history of surfing in Florida by region. The notion of strand reflects the singular characteristics of Floridian surfing in relation to its environment, style, and culture. This chapter portrays Floridian surfing by describing how participants have committed themselves to the surf lifestyle, and how they have developed their own modes of expression through magazines, films, museums, and music. Florida’s singularity is illustrated by glocal legends of surfing, including Kelly Slater. Based on this portrait of Floridian surfing, the chapter proposes a definition of the practice as a lifestyle and a subculture (a notion also redefined in this work). The issues of gender and race in surfing are introduced and discussed.
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Notes
- 1.
While Warren and Gibson (2014) acknowledge that each surfing region of the world is different, they too focus on Hawaii, California, and Australia as “the three most recognizable surfing places in the world” (p. 8). These three archetypes of surfing represent three types of ideal wave settings in the Pacific Ocean so that Florida and other regions with less ideal setups, but dynamic local surf industries, are not represented by these models.
- 2.
Paul Aho (2014) offers the most thorough depiction of surfing culture in Florida.
- 3.
The two brothers from Miami were known for being talented fishermen inspired by Hawaiian fishing techniques. Their love for underwater photography led them to invent an underwater camera box that was arguably less cumbersome than the equipment used by others at the time (Key West Citizen, 1947).
- 4.
According to Aho (2014), Tabeling’s interview in Surfer of 1970 entitled “I love Cocoa Beach: An erotic east coast confession,” revealed the Space Coast internationally (p. 13).
- 5.
In spite of his actions, Jack Roland Murphy was inducted into the East Coast Surf Legends Hall of Fame in 1996.
- 6.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, there was what Matt Warshaw (2003) called the shortboard revolution. Surfboards went from 9’5” long to 6’5,” and from about 20 pounds to 10 pounds. This evolution allowed surfers to change their style and adapt their technique to a more aggressive approach (Shortboard revolution, Warshaw 2003).
- 7.
There is a difference between power surfers (a traditional way of surfing) and modern surfers. While the former is conceived as a way of surfing powerfully throughout the wave by including cutbacks and possibly barrels, the latter is conceived with aerials and rotations, thus, with less probability to use the whole wave.
- 8.
CoreVac is a system which manufactures vacuum-bagged composite surfboards for more durability and solidity.
- 9.
One of Sun Bum’s employees also left Panama City in order to be able to surf more. He first moved to Cocoa Beach and is now living in California.
- 10.
The Thruster tri-fin was invented in 1982 by Australian Simon Anderson. The surfboard has three fins instead of one for more control. The thruster allows surfers to surf more aggressively because even if one fin sticks out of the water during a cut back for instance, the two others maintain control. These boards are particularly used in Hawaii.
- 11.
Michele Donnelly (2006) suggested that researchers focused less on core participants and more on everyday consumers of lifestyle sports.
- 12.
It is worth reminding that Maffesoli’s concepts have been attacked for not being anchored in reality. However, I contend that discussed, criticized, and put to the test in empirical research as they have been in English-speaking subcultural and post-subcultural research, these concepts can provide interesting perspectives and research avenues.
- 13.
A cutback is a fundamental surfing maneuver which consists in performing a powerful turn by digging the tail of the board in the vertical part of the wave. This movement was made possible thanks to the advent of fins after World War II (Warshaw, 2003).
A barrel is a hollow wave in which a surfer must stand on his board as long as possible and be able to get out of it. All waves do not produce barrels because their formation depends on the seafloors: it is the abrupt appearance of a shallow section that generates them (Tube, 2003). These barrels exist in Florida, but they are small and very technical.
- 14.
During informal conversations with Floridian surfers, this difference appeared clearly when they compared the diverging approaches of Kelly Slater and Laird Hamilton, representing two distinct surfing cultures. Florida surfers tend to think of Hamilton as a dork of the surfing world because he founded his fame on the invention of gadgets but not on his technical skills as a surfer.
- 15.
Triple Crown of Surfing is an annual professional surfing competition sponsored by Vans which takes place on the North Shore on the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. Pipe Masters is also an annual professional surfing competition, but it is sponsored by Billabong and takes place at Pipeline, on the island of Oahu.
- 16.
The recognition of Rookie of the year is awarded at the end of the Rookie of the year race. At the end of the world championship, a surfer who is on the tour for the first time, receives the award. The goal is to expose new talents on this tour but also to motivate regulars to give the best of themselves in order not to lose to a rookie.
- 17.
Point Break is a melodrama produced by twenty-first Century Fox in 1991. The film featured Patrick Swayze in the role of a bandit surfer on a quest for adrenaline, and Keanu Reeves in that of an FBI agent seduced by surfing but tormented by his sense of duty. Many lines coming from this movie have become cult among young surfers.
- 18.
The X Games are competitions specialized in action sports. They are the brainchild of cable network ESPN in the 1990s (History of X Games, 2018).
- 19.
The term kooky was used many times during the interviews. It characterizes a person or an action that is strange, awkward, and out of context. It can be spelled kooky or kookie.
- 20.
Until the late 1990s, English-speaking accounts accredited the resurgence of Hawaiian surfing to the promotion of the islands and the sport as a new tourist destination and attraction that started at the beginning of the twentieth century. Several scholarly writings have since shown that the practice never went extinct and had been kept alive by Hawaiians themselves. The work of Isaiah Helekunihi Walker (2011), Noenoe K. Silva (2004), and Scott Laderman (2014) are paramount in showing that the Hawaiians had been resisting space invasion and cultural destruction by preserving their cultural traditions, including surfing and mele.
- 21.
- 22.
Interviewed on June 15, 2018.
- 23.
Alana Blanchard is a professional surfer from Hawaii. She is also a model for Rip Curl. She is very active on social media, particularly on Instagram (with 1.8 million subscribers or followers). She publishes many photographs, the majority of which depict her in sensual poses on the beach rather than in action despite her skills as a surfer.
- 24.
Rednecks are white workers living in rural areas and advocating the values of work and family. The stereotype of the redneck is that of a humble, friendly, and very welcoming person, manifesting the values of “southern hospitality” attached to the working-class’s lifestyle. Rednecks are often associated with pickup trucks and beer, but they are neither exuberant nor vulgar. White trash, on the other hand, are white people, poor and with degraded living conditions. They represent devaluing principles if we refer to American educational and behavioral standards. The stereotype of white trash is that of a vulgar and exuberant person, emaciated women marked by alcohol or drug abuse, or the opposite, obese women but wearing daisy duke shorts, and finally men wearing wife beaters (white tank tops that highlight tattoos).
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Barjolin-Smith, A. (2020). Surfing Florida: History of an Underdog. In: Ethno-Aesthetics of Surf in Florida. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7478-8_3
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