Surfing Culture.

         If I asked you to imagine what a Californian or Hawaiian surfer was, you’d probably see a man in a wetsuit that’s half way on his body with tribal tattoos and blonde or black hair, very tan skin, running Baywatch style on the beach with his surfboard under his arms. He’d probably being saying, “radical, totally or tubular”, and listening to surf pop/rock music. If that’s  what you imagined you are fifty percent correct.

        

Surf culture was established with the Polynesians, and “originated” in Hawaii, but it didn’t become popular until the 1950’s in California and America’s surf rivals Australia. Surfing was made extremely popular in Southern California, even though people had already been surfing in other states and countries before popularity hit. As more people began to surf, surf gangs began to form. The first of the surf gangs were the Cito Rats, which were formed in California in 1978. The next most known surf gangs are the Wolfpak, (Pictured Wolfpak member)

in Hawaii, and the Bra Boys, in California. Da hui is a notorious surf gang that often resorts to violence if pushed. They are in Malibu and Hawaii. Surf gangs were originally started to encourage localism, which is where the locals find their perfect surfing spot, and the claim it as their own, hence the term, “Locals ONLY”.  

(pictured Da Hui)

The father of surf culture is George Douglas Freeth Jr. (1883-1919).  

(pictured George Freeth) He reinvented Hawaiian surfing, and brought it to California. He is considered the father because he opened the door for many other surfers after himself. Men and women, also known as beach bums and beach bunnies, all aspired to be as great as the Father of their culture. (Pictured beach bunnies of the ‘50’s). 

         Surfing may be a hobby to certain people, but to many people across the world, it is a way of life that they follow religiously. Surfers value their fallen surf ancestors, and they value the ocean. Because surf culture is passed down from generation to generation, when one surfer dies they hold memorials on the water where they swim out to a serene spot in the ocean, at either dawn or sunset, and they put flowers in a circle, and pray for the lost then they surf. Even some churches have service on the beach, and then surf afterward. Surfers value the environment because with recent ocean pollution, the waves, and the waters aren’t as good as they used to be, and surfers depend on the waters to surf. They are heavily dependent on a clean environment. 

         Surf culture has its own “Language” which is combined with Valleyspeak. They use words like, “dude, gnarly, and stoked” The most common sign is the shaka sign from Hawaii. The shaka sign is the sign language “Y”. You usually shake your hands back and forth while doing this gesture. Surf culture has its own dictionary of words used throughout the culture in different countries. (Pictured Shaka Sign)

         Surf culture has affected society positively. A lot of their music, and clothing style has influenced the way young people dress. A lot of teens wear the baggy cargo shorts with the puka shells, which originated with the surf culture, and then trickled into the skating culture, which is a subculture of the original surf culture. They also influenced a lot of the music we listen to. A lot of the R&B and pop we listen to has sampled items from the 1960’s surf pop music like the Popular “Apache” song by the shadows. Multiple artists sampled from that song throughout the ‘90’s. Surf culture is very influential upon our society especially since a lot of people aspire to at least surf once in their life.  (pictured puka shells) 

      

Works Cited

-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf_culture

-- http://surflibrary.org/popularculture.html

--http://files.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/ls05_freeth_verge2001.html