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Surfing In The Third Millenium.
David Lanagan, School of Social Sciences and Asian Languages, Curtin University of Technology
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lanagand@spectrum.curtin.edu.au
The practice of surfing has often been at odds with the mores of wider society, to the point where surfers have been described in the media as rotten, long-haired, unwashed drug addicts, or as jobless junkies. However, in recent years there has been an increase in the popularity of surfing and an increase in the consumption of surfing related commodities. This increase in popularity is largely due to the marketing practices of business interests that are involved in surfing, who have appropriated the images of surfing and sold them to a rapidly expanding and lucrative market.
This paper will outline how the commodification of surfing’s visual style, and the meanings that are symbolised by this development, has had a three-fold affect on surfing. First, surfing has been shifted away from the beach into areas where the activity of surfing does not exist; secondly, how surfing is understood by wider society has been altered and; thirdly, how the commodifying practices of surfing capital have transformed the surfing body.
