This Is The Real Surf Culture

 I’m Jai Ashok Mahtani from South Africa. Many sportsmen can argue that their sport is not just a game, but a way of life. The said statement sounds fancy but is often more hollow and airy than the balls used in their games. When it comes to surfing, however, it’s a completely different story. How you may ask? Well, there are a lot of aspects when it comes to differentiating between surfing and other sports, but let us indulge in some of the major ones that are responsible for constituting the very essence of life in surfing. 

"This is the real surf culture” for me!!!

What Is Surf Culture?

Surf Culture has a completely different meaning than the one you might be thinking of. The depiction that is shown in pop culture and Hollywood is the polar opposite of what surf culture means. Surfing is a way of living life peacefully with your surroundings, be it human beings or animals or plants. It is the ultimate mantra of life that is channeled through a sport. Surfing can mean anything to anyone, but in its essence, surfing is a device developed by natives from the pacific islands for humans to live in concordance with nature and with themselves.

The History Behind Surfing

Every great game has an equally great story behind it, and such is the case with surfing as well. It was first recorded in 1778 by none other than the mythical English explorer: James Cook. His diary initially served as a testimonial to surfing being a game for savages. Little did James Cook know that nearly a hundred years later, his noble countrymen Mark Twain and Jack London would forever cement surfing into the history of the world through their works.

Literature had got surfing’s waves rolling, but it was a polar opposite event that popularised the sport in the country that spewed to the world its greatest surfer, Robert Kelly Slater. When the United States Of America captured the pacific islands, surfing was quickly picked up by American tourists as the US government was vigorously encouraging American citizens to visit Hawaii.

The sport of surfing grew exponentially on all coasts of the USA, and surf culture was ‘officially’ welcomed to America and subsequently in the entire world, through the form of Beach Cinema.

Pop Culture

When beach movies like ‘Blue Hawaii’ with bigshots like Elvis Presely started popping up on the big screen, surfing culture was amended to suit the needs of consumerist America. Various movies and TV shows deviated significantly from true surf culture, so much to the point that surfing was considered as one of the ‘sexiest sports’ in America.

Such a telephonic rise resulted in Bikini surf shops, sexualized surf classes, and many more instances proving that in today’s overtly capitalistic world, traditional practices are severely mended to meet the consumer’s needs. Many natives of Hawaii didn’t consider American surf culture as the real surf culture and often regarded it as a form of disrespect to their home-grown sport.

Since the surf culture that we are familiar with due to the massive bombardment of ‘bikini surfing’ in movies is not the real surf culture, then what exactly did surfing represent?

Surfing And Religion

It comes as no surprise that a sport that is considered a way of life by many of its players has played a part in religion. The first and foremost connection between surfing and religion is water.

Water is the first offering that is given to any god in any culture. Water is where the divine resided when nothing was created. In Genesis, God is described to be hovering over water bodies. Muslims practice wudu. Baptism is something that every Christian baby has to undergo, and in Buddhism a clear bowl of water represents enlightenment. In Hawaii, raging waves are folklore for waves meant to be conquered by gods.

The connection of water, surfing, and religion can be attributed to some characteristics that are shown by all 3 of these things. Being immersed in water gives you a sense of calm, a vast sea is a sight of beauty, and water is the purest, smoothest, cleanest award of life there is. Water, surfing, and Religion. These 3 were interwoven since the quintessential legends of Hawaii and stories by Mark Twain were introduced to the world, but sadly their relationship has dwindled in popularity since pop culture boomed ‘sexy surfing’.

Surf Culture In The Modern World

Surfing is now arguably the most popular water sport in 2020 with over 20 million surfers worldwide. It is now recognized as an international sport with the World Surf League being the largest surfing association in the world. WSL also recognizes Hawaii as a separate surfing nation rather than it being a part of the United States of America, a necessary ode to the surfing hometown.

Although the surf culture is still recouping from the massive hit of representation it took from Hollywood, surf culture around the world is slowly returning to its roots. Instead of cheap snack and surf shops, traditional independent surfing shacks are popping that are run by people who want to honor the sport and not profit off of it. It would be safe to say that surfing is making a mark on people’s lives by not being just a game they play whenever a suitable wave arises, but by playing the quintessential role of balancing things out in our fast-paced lives.

One reason why surfing is considered to be more than just a sport is because of its connection to water. As mentioned earlier, water is an important part of any religion, but in today’s growing atheist world water is not just about having faith. Experiencing water through surfing is a completely different sensation. Being provided with the calmness of water without its suffocation, allowing to build up composure, and being cut off from all earthly distractions makes surfing a suitable tool to help soothe the mind.

Surfing is not about bikini babes and fast food, or about looking cool on waves, it is about living your life peacefully as it was intended to be.