User:Vxu7/History of surfing

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Surfing's impact on popular culture

Comparatively small and localized surfing cultures have repeatedly generated surprisingly large influence upon popular culture, particularly in the United States of America and Australia, as well as upon the global consciousness of surfing as a form of recreation. Since the expansion of surfing in the mid-20th century, there have been numerous coastal towns that were situated near good surf breaks, whose citizens did not yet know about modern surfing, and so did not even realize it was a rare commodity.

In America and Australia, the culture of surfing has influenced popular culture in periodic fads, starting with novels, movies, and the early-1960s TV show, Gidget. Gidget is often credited for introducing surfing to the world as a “slightly strange and hedonistic lifestyle”. In film specifically, the surfing image is so popular that it even inspired an entire “beach party/surf film genre”. The attention that surfing gets in the popular culture has waxed and waned, much like other niche sports.

Another area of popular culture where surfing has had significant influence is popular music. As many scholars recognize, a large part of surfing’s popularity is from the positively connotated image of “beach parties, rich tans, loose clothing, and surf-ready cars"; in other words, there is "more to surfing than the sea”. This image is very well suited to be represented in popular music, which is why so many popular teen anthems are based on the surfing craze. The Beach Boys, a group whose songs frequently involved “an endless summer filled with surfing, cruising, and beachcombing,” is only one such example (May 95). In the first half of the 1960s especially, popular music was dominated by exuberant music featuring the surf craze. Another example is Katy Perry’s Billboard #1 hit song “California Gurls” featuring Snoop Dogg released in 2010, which highlights the same beachside, surf craze lifestyle, even years later.

Fashions developed within surf culture have had a large worldwide impact numerous times from the 1960s to the present. A number of large clothing brands began as surfing brands, including but not limited to: OP, Stussy, Billabong, Quicksilver, Roxy, Hurley, O'Neill, Ripcurl, RVCA, Vans, Volcom, Reef, and Da Kine. One of the largest influences is probably the worldwide adoption of boardshorts as swim gear for men.