The Surfing Culture

During the 20s, Hawaiian people spread surfing out of their native island, mainly in California. Some rich and famous people helped its development. But it was in the 60s that this sport became a really popular sport due to its practice in Australia and California.

This gain in popularity is mainly due to the development of new board that made it easier and more impressive. Long boards' Tricks are mainly composed of cross stepping and nose riding. But short boards that were introduced in the late 60s permitted a whole new range of maneuvers, allowing short and sharp turns and jumps. And this gave a new dimension to surfing, more visually impressive, that attracted a lot of new people.

The development of new materials during the WWII permitted to develop new conception for the boards and to make lighter and more resistant boards. In 1946, Pete Peterson shaped the first fiberglass board and was closely followed by Joe Quigg and Bob Simmons. They developed several design and sold some boards along the Californian coast while traveling from surf spot to surf spot. Dale Velzy saw an opportunity with those new design and opened a surf shop to distribute this new materials boards.

Duke Kahanamoru had introduced surfing in Australia in 1915. But it was in 1956, with the development of modern surfing, that a surfing culture emerged in Australia. A group of Californian life guard, came bringing with them those new boards. The Australian scene changed from those point, due to the big impact of those new comer on the local surfers. Local board shapers bought some of the newcomers' boards and started to experiment with it and mad new designs.

In the late 60s, Dick Brewer came with a new idea. He shaped boards with half the size of the normal ones. This new design allowed faster surfing and made possible more maneuverability. In the same time, experiments with the fins showed that twin fins design permitted more stability on the water. The shapers experimented once again lots of design to find way to gain more speed, stability and maneuverability. And in 1971, Jack O'Neil came with the final part of the modern surf boards, the leash, that permits to keep boards from breaking so quickly. The modern surfboard were born. The World Championships of 1968 were won by Nat Young, a Australian surfer, on a short board and this started the “short board revolution”.

Meanwhile, Hollywood's industry and Californian music promoted the surfing culture. The beach boys, first American group from 1961 to 1965 promoted the theme of surfing with 3 albums that were international success. And different movies showed those young athletic men surfing on the Californian coast. With this, the image of surfing became popular and entered in the Californian dream.