The Critical Surf Studies Reader

The evolution of surfing-from the first forms of wave-riding in Oceania, Africa, and the Americas to the inauguration of surfing as a competitive sport at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics-traverses the age of empire, the rise of globalization, and the onset of the digital age, taking on new meanings at each juncture. As corporations have sought to promote surfing as a lifestyle and leisure enterprise, the sport has also narrated its own epic myths that place North America at the center of surf culture and relegate Hawai'i and other indigenous surfing cultures to the margins. The Critical Surf Studies Reader brings together eighteen interdisciplinary essays that explore surfing's history and development as a practice embedded in complex and sometimes oppositional social, political, economic, and cultural relations. Refocusing the history and culture of surfing, this volume pays particular attention to reclaiming the roles that women, indigenous peoples, and people of color have played in surfing.

Contributors. Douglas Booth, Peter Brosius, Robin Canniford, Krista Comer, Kevin Dawson, Clifton Evers, Chris Gibson, Dina Gilio-Whitaker, Dexter Zavalza Hough-Snee, Scott Laderman, Kristin Lawler, lisahunter, Colleen McGloin, Patrick Moser, Tara Ruttenberg, Cori Schumacher, Alexander Sotelo Eastman, Glen Thompson, Isaiah Helekunihi Walker, Andrew Warren, Belinda Wheaton

“"While [ The Critical Surf Studies Reader ] is underpinned by a rich diversity, essays collected here all find a certain degree of unity through a shared commitment to critical analysis and reflexivity that marks each as a serious intellectual engagement with the world of surfing. . . . High-quality scholarship and insightful critical analysis make this a worthy addition to other works in the field of Indigenous studies."”

"Editors Hough-Snee and Eastman have curated 18 essays that go above and below the waves to explore the deeper social, cultural, and political meaning of surfing. Recommended. All readers." -- R. W. Roberts Choice
"An exciting and important contribution to a field that is still relatively new to academics. . . . The book is an ambitious and innovative one that lays valuable groundwork for a field with a promising future. Beyond surf-oriented scholars, it will be of interest to scholars in the wider fields of sport history, cultural studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, geography, and political economy; and to a nonacademic readership that includes surfers and surf enthusiasts." -- Elizabeth E. Sine Journal of Sport History
"While [The Critical Surf Studies Reader] is underpinned by a rich diversity, essays collected here all find a certain degree of unity through a shared commitment to critical analysis and reflexivity that marks each as a serious intellectual engagement with the world of surfing. . . . High-quality scholarship and insightful critical analysis make this a worthy addition to other works in the field of Indigenous studies." -- Barry Judd Native American and Indigenous Studies
"Many of the chapters are written with a historical approach to studying surfing, making this book highly relevant for sport historians interested in surfing and other lifestyle/action sports. A well-written and recommended read for surfing history enthusiasts!" -- Anne Tjønndal International Journal of the History of Sport
"The Critical Surf Studies Reader is a thought-provoking book that will make important contributions to numerous fields including sociology of sport, sociology of action sports, sport for development and peace, cultural studies, media studies, leisure and tourism studies, critical race studies, and settler colonial studies. . . . [T]his collection of work should have a wide appeal within and beyond academia, and I can imagine it being taken up by those surfers who are critically engaged with the activity that defines such a part of their identity and communities." -- Rebecca Olive Sociology of Sport Journal
"What makes this book especially interesting is that even though it is of course an anthology, the strengths of the individual texts come through when consuming the collection holistically. ... All of the texts provide excellent insights and, taken together, produce a vivid image of the current state of surfing in its various facets." -- Jeeshan Gazi National Identities

Dexter Zavalza Hough-Snee is a Ph.D. candidate and instructor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Berkeley.

Alexander Sotelo Eastman is a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth College.

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