Chapter: 8
The Ride of Your Life
- Is Surfing Hip?
- Lisa Andersen Surfs Better Than You
- Killer Cute
- Kelly Slater is Just Warming Up
- Rebel for Hire
- I Believe I Can Fly
- A Monster in Half Moon Bay
- Mark Foo's Last Ride
- Open Throttle
- Laird Means Lord
- Tahitian Scream
- A Webcam for Every Wave
- Last Call for Print Media
- Taylor Steele Likes it Rough
- Searching for the Perfect Phrase
- Hollywood Tries Again
- Thirty is the New Twenty
- Andy Irons' Poetic Fury
- The Beast and Beyond
- A Dance with the Past
- Foam is Dead, Long Live Foam
- Nature Gets a Makeover
- Surf in a Box
- The End of History
Is Surfing Hip?
Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, surfing in Costa Rica
Sam George. Photo: Art Brewer
The further surfing trimmed into the mainstream, the less wild it became. Costco had its own line of boards. Chevron and Allstate produced surf-themed ads. People ran shots of akimbo-armed Hollywood stars gamely riding shoreward on their huge beginner boards, while AARP Magazine profiled leathery but spry senior surfers.
In the early 1990s, after a century-long journey, modern surfing’s historical arc began to split in two. By the mid-2000s, wave-riding appeared almost schizophrenic. At one extreme, everything was fast, loud, and shape-shifting, with millionaire professionals, surf-themed PlayStation video games, and live-streamed event coverage. Surfboards were computer designed, machine-crafted, and mass produce...
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