You can't understand surfing by simply watching or engaging with it. You need to study it and reflect thoughtfully on its culture, industry, and the sport itself.
The history of surfing is still a massive body in constant motion, and the dust that falls from every ridden wave is yet to settle.
Nevertheless, we can't ignore the fact that surfing deserves its own academic analysis. With the advent of critical surf studies, scientists, historians, and even teachers have been dedicating more and more time to this exciting field of study.
In "The Critical Surf Studies Reader," Dexter Hough-Snee and Alexander Eastman duck dive into relevant to issues that make surfing what it is today.
Coloniality and decolonization, race, ethnicity and identity, feminist critical geography, capitalism, economics, and the commoditization of surf culture are the main topics.
A book for those who really believe that surfing is more than just riding perfect waves.