ABSTRACT
Competitive surfing, although a marginal sporting tradition in South Africa, was shaped by the international sports boycott against apartheid. From the late 1970s to 1990, white South African amateur and professional surfers attempted to adapt to sports isolation in different ways: excluded from the world surfing titles, Springbok teams participated in rebel tours; and professionals had to deal with passport problems when travelling on the world surfing tour as well as an Australian led boycott of South African contests. In contextualising surfing within the political, this essay examines how South African surfing’s official discourse attempted to separate sport from politics. In this it was unsuccessful and, by 1990, South Africa was a surfing nation in crisis as a direct result of international sanctions against the sport.
