ABSTRACT
Within the surfing media there has been a long-running debate as to whether, or rather in what ways, the practice of waveriding is, variously, a sport, artform or lifestyle. However, there is a more general, less disputed, sense that surfing is a culture or subculture. The narrative history of surfing culture has been outlined in Chapter 3. This chapter seeks to connect understandings of surfing to lines of social thinking on subculture, lifestyle and consumption. At this stage in the book, rather than seeking to distil and defend a central thesis an attempt is made to provide an overview of a wide range of applications of relevant social theorizing to surfing.
