Surfing and Social Theory

Nick Ford is Senior Lecturer in geography at the University of Exeter, UK. He is a lifelong surfer. David Brown is Lecturer in the sociology of sport and physical culture in the School of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter, UK. His research focuses on qualitative socio-cultural understandings of the body, the self and society in sport and physical culture.

• CONTENTSIllustrations Preface 1 INTRODUCTION2 THE ENCHANTED SEA: THE EVOLVING PERCEPTIONS OF THE SEA, COASTSCAPE AND BEACH3 THE NARRATIVE HISTORY AND GLOBALIZATION OF SURFING 4 SURFING AS SUBCULTURE AND LIFESTYLE 5 GENDERING THE WAVES: SURFING IN THE GENDER ORDER AND THE GENDER ORDER ON SURFING 6 SURFING AND SURFED BODIES: THE EMBODIMENT OF SURFING 7 THE EXPERIENCE OF SURFING 8 CONCLUSION AND RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Notes Bibliography Index

"Surfing and Social Theory far exceeds Nick Ford and David Brown’s modest goal of contributing to the burgeoning area of surfing studies. This text will define the subject for a very long time. Sport sociologists should also look at the book as a potential template for analyzing individual sports as complex multidimensional and embodied phenomena, and even as an embryonic model for a fresh theoretical synthesis of the field. In this regard Surfing and Social Theory is replete with intriguing suggestions and ideas." – Douglas Booth, Sociology of Sport Journal.