'The vibe' and 'the glide': surfing through the voices of longboarders

This article reads transcripts of interviews conducted with longboarders to advance a fresh understanding of localism. Conventionally, historians and sociologists have framed localism around the practices, motives and experiences of surfers who ride shortboards. This approach tends to silence the vo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Australian studies 2012-09, Vol.36 (3), p.327-343
Main Authors: Waitt, Gordon, Frazer, Ryan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Australian studies
Beaches
Embodiment
Emotions
Localization
Marginalized people
Popular culture
Social exclusion
Sports
Territorialism
Territoriality
Virtue
Water sports
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Summary:This article reads transcripts of interviews conducted with longboarders to advance a fresh understanding of localism. Conventionally, historians and sociologists have framed localism around the practices, motives and experiences of surfers who ride shortboards. This approach tends to silence the voice of other groups of surfers, including longboarders. Drawing on ideas from cultural geography, this article explores the motivations and experiences of longboarders who are largely marginalised within shortboard surfing culture. In this study we are interested in the bodily affects of longboarding, which gives meaning to individual lived experiences of riding waves. Bodily affects are understood as performative emotions that enable people to know and shape relationships with other human body-selves, as well as non-human entities. Bodily affects are expressed through narratives of the vibe and the glide, and the emotions include shame, fear and joy. While some longboarders confirmed the exclusionary and often violent behaviours associated with localism, there were also participants advocating for a more sociable approach to riding waves.
ISSN:1444-3058
DOI:10.1080/14443058.2012.703685