The Surfing Historian

For S2: E18, I chat with Jesse Reiblich, professor of marine law and policy at the University of Rhode Island, about surf break protection and his most recently published article, "A Global Review of Legal Protection Mechanisms for the Management of Surf Breaks," which he co-published in Marine Policy with Dr. Shane Orchard and Mauricio dos Santos.

Jesse Reiblich is an attorney and expert in coastal and marine law and policy. He teaches and researches at the University of Rhode Island in the Marine Affairs Department. Jesse has published on many topics, including coastal access and equity, climate change policy, the public trust doctrine, water law, coastal adaptation, the California Coastal Act, and surf break protection. His upcoming research will focus on environmental justice concerns in the U.S. Territories, coastal access and recreation, and the efficacy of statutory coastal laws.

Article Summary 

Legal protection has become essential for managing the world’s surf breaks much as it has for other marine and coastal protected areas. This paper presents the first systematic review of global developments in this field. We used a keyword literature search and thematic content analysis to characterize legal protection mechanisms that are designed for surf breaks or have been specifically applied to address surf break protection needs. They are currently found in six countries, protect over 500 surf breaks, and include examples of single-location mechanisms (e.g., Malibu in USA, Punta de Lobos in Chile) and national-level protection mechanisms addressing multiple surf breaks (e.g., New Zealand and Peru). Across all examples we identified 63 discrete themes that can be drawn upon to design and communicate protection measures and present these in a typology that highlights contributing ideas.

Thematic analysis identified a major distinction between process and outcome-based requirements. More comprehensive protections can be recognized by attention to a wider range of threat classes and in the detail provided for decision support, with the two ideally working together to identify the minimum assessment requirements for development proposals. Variation in levels of protection is a key topic for consideration as is the process by which locations are identified or qualified for legal protections to apply. There is also a need to evaluate the effectiveness of provisions already in place, carrying with it the need for outcomes-based monitoring which is currently rare.

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For S2: E17, I chat with Dr. Jérémy Lemarié, Associate Professor of Sports Management at the University of Reims in France, about his research on surf tourism, marketing surfing, surfer activism, and solidarity within the global surf community. 

Jeremy’s research more broadly examines sports and tourism in the United States and in Polynesia. After conducting fieldwork in California and Hawaii for three years, he published a book on the commodification of Hawaiian culture through surf tourism and has also published a number of journal articles on the professionalization of lifestyle sports and human-nature interactions. 

As a professor, he’s taught courses on Management, Marketing, Tourism, Sociology, History and Cultural Anthropology at 8 universities. Among them, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Paris Sorbonne University, and the Paris Institute of Political Studies. 

Check out all his scholarly work at univ-reims.academia.edu/JeremyLemarie.

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For S2: E16, I interview Environmental Scientist Dr. Ed Atkin about his research on developing  tools and guidelines for surfing resource management. In New Zealand, Ed works for eCoast Marine Consulting and Research, conducting research in the areas of surf science and surfing resource management. In addition to his doctoral and consulting work, we also chat about his involvement with the Aotearoa New Zealand Association for Surfing Research and the International Association of Surfing Researchers—organizations that he has been passionately involved with for quite a while.

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For S2: E15, I interview ethnomusicologist Dr. Tim Cooley about his book Surfing about Music. Tim is a music professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his research interests center around popular and vernacular music of Central Europe (notably, Poland) and North America—paying particular attention to the roles of musicking in creating individual and community identities. In this intriguing episode, he and I chat about how surf music and how “musicking about surfing” has changed as cultural ideas about surfing itself changed. This wonderful book is featured on surfinghistorian.com.

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For episode 14, I interview journalist and novelist, Michael Scott Moore. Michael’s the author of Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, with Some Unexpected Results—a travel book about surfing that was revered as one of the best books of 2010 by The Economist. 

While the main  focus of our conversation is on his surfing book, we also make time to chat about his harrowing experience as a hostage in Africa as well. 

Shortly after the publication of Sweetness and Blood, Michael was kidnapped in early 2012 on a reporting trip to Somalia and held hostage by pirates for 32 months. He wrote a memoir about this experience that became an international bestseller. That book is titled The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast. We  briefly dig into that experience and book project at the end of the episode. 

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For  Episode 13, I chat with  Dr. Krista Comer, professor of American Studies and Feminist Studies at Rice University, about the origins of her book Surfer Girls in the New World Order (published in 2010), as well as her work on "surfeminism." We also chat about The Institute for Women Surfers, an organization she co-founded 2012, along with her reflections on the field of surf studies–as it has massively expanded globally in the last 10+ years. The episode concludes with a teaser about  her forthcoming book, Living West as Feminists: Conversations about the Where of Us.

Krista's book, Surfer Girls in the New World Order is featured on surfinghistorian.com. For more information on her other projects, visit The Institute for Women Surfers and The Pink Nose Revolution.

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For Episode 12, I chat with fellow surf historian, Dr. Kevin Dawson, about his book, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Cultures in the African Diaspora. 

Undercurrents of Power centers around African traditions and the ways in which similar traditions—swimming, diving, boat making, and even surfing—emerged within African diasporic communities. This book not only chronicles the experiences of enslaved maritime workers, but also helps to trace and untangle many of their cultural and social traditions. This wonderful book is featured on surfinghistorian.com.

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For this episode, social anthropologist and founder of "The PhiloSurfer Club," Dr. Ignacio Iturralde, and I explore surfing and its connection to philosophical thought, looking at how powerful the ocean metaphor is as an energy and dimension that transcends us, that is bigger than us, and that we can't control. 

We also chat about his current philosophical research project, which focuses on the intersectionality of surfing culture and philosophy, as well as his forthcoming book, Philosophical Reflections on Water—a book that dives into the transformative potential of philosophy and surfing as self-improvement disciplines. 

The book itself has a threefold objective: to cultivate self-awareness within the surfing community; to engage a broader audience in philosophy by leveraging the allure of surfing; and to ultimately achieve a state of what he calls "wateraxia" – or “a stoked state of mind that empowers individuals to navigate the political turmoil and polarization of our hyper-individualized digital era.” 

Click here to join "The PhiloSurfer Club"

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For S2: E10, I sit down with Dr. Briana (“Brie”) Iatarola to discuss her research on La Libertad, El Salvador and Trestles in San Clemente, California.  In the first half of the interview, Brie and I chat about the historical transformation of El Salvador into an internationally recognized "wavetopia" in the wake of the bloody 12-year conflict, which ended in 1992. 

For the second half, we  discuss the impacts of sea level rise at Trestles since 2016 and the environmental challenges that coastal communities including San Clemente and San Diego face, highlighting collaborative community resilience strategies as possible solutions. 

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Dr. Iatarola holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the Department of Communication and a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies at U.C. San Diego. 

She currently teaches for Seventh College's Synthesis Program at U.C. San Diego, and is an invited instructor for a class about the History of Television for the Television, Film, and New Media Critical Studies Program at San Diego State University. 

Dissertation abstract (2018): ‘Saved Forever?’: An Eco-Ethnography of Trestles’ Surfscape 

Master’s abstract (2011): “Beyond the waves: economic and cultural effects of the global surf industry in El Tunco, El Salvador” 

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For episode 9, Canadian sports scholar, Dr. Bettina Callary, and I talk about Indigenous sport participation and the fully Indigenous surf program that she and her colleagues are working on in Unama’ki (Cape Breton Island) in conjunction with the Surfing Association of Nova Scotia and the First Nation Mi’kmaq Physical Activity Leaders (MPALs). 

Bettina  is the Canada Research Chair in Sport Coaching and Adult Learning and an Associate Professor in the Department of Experiential Studies in Community and Sport at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She researches coach education and development strategies, coach developers, and psychosocial understandings of inclusive coaching (e.g., coaching Masters Athletes, women coaches, Indigenous coaches and sport). She leads the Community Active Sport Training and Learning (CoASTaL) lab. Dr. Callary is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Sport Coaching Journal. She wrote the books Coach Education and Development in Sport, published by Routledge in 2020, and Coaching Masters Athletes: Advancing Research and Practice in Adult Sport, published by Routledge in 2021.

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For Episode 8, I sit down with Brazilian surfer, motorcyclist,  journeyman, and author of “Pan-American Soul: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Surf Trip from California to Brazil,” Adrian Kojin. Adrian and I talk about his surfing motorcycle foray through Latin America in the late 1980s as well as his more recent experience, which was a reboot of that original trip. We also chat about whether or not he managed to find “the meaning of life” during his epic journey.

Adrian’s book is featured on surfinghistorian.com.

You can also read more about his adventures at Surfline.

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For Episode 7 (S2: E7), Dr. Patrick Moser and I talk about the history of California beach culture from 1907 to 1945, as well as how one goes about writing surf history and the process of publication with a university press or a surfing magazine.

Patrick is a professor of writing and French at Drury University and he’s recently finished a biography on George Freeth, titled, Surf and Rescue: George Freeth and the Birth of California Beach Culture. Patrick was also the editor of the book Pacific Passages: An Anthology of Surf Writing.  Additionally, he’s collaborated with former surfing world champion Shaun Tomson on two books: Surfer’s Code: 12 Simple Lessons for Riding Through Life and The Code: The Power of "I Will," all of which are featured on the surfinghistorian.com homepage.

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For Episode 6, I sat down with public health expert Jesse Casanova. Jesse is the Assistant Director for International Programs at the University of South Florida Health International. While the focus of this episode is to discuss the health risks associated with international surf travel, we also wanted to provide all of our listeners with some tangible ways to mitigate illness during their travels. 

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Jesse Casanova has worked in the field of public health for over 15 years and was a Peace Corps and Peace Corps Response volunteer in Togo, Cameroon, and Senegal. In addition, Jesse has worked in global health, helping to manage the malaria health portfolio for Cameroon from the U.S. Embassy, he WAS also the liaison between Malaria No More and Global Fund in Cameroon, and has helped to train Peace Corps counterparts from over 10 sub-Saharan African countries. 

His research at USF includes hearing health projects in Malawi and South Africa, river blindness elimination projects in Nigeria with the Gates Foundation, G4 Surveillance System restructuring proposals with Pasteur Institute of Dakar in Senegal, and Intimate Partner violence training of trainers in Egypt. Jesse is finishing his DrPH degree in Public Health Leadership and holds a master’s degree in international Humanitarian Action from the University of Deusto in Spain. 

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In this episode, I sit down with Environmental Science and Resource Management professor, Dr. Dan Reineman, to talk about coastal resource management; his career and life as a professional “coastographer” (a word he made up); and the role of surfers as stewards of their home break. For the bulk of the episode, we focus our attention largely on two places: Southern California and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The episode itself is centered around an article Dan co-wrote with colleague, Nick Sadrpour, titled “The Impacts of Climate Change on Surfing Resources.”

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For this episode, I interview sociologist Dr. Kristin Lawler about her book, The American Surfer: Radical Culture and Capitalism; we also chat about her essay on the Nietzschean connections between early twentieth century surfers and the hobos of the Industrial Workers of the World–an essay that will be published in the forthcoming book, Roll and Flow: The Political Ontology of Surfing and Skateboarding; and finally, I get her thoughts on the current state of critical surf studies as a field of academic inquiry. 

Dr. Lawler is a professor of sociology at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York City. Her first book, The American Surfer, was published by Routledge in 2011, and her new book, co-edited with Michael Roberts and David Cline, entitled Roll and Flow, is being published by San Diego State University Press and should be available this fall. The American Surfer, however, is featured on surfinghistorian.com.

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In this episode, conducted by The Surfing Historian producer, Taylor Ramone, she talks with podcast host and historian, Dr. Jason Old, about his research on the surfing history of Nicaragua, as well as the motivations behind writing his dissertation, “The Politics of Waves: A Transnational and Cultural Surfing History of Popoyo, Nicaragua.” Jason’s research has three principal aims: First, to show how external conditions created an economic framework conducive to buying property and developing this part of Nicaragua. Second, to explain the link between surfing and Tola's transformation from a coastal periphery to an international tourism hotspot. Third, to track the proliferation of a robust surfing subculture among Tola’s rural residents, as well as surfing’s evolution into a Nicaraguan national sport.

You can read Jason’s dissertation along with other published articles by him at the following link: https://seuniversity.academia.edu/JasonOld.

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 For Episode 2, I interviewed Dr. Steve Estes. Steve is a history professor at Sonoma State University and in this episode we talk about his book, Surfing the South: The Search for Waves and the People Who Ride Them. This book explores the varying ways that surfing intersects with business, music, race, gender, environmentalism, and politics in the American South.

To fully explore this unsung surfing world, Steve undertook a journey that stretched more than 2,300 miles, traveling from the coast of Texas to Ocean City, Maryland. Along the way he interviewed and surfed alongside dozens of people—wealthy and poor, men and women, Black and white—all of whom opened up about their lives, how they saw themselves, and what the sport means to them. They also talked about race, class, the environment, and how surfing has shaped their identities.

Steve’s book is featured on the homepage at surfinghistorian.com.

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Dr. Aaron James is a philosophy professor at the University of California in Irvine. In this episode, he and I talk about his book, Surfing with Sartre: An Aquatic Inquiry Into a Life of Meaning. This is a book on philosophy that grapples with surfer’s know-how as it relates to questions about freedom, control, flow, happiness, being, transcendence, society, and the meaning of life more broadly– Simply put, Aaron argues that we should work less and go surfing instead. His book can be found at surfinghistorian.com on the homepage under “Featured Books.” In addition to exploring the more philosophical themes associated with surfing and life, the episode ends with Aaron talking about his nonprofit project in Indonesia. 

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Welcome back for Season Two! This season we’ll explore the origins of surfing itself, from its roots, rituals, and the existential allure of the waves, to the stigmas of being a surf studies scholar—all of which underscore the personal motivations for writing my dissertation, “The Politics of Waves: A Transnational and Cultural Surfing History of Popoyo, Nicaragua.” 

A huge shout out to our loyal listeners from last season, and to all of the new listeners just tuning in! We’re stoked to have you all as part of another amazing season of The Surfing Historian. So let’s paddle out together and ride through the world of academia!

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In this last episode of the season, I chat with Dr. Donald Wright. Don is a Canadian historian at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, a small city in Atlantic Canada. His research interests include Canadian political, intellectual, and cultural history. For this episode, Don and I will be talking about his book Canada: A Very Short Introduction , which is a book he published as part of Oxford University Press's Very Short Introduction series.

His research interests include Canadian political, intellectual, and cultural history. His first book, The Professionalization of History in English Canada, looks at the transition from amateur historians working outside the university in the nineteenth century to professional historians, with advanced degrees, working inside the university. His second book was a biography of Donald Creighton, English Canada’s leading historian. Working with two colleagues, he next published an edited volume called Symbols of Canada which includes essays on, among other symbols, the beaver, hockey, and maple syrup and how these symbols have been used and how they have changed over time. He is now working on a book about the Canadian historian Ramsay Cook, 1931-2016, although like everyone else, he has been slowed by the pandemic.

An award-winning teacher, Don teaches courses in Canadian and American history and in the politics of climate change.

When he isn’t at his desk or in the classroom, Don likes to trail run with his black lab named Bruce and listen to podcasts on history, politics, and climate change.

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Bio: 

https://www.unb.ca/faculty-staff/directory/arts-fr-political-science/wright-donald.html

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