SURFING’S GOLDEN AGE
When contemplating how far surfing has come in the 50 years since the shortboard revolution, one’s head begins to resemble a tube from George Greenough’s psychedelic seventies surf classic, Crystal Voyager. That is, it begins to spin wildly.
What began with surfers dropping out of mainstream society to shape their own shortboards, live sustainably, grow their own food, and surf for no other reason than to revel in the infinite new sensations surfing provided them, has today become a multi-billion dollar industry. From those humble beginnings, captured so vividly in films such as Morning of the Earth and Crystal Voyager, this cottage subculture has made millionaires out of its top practitioners, funded the lavish lifestyles of countless company CEOs and shareholders, and generated an exponential growth curve in terms of participation that is showing no signs of abating. Riding waves,
