The Surfing Historian

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.***Bio: https://www.unb.ca/faculty-staff/directory/arts-fr-political-science/wright-donald.html***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

In this episode we discuss critical surf studies as a field of academic research, speak to the merit of surf-related experiential learning programs, and share highlights from our research into decolonizing sustainable surf tourism. We offer background into the critical ethnographic focus of our study abroad program, Surfing & Sustainability: Political Ecology in Costa Rica, explain our critique of the sustainable surf tourism-for-sustainable development paradigm, explore links between regenerative agriculture networks and surf tourism communities, and describe the political ecology of real estate as a conceptual frame for analyzing surfscape occupation. We end with a few ideas on how surfers can engage with critical surf studies concepts to support greater socio-ecological well being in the places we travel to surf.***Resources:We've been helped in this work by recent revisions of the historiography of surfing – Scott Laderman's Empire in Waves, Isaiah Walker's Waves of Resistance, Krista Comer's Surfer Girls in the New World Order, Kevin Dawson's Undercurrents of Power, Dexter Zavalza Hough-Snee and Alexander Sotelo Eastman's The Critical Surf Studies Reader (including Dina Gilio-Whitaker's chapter on Appropriating Surfing and the Politics of Indigenous Authenticity), and Allison Rose Jefferson's Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era.Additional Resources:Surfing and Sustainability: Political Ecology in Costa Rica • Summer | Anthropology (uga.edu)Lost But Not Forgotten, virtual reality project on surfing history and coastal development in Long Beach, California - Lost But Not Forgotten VR TRAILER - YouTube. Bryce Leisy is in the Applied Anthropology MA program in the Department of Anthropology at Cal State Long Beach and is the Surf Coach for Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. ***Bios:Tara Ruttenberg is Ph.D. Candidate in Development Studies at the Wageningen School of Social Sciences, specializing in critical surf studies and alternatives to development in sustainable surf tourism. She is a member of the Institute for Women Surfers, hosts women's surf retreats in Costa Rica, and writes stories and articles for alternative surf magazines and her personal website, Tarantula Surf. Tara's current research includes decolonizing sustainable surf tourism, surfeminism as emancipatory politics in surfing culture, and a diverse economies approach to development alternatives in occupied Global South surfscapes. Pete Brosius is Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology at the University of Georgia and Founding Director of UGA's Center for Integrative Conservation Research. He is widely recognized for his work with Penan hunter-gatherers in Sarawak, Malaysia, and for his contributions to the development of Political Ecology. Throughout his career he has been engaged with issues of environmental degradation, indigenous rights and conservation. Brosius has been a surfer since 1969, and for the past ten years he has been the director of UGA's Surfing & Sustainability: Political Ecology in Costa Rica study abroad program. His current research includes projects on the Tolak Reklamasi movement in Bali, Indonesia, and the political ecology of real estate in occupied surfscapes in the Global South.Together, Pete and Tara run the study abroad program, Surfing and Sustainability: Political Ecology in Costa Rica, the first of its kind, now in its 10th year running. Their recent work critiquing sustainable surf tourism and proposing diverse economic alternatives to tourism development has been published in books including The Critical Surf Studies Reader (Duke University Press 2017) , and The Ecolaboratory: Environmental Governance and Economic Development in Costa Rica (University of Arizona Press 2020). Their forthcoming research on localisms of resistance in occupied surfscapes is currently under review with Geoforum and a new critical surf studies collection edited by Lydia Heberling, David Kamper and Jess Ponting.   ***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

In this episode we discuss different types of surf localism in the context of surfscape colonialism in the Global North and Global South, based on our recent work related to critical localisms of resistance in occupied surfscapes. We explore localisms of entitlement and resistance, as well as girl localisms in a range of well-known surfscapes to highlight the ways surfers are using localism as a means of both perpetuating and contesting the colonial, patriarchal and racialized neoliberal state of modern surfing and its surf tourism industrial complex. ***Resources:We've been helped in this work by recent revisions of the historiography of surfing – Scott Laderman's Empire in Waves, Isaiah Walker's Waves of Resistance, Krista Comer's Surfer Girls in the New World Order, Kevin Dawson's Undercurrents of Power, Dexter Zavalza Hough-Snee and Alexander Sotelo Eastman's The Critical Surf Studies Reader (including Dina Gilio-Whitaker's chapter on Appropriating Surfing and the Politics of Indigenous Authenticity), and Allison Rose Jefferson's Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era.***Additional Resources: Black Girls Surf: https://blackgirlssurf.orgBrown Girl Surf: https://www.browngirlsurf.comThe Wahine Project: https://www.thewahineproject.orgNative Like Water: https://www.nativelikewater.orgLatinX Surf Club: https://www.facebook.com/latinxsurfclubColor the Water: https://www.colorthewater.orgSurfrider Los Angeles: https://la.surfrider.org***Bios: Tara Ruttenberg is Ph.D. Candidate in Development Studies at the Wageningen School of Social Sciences, specializing in critical surf studies and alternatives to development in sustainable surf tourism. She is a member of the Institute for Women Surfers, hosts women's surf retreats in Costa Rica, and writes stories and articles for alternative surf magazines and her personal website, Tarantula Surf. Tara's current research includes decolonizing sustainable surf tourism, surfeminism as emancipatory politics in surfing culture, and a diverse economies approach to development alternatives in occupied Global South surfscapes. Pete Brosius is Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology at the University of Georgia and Founding Director of UGA's Center for Integrative Conservation Research. He is widely recognized for his work with Penan hunter-gatherers in Sarawak, Malaysia, and for his contributions to the development of Political Ecology. Throughout his career he has been engaged with issues of environmental degradation, indigenous rights and conservation. Brosius has been a surfer since 1969, and for the past ten years he has been the director of UGA's Surfing & Sustainability: Political Ecology in Costa Rica study abroad program. His current research includes projects on the Tolak Reklamasi movement in Bali, Indonesia, and the political ecology of real estate in occupied surfscapes in the Global South.Together, Pete and Tara run the study abroad program, Surfing and Sustainability: Political Ecology in Costa Rica, the first of its kind, now in its 10th year running. Their recent work critiquing sustainable surf tourism and proposing diverse economic alternatives to tourism development has been published in books including The Critical Surf Studies Reader (Duke University Press 2017) , and The Ecolaboratory: Environmental Governance and Economic Development in Costa Rica (University of Arizona Press 2020). Their forthcoming research on localisms of resistance in occupied surfscapes is currently under review with Geoforum and a new critical surf studies collection edited by Lydia Heberling, David Kamper and Jess Ponting.   ***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

Rob Koch, PhD, is a historian of Latin America and combat veteran whose research focuses on the geopolitics of Argentine Peronism and the notion of forming a 'Third Position' or 'Third Way' to bring about a post-imperial world order. His work also looks at the global proliferation of counterinsurgency during the Cold War, including the international spread of dirty war methods. In this episode, Cold War and Latin American historian, Dr. Rob Koch, talks about guerrilla movements and counterinsurgencies in Latin America, starting with the 1959 Cuban Revolution. More articles by Dr. Rob Kochhttps://usf.academia.edu/RobertDKoch***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

Rob Koch, Ph.D., is a historian of Latin America and combat veteran whose research focuses on the geopolitics of Argentine Peronism and the notion of forming a 'Third Position' or 'Third Way' to bring about a post-imperial world order. His work also looks at the global proliferation of counterinsurgency during the Cold War, including the international spread of dirty war methods. In this episode, Dr. Rob Koch talks about his research on Juan Perón, Fascism, and the Global Cold War.***More articles by Dr. Rob Koch:https://usf.academia.edu/RobertDKoch***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix 

In this episode, I chat with my friend and colleague Frederique Carey about her research on Ireland's surf culture and its links to identity formation through storytelling, something that draws from the country's ancient bardic traditions, popular culture, and poetry.Frederique Carey is a lecturer and a researcher at the University of Rennes 2, France, where she teaches courses in International Trade, Marketing and Management, as well as surf economics.Her PhD research weaves together Celtic sea folklore and myths, anthropology, surf photography and film work analysis to offer an ethnographic study of surfing in Ireland as well as a mythopoetical interpretation of surf narratives and iconography and a market-oriented examination of the place of surfing in the Irish cultural and economic landscapes.In association with Irish films production company Pockets Full of Water, she is currently working on a documentary series project that is supported by multidisciplinary academic research and structure. Her podcast series “Daoine na Mara – Tales from the Green Shores” was launched in March 2019; it is meant to be a platform for storing and sharing the stories she has collected from surfers along the coast of Ireland, and aims to root the development of a distinct Irish surflore.*** Extra Resources Dark Side of the Lens (Mickey Smith, 2010): https://vimeo.com/14074949Tantrum (Pockets Full of Water, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLLHBSqsz2kSneaky Peak (Pockets Full of Water, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Art by Barry Britton: https://localhands.ie/member/barry-britton/Art by Aisling Gallagher Clarke: https://www.instagram.com/aiswing/Frederique Carey's podcast, "Tales from the Green Shores": https://soundcloud.com/frederique-pnt***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix 

For this episode, I talk with Dr. Kees Boterbloem, a history Professor at the University of South Florida, about his book, The Dirty Secret of Early Modern Capitalism. In it, Kees shows how the Dutch accumulation of great wealth was closely linked to their involvement in warfare. By charting Dutch activity across the globe, the book explores Dutch participation in the international arms trade, and in wars both at home and abroad. In doing so, Kees ponders the issue of how capitalism has often historically thrived best when its practitioners are ruthless and ignore the human cost of their search for riches.Kees Boterbloem, Ph.D. is a history Professor at the University of South Florida where he teaches courses on Russian and Soviet History, Dutch History, and Cultural, Social-Economic, and Military-Political History of European Empires.***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

Tom Wilson, the Founder of Wave Changer, a Sydney, Australia-based nonprofit organization talks about his organization's vision to “create a carbon neutral, waste-free surf industry that's respectful to nature, yet retains the innovation, high performance and excitement we all expect from surfing.” In this episode, we also chat about Wave Changer's mission to enable the surf community to embrace sustainable solutions and reduce its environmental impact and how Tom and his team are going about making this mission and vision a reality. ***Environmental Initiatives and Consumer Behaviours in the Australian Surfing Industry***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

Dr. Ana Manero and Dr. Javier Leon are researchers in geography and environmental management—and avid surfers as well. Combining sound scientific knowledge and a passion for surfing, Javier and Ana investigate the value of the Noosa area. In 2020, Noosa in south-east Queensland, Australia, was recognized as the 10th World Surfing Reserve by Save the Waves Coalition.Surfing generates significant economic benefits for local communities across the world, but these benefits are often poorly understood by planners and policymakers. This research—the first of its kind in Australia over the past 10 years—shows that direct expenditure related to surfing contributes to over A$180 million (Australian Dollars) to the local economy. Other value such as increased real estate prices derived from surfing demand are likely to add to the total benefit generated by surfing, thus warranting further research.BBC Article: The Unexpected Benefits of Surfing***Dr. Ana Manero is a post-doc research fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy, within the Australian National University. Ana's area of research is on environmental management, with a strong focus on water governance and economics. Dr. Javier León is a geographer with broad interests in geomorphology and geospatial analysis. He has particular interests in the study and management of coastal systems, especially in the current changing climate and sea-level rise context. He was born in Peru and currently lives and surfs around the points of Noosa in Australia.***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

In this episode, Dr. Scott Laderman, professor of modern United States history at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, and I talk about his book, Empire in Waves: A Political History of Surfing. Scott's book shows that “while wave riding is indeed capable of stimulating tremendous pleasure, its globalization went hand in hand with the blood and repression of the long twentieth century.” Additionally, Scott and I talk about an article he's working on related to sexism and surfing culture, which Scott considers to be the “missing chapter” from Empire in Waves.  While Empire in Waves was mainly a “male-centered” political surf history, his upcoming article looks the legacy of sexism in the sport of surfing in the United States, arguing that “surfing was sexist because American culture was sexist.”Scott Laderman is a professor of history at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. His previous books include Tours of Vietnam: War, Travel Guides, and Memory (2009) and Empire in Waves: A Political History of Surfing (2014).***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

In this episode, I interview conservationist Michael Blum about his love for studying pelicans along with his recent article he co-authored with Duke University professor, Mike Orbach, titled,  "First Steps and First Point: Protecting California Surf Breaks, Maritime Heritage, and the Malibu Historic District." The paper surveys opportunities to protect surf breaks in California ("Could we do it?" "How would we do it?"), as well as describes subsequent work listing Los Angeles' famed Malibu surfing area on the National Register of Historic Places, the Nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. As a sport, surfing is an indelible part of California's character. Yet not the what of surfing, but the where surfing occurs—surf breaks and surfing areas—are authentic sites of culture, history, recreation, leisure, and activity. They are specific places worthy of community recognition, illumination, and protection.We also talk about, of all things, pelicans dive bombing into the water for food. So come for a short surfing history of Malibu and why it matters, but stay for the pelicans.***Michael Blum is the Director of Sea of Clouds, an organization dedicated to protecting America's important coastal places. ***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

Dr. Lindsay Usher, associate professor of Park, Recreation and Tourism Studies, talks to me about her latest article titled, “Virginia and North Carolina Surfers' Perceptions of Beach Nourishment.” Her research examines differences in attitudes towards beach nourishment across three regions of Virginia and North Carolina. She also discusses her most recent study conducted over 6 months in 2020, interviewing surfers around the world to learn more about how they were coping with beach closures, lockdowns and surfing during the COVID-19 pandemic.***Dr. Lindsay Usher is an associate professor of Park, Recreation and Tourism Studies at Old Dominion University. Her research interests include surf culture and tourism, as well as resilience and sustainability in the coastal tourism industry.  ***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

This is the trailer to The Surfing Historian podcast. In this trailer, I give you, the listener, the origin story and the impetus behind launching this podcast. Thanks for listening, and as always, stay stoked!***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

Dr. Leon Mach, professor of environmental policy, joins me to talk about his most recent article that he co-authored with Jess Ponting, Ph.D., titled, "Establishing a pre-COVID-19 baseline for surf tourism: Trip expenditure and attitudes, behaviors and willingness to pay for sustainability." In this episode, we analyze surf tourism's potential as a driver for sustainable development in costal communities during and after the Coronavirus pandemic. ***Leon Mach is an Associate Professor in Environmental Policy and Socioeconomic Values, School for Field Studies, Center for Tropical Island Biodiversity Studies, Bocas del Toro, Panama.Jess Ponting is an Associate Professor in sustainable tourism at San Diego State University's L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and the founder and Director of the Center for Surf Research.Together, they are also founders of the International Association for Surfing Researchers (IASR).***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzzAudio by TwistedLogix

Cultural historian, Charlie Harris, examines the changing place of the U.S. Navy in American popular culture during an age of massive overseas expansion at the turn of the 20th century. By examining industrial patterns, foreign relations, Gilded Age masculinity, and the rise of print and consumer culture, Charlie's work seeks to discover why American citizens began to support, or at least comply with, a more aggressive role for the United States on the world stage starting with the Spanish-American War in 1898. Charlie has also spent the last six years as a public historian at organizations like the American Victory Museum in Tampa, Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, and H-War, the military history arm of H-Net Online listserv history database. ***Charlie Harris is a Doctoral Candidate in the University of South Florida History Department studying the United States military during the Gilded Age/Progressive Era.***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzz

Cold War cultural historian, Michael Losasso, and I talk about the impact the Department of Defense and the military had on Hollywood, specifically as it relates to war-time advances made in media and film technology during WWII and later in the Cold War. We focus primarily on  two movies in particular, The Endless Summer and Dr. Strangelove, two monumental films from the 1960s that were significant in their own right. Professor Losasso also talks about his doctoral dissertation that he's titling, “The Big War on the Small Screen: Television, World War II, and the Cold War.” His research looks at how media production in the United States served to further fuel East/West Cold War anxieties between the US and Soviet Union.  Michael Losasso is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at the University of South Florida.***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzz 

Dr. Arwen Puteri, a historian of contemporary Europe, examines how West Germans constantly and consistently disrespected and delegitimized East-German culture and accomplishments in politics, the arts, and everyday life. She argues that the work of East Germans and their accomplishments were not evaluated based on their merit but rather on their East-German origin or East-German party affiliation. By recognizing the magnitude of this wide-ranging disrespect that is constantly and consistently manifested, Dr. Puteri provides a counter-narrative of the “Jammerossi” (the whining East German), as East Germans are often berated when complaining about the status quo. ***Dr. Arwen Puteri has a Ph.D. in History from the University of South Florida.***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzz

Dr. Aaron Lewis, a historian of the U.S. South, talks about his dissertation on the historical memories of Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States of America and the importance of studying the Confederacy and its role in perpetuating white supremacy throughout U.S. history. He also discusses how/why Confederate symbols are still present in the United States today and the way their meanings have changed throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. ***Dr. Aaron Lewis has a Ph.D. in History from the University of South Florida. To read Dr. Lewis' dissertation, click here: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/8463/***Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzz