{"id":264,"date":"2025-04-16T21:31:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T20:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sidelinesmag.co.uk\/?p=264"},"modified":"2025-06-04T22:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T21:58:12","slug":"music-surfing-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jusmedia.co.uk\/sidelines\/2025\/04\/16\/music-surfing-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Why music is the heartbeat of surf culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the years, sounds have created global surf communities. Sidelines<\/em> spoke to the world\u2019s definitive expert on surf and music culture to understand how surfing communities are shaped not only by the waves, but the soundtrack.
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Set against the backdrop of Cornwall\u2019s golden coastline, Boardmasters festival attracts surf enthusiasts and music lovers from all over the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the core of the festival is the World Qualifying Series event, in which surfers compete for a spot in the World Championship tour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over five busy days, the festival sprawls across Fistral Beach and Watergate Bay to immerse festival goers in the laid-back acoustic sessions and punk rock rhythms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s the soundtrack of the first waves at sunrise or of the evening bonfires, music is the heartbeat of surf culture and community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surfing is an artful dance with the ocean. Just like a dancer listens to the harmony of music, surfers listen to the waves, their fluid movements mirroring those of their natural surroundings. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

No one understands this better than Timothy J. Cooley, a Professor of Ethnomusicology and Global International Studies at the University of California. He has travelled to the best surf spots around the world and spoken to some of the best surfers and musicians, turning his two biggest passions into a career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a surfer since I was an adolescent. Then when I was 14 or 15 we moved inland and my surfing identity was curtailed somewhat because I didn\u2019t have access to the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut at that point I, already identified as a surfer so one of the things I did, I guess in protest, I just kept wearing my flip flops to school. I just got thick socks and tucked them in because it was very cold,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooley began his surfing journey in Florida before moving North to Virginia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat saved me in a way was, there was a huge high school with a huge music department, and I was also a musician – I was a guitarist and singer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While studying music, he maintained his passion for surfing, even surfing on Lake Michigan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember surfing there when the wind blew up waves and I remember once I saw another surfer on Lake Michigan.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was when Cooley became a music professor at Santa Barbara that he really started to notice the strength of surf communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was carrying my mid-seventies surf board to the beach, more than once a university student would stop and say \u2018wow, where did you get that board, where\u2019s that from, maybe mid-seventies?\u2019 And they would date it precisely within a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo I realised that these surfers who were not alive when this board was made knew the material and cultural history of surfing. You know they weren\u2019t learning that in books, they weren\u2019t learning it from their professors but they knew it from the cultural history of the surfing community. So that gave me an idea about the strength of the surfing community here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The birthplace of surfing and its community can be traced back to Hawaii, where it is believed that surfing or \u2018he\u2019e nalu\u2019 was introduced by the God of the sea (Kanaloa). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surfing became a sacred practice that was deeply woven into the fabric of community life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had huge societal implications and a connection to people\u2019s spirituality, so much so that their hierarchy correlated to the type of board they could use and wave they could ride. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically the smaller, easier waves were reserved for the chiefs or royalty and it was considered a violation, deserving severe penalties including death, if a common person rode that wave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of surfing even translated to their music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooley says,:\u201cMuch of what we know about pre-revival surfing comes to us from Hawaiian legends and mele – the original surfing music.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appeared as a rhythmic chant, with each word ending in \u2018i\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shift in surfing culture then occurred in the 1960s when the sport travelled over the Pacific Ocean to California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooley says, \u201cThings were happening that were connecting the idea of surfing with a popular cultural concept post World War Two.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The state had seen huge advancements in technology and economic growth following the war and California dreamers had reimagined every element into a pop art infused haven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people had served and had been overseas in Hawaii and back to Southern California. Then in 1959 Hawaii became the 50th State.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere in California, my dentist surfs, your lawyers surf, I\u2019ve met some physicians who I\u2019ve seen in clinics before when I’m in a line at surfing. You know it\u2019s kind of like golf, it\u2019s something that community leaders do which is more like a Hawaiian model so that was interesting to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo just a few years later we have a thing called surf music and it\u2019s identified with Southern California not Hawaii,\u201d says Cooley<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Characteristics then emerged of having a groovy, surf-themed title, smooth guitar playing, and a catchy tune, which Surfin\u2019 U.S.A by The Beach Boys accomplished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not every surfer was a fan though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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