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  Shaun Tomson in the 70s. Courtesy of Bustindownthedoor.com.

Press Release:

 

It’s funny that modern surfing is considered a “culture” in an anthropological sense. Studying Hawaiian surfing, or any aboriginal peoples as a culture seems to make sense. But the idea of long hairs who owned three pairs of shorts, traveling about, sleeping in cars and chasing waves as a subject of academia is bizarre.

 

Fortunately, surfing is now well aware of its own history and that will be celebrated this Sunday in the fancy digs of the Fowler Museum at UCLA — a venue that celebrates Tibetan Bhuddist printmaking, Nigerian tribal masks, and the social contexts of fine 16th century silver.

 

Titled “Making Waves,” the event will be screenings of “Bustin’ Down the Door” and “Sea of Darkness,” two award winning surf documentaries of the last five years and then a panel discussion about surfing’s globalization and professionalization.

 

If you were under the impression that pro surfing was all about exercise balls and New Era hats, apparently, this will set the record straight.

 

The event will be supported by three pillars of surf documentation in former world champ (his resume is too long to list, check out the interview we did with him last year) Shaun Tomson, filmmaker Michael Oblowitz, and film curator, Keiko Beatie.

 

They’ve teamed up with the folks at the UC Humanities Research Institute, which serves all 10 campuses in the UC system to promote collaborative, interdisciplinary humanities research and pedagogy, to make for a very academic affair.

 

“I was just worried about the next wave and whether I should use my 6’8 or 7’0,” Tomson told ESPN yesterday. He never in a million years thought that surfing in the 70s would become a topic of academic discussion.

 

Anyone who has explored far corners of the world knows that surfing has had a major impact on different societies. In some cases, the only consistent contact that indigenous people have with westerners is from the collective wave riding tribe.

 

“Both the positive and negative aspects of the world-wide spread of surfing culture are worthy of study and introspection. Surfers celebrate the culture each time they ride a wave while Wall Street celebrates each time billions of dollars of surf-themed product rings through a cash register,” added Tomson.

 

Following the films, he and Oblowitz will do a Q&A before two panels discuss the impact of 1970s surfing on our society as a whole. Panelists include Reno Abellira, Ian Cairns, Greg Escalante, Jeremy Gosch, Fred Hemmings, Paul Holmes, Jim Kempton, Jericho Poppler, Rory Russell, Tom Stone, Michael Tomson, and Peter Townend. Studying Japanese picture ikat cloth and Rory Russell in the same place — you can’t beat that.