‘Once a Local Surfer, Always a Local Surfer’: Local Surfing Careers in a Southwest English Village

Abstract

This article reports on findings from an ethnographic study (2008-09) conducted in a village with a significant population of local surfers in Cornwall (Southwest England). Stimulated by Goffman's (1961) interpretation of the concept of career and elaborated by the work of Stebbins (1970) on "subjective career," Stebbins's (1982) framework of "serious leisure" and "serious leisure career" (Stebbins, 2005), we identify moments from local surfer careers lived in this community setting. We suggest that similar to findings from other subcultural studies on sports careers the local surfing career in this context contains shared experiential stages: the nurtured stage, the possible competitive stage, the serious leisure traveller stage, the responsible stage, and the legends stage. We conclude that the shared experiences and pathways of a local surfing career can play a positive cultural role, not just for individuals but also for the construction and maintenance of local community life.

Benefits of Outdoor Sports for Society. A Systematic Literature Review and Reflections on Evidence

“…Intrapersonal development was highlighted in the literature as being about the physical, mental, cognitive, emotional, social, behavioral, and spiritual aspects of self [5,14,17,18,22,25,31,59,60,64,69,84,85,88,89,90,91,93,95,97,100,101,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116]. It includes personal skills and improved motor skills, an increased emotional intelligence, personal responsibility, mindfulness and an enhanced spiritual, sensory, and aesthetic awareness.…”

“…As outdoor sports provide opportunities and places for social interaction, contacts, and relations they can lead to increased social connectedness and are therefore associated with various benefits of active citizenship (see Table 7). This includes volunteering [29] and community benefits [5,64,101,110,122,131,132,133,134] such as the construction and maintenance of local community life, identity, and pride [110,134]. In this context, outdoor sports are also described as a contributor to bonding capital for families, groups, and communities [5,53,79,97,121].…”

Subcultural enterprises, brand value, and limits to financialized growth: The rise and fall of corporate surfing brands

“…People want to be able to go on to a Billabong site and find out when the waves are going to be up. Localism, central to the values of surfing (Beaumont and Brown 2015), was overridden by the desire from corporate headquarters to standardise global product to achieve efficiency gains.…”

“Foreign Locals”: Transnationalism, Expatriates, and Surfer Identity in Costa Rica

“…As lifestyle sport participants (e.g., surfers, snowboarders, and other adventure or action sport enthusiasts) learn skills and become more involved in a sport, many incorporate the sport into their own identity; they "become" surfers, snowboarders, and climbers (Beaumont & Brown, 2015;Donnelly & Young, 1988;Langseth, 2012;Usher & Kerstetter, 2015b;Wheaton, 2004). The identity of "surfer" has been The literature on transnationalism and mobility has examined the movement of people and goods, as well as the ways in which people adapt to different cultures and construct new lives in new places (McIntyre, 2013;Stodolska, 2004;Vertovec, 2009).…”