We reported once about surfer friendly colleges in Florida, now we tell you about surf as an academic field of sociology: Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts sends out Alexandra Cheney from Santa Monica (California) to study surf culture world wide.

The interesting thesis is how surf culture and environmental behaviour come together. Cheney explains: ”Surfers feel a unique spiritual tie with water, out of which emerges their fight to protect the oceans. Without surfers as advocates, many coastlines would succumb to the destruction brought on by commercial shipping, underwater demolition and extractive fishing. By examining wave-riding cultures and defining their component traditions and rituals, I seek to explore how surfers feel their connection with the water and how that bond translates into worldwide oceanic preservation.”

Cheney will research surf and local cultures in Brazil, Costa Rica, Polynesia, Australia, Japan, and South Africa and document surfers who work to preserve the ocean environment.

For us, this is one more sign that the surf sport became a world wide phenomenon and somewhat of a mainstream. Indications are there (read one of our last posts about surfing charity events).

[via drift magazine]

[Technorati Tags: surf - studies - Costa Rica ]

This entry was posted on Friday, August 25th, 2006 at 7:08 am and is filed under Surf events and news, worldwide. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.