The Critical Surf Studies Reader

“Surfing is beautiful, thrilling, fun. Everyone knows this. But surfing is also complicated and deeply paradoxical—and therefore a hell of a lot more interesting than it looks on the surface. The gathered writers in The Critical Surf Studies Reader understand this, and the sport is vastly more interesting for their contribution. An indispensable book to anybody who really wants to understand surfing.” - Matt Warshaw, author of The History of Surfing

“Focusing on surfing as a social act, these essays bring surfing into the study of postcolonialism, gender, ethnicity, media, and other fields. This collection offers the best surf studies scholarship to date.” - Joan Ormrod, coeditor of On the Edge: Leisure, Consumption, and the Representation of Adventure Sports

“Dexter Zavalza Hough-Snee and Alexander Sotelo Eastman have produced a deeply informed and much-needed critical counter-voice on surfing's dominant culture and media. This volume offers a range of interventions on the current state of wave-riding and its many worlds. A go-to volume for figuring out critical surf studies.” - David Theo Goldberg, lifelong board rider and author of Are We All Postracial Yet?

"Editors Hough-Snee and Eastman have curated 18 essays that go above and below the waves to explore the deeper social, cultural, and political meaning of surfing. Recommended. All readers." - R. W. Roberts, Choice

"An exciting and important contribution to a field that is still relatively new to academics. . . . The book is an ambitious and innovative one that lays valuable groundwork for a field with a promising future. Beyond surf-oriented scholars, it will be of interest to scholars in the wider fields of sport history, cultural studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, geography, and political economy; and to a nonacademic readership that includes surfers and surf enthusiasts." - Elizabeth E. Sine, Journal of Sport History

"While [The Critical Surf Studies Reader] is underpinned by a rich diversity, essays collected here all find a certain degree of unity through a shared commitment to critical analysis and reflexivity that marks each as a serious intellectual engagement with the world of surfing. . . . High-quality scholarship and insightful critical analysis make this a worthy addition to other works in the field of Indigenous studies." - Barry Judd, Native American and Indigenous Studies

"Many of the chapters are written with a historical approach to studying surfing, making this book highly relevant for sport historians interested in surfing and other lifestyle/action sports. A well-written and recommended read for surfing history enthusiasts!" - Anne Tjønndal, International Journal of the History of Sport

"The cover of The Critical Surf Studies Reader is a black and white photograph of a surfer riding a wave taken from under the water. The photo is positioned sideways so that the book must be turned horizontally to view the image right side up. This collection does the same to surfing: turns it sideways and views it from beneath the surface. . . . an impressive collection of surf scholarship." - Lindsay E. Usher, Journal of Tourism History

"The Critical Surf Studies Reader is a thought-provoking book that will make important contributions to numerous fields including sociology of sport, sociology of action sports, sport for development and peace, cultural studies, media studies, leisure and tourism studies, critical race studies, and settler colonial studies. . . . [T]his collection of work should have a wide appeal within and beyond academia, and I can imagine it being taken up by those surfers who are critically engaged with the activity that defines such a part of their identity and communities." - Rebecca Olive, Sociology of Sport Journal

"What makes this book especially interesting is that even though it is of course an anthology, the strengths of the individual texts come through when consuming the collection holistically. ... All of the texts provide excellent insights and, taken together, produce a vivid image of the current state of surfing in its various facets." - Jeeshan Gazi, National Identities