Surfing stereotypes
From Surferpedia - The Wiki Encyclopedia of Surfing
Once viewed as beach bums on the fringes of capitalist culture, surfers have since become the focus of mainstream advertising campaigns. Surfing engenders a genuinely raw context, which has proven effective in attributing authenticity to just about any product, from cars and laundry detergent to soft drinks and cooking programs. However, the surfer stereotype has changed with the evolution of the sport. This transformation is reflected in mainstream film and television. For example, the surfer of the 1960s was depicted as a remote figure, obsessed with surfing and women. On the Gilligan's Island episode Big Man on Little Stick (1965), a surfer washes up on the shore and collapses, having spent five days at sea on his surfboard. The surfer is a handsome, yet simple minded male called Duke. Ginger and Mary Ann can't help but admire his athletic physique:
Duke: Man, five days on that board and I'm nothing but skin and bones.
Ginger: What skin.
Mary Ann: And what bones.
The surfer's image degenerated during the 1970s, inextricably linked to recreational drug use. In the popular 1982 film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sean Penn plays a stoned, teenage surfer, who feigns tube rides as he walks along the pavement ducking beneath overhanging ivy. Jeff Spicoli believes in "operating from the heart" and "what you need will come to you,". By contrast, the character of Brad Hamilton is an ambitious, conscientious, hard-working, polite young man. The juxtaposition of these two characters highlights the differences between Jeff Spicoli's carefree approach to life and Brad Hamilton's disciplined work ethic. During the 1980s, surf culture became increasingly associated with professional surfing, developing the more refined image of a respectable sportman; a blend of the Brad Hamilton and Duke characters described above. Of course, surfers come from all walks of life, including the drug culture, which has itself evolved over the years. Once derided for taking drugs, such surfers have today become the subject of a Hollywood movie.
Such a unique relationship with nature afforded surfing a mythic quality, which set the stage for its commercial simulation.
