This paper suggests that;

• aestheticization facilitates risk-taking in the pursuit of an ecstatic, transcendent experience and
• the surfing aesthetic involves a postmodern incarnation of the sublime that distorts rational risk assessment.

The study also considers the role of the surfing media in constructing and reinforcing images of the sublime.

[1] The aesthetics of risk, A study of surfing, by Mark Stranger. University of Tasmania, Australia. Published in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 34, No. 3, 265-276 (1999).