Surf Localism in Occupied Surfscapes with Tara Ruttenberg and Pete Brosius

In this episode, Dr. Tara Ruttenberg and Dr. Pete Brosius discuss different types of surf localism in the context of surfscape colonialism in the Global North and Global South, based on our recent work related to critical localisms of resistance in occupied surfscapes. We explore localisms of entitlement and resistance, as well as girl localisms in a range of well-known surfscapes to highlight the ways surfers are using localism as a means of both perpetuating and contesting the colonial, patriarchal and racialized neoliberal state of modern surfing and its surf tourism industrial complex.

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Resources:

We’ve been helped in this work by recent revisions of the historiography of surfing – Scott Laderman’s Empire in Waves, Isaiah Walker’s Waves of Resistance, Krista Comer’s Surfer Girls in the New World Order, Kevin Dawson’s Undercurrents of Power, Dexter Zavalza Hough-Snee and Alexander Sotelo Eastman’s The Critical Surf Studies Reader (including Dina Gilio-Whitaker’s chapter on Appropriating Surfing and the Politics of Indigenous Authenticity), and Allison Rose Jefferson’s Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era.

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Additional Resources:

Black Girls Surf: https://blackgirlssurf.org

Brown Girl Surf: https://www.browngirlsurf.com

The Wahine Project: https://www.thewahineproject.org

Native Like Water: https://www.nativelikewater.org

LatinX Surf Club: https://www.facebook.com/latinxsurfclub

Color the Water: https://www.colorthewater.org

Surfrider Los Angeles: https://la.surfrider.org

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Bios:

Tara Ruttenberg is Ph.D. Candidate in Development Studies at the Wageningen School of Social Sciences, specializing in critical surf studies and alternatives to development in sustainable surf tourism. She is a member of the Institute for Women Surfers, hosts women’s surf retreats in Costa Rica, and writes stories and articles for alternative surf magazines and her personal website, Tarantula Surf. Tara’s current research includes decolonizing sustainable surf tourism, surfeminism as emancipatory politics in surfing culture, and a diverse economies approach to development alternatives in occupied Global South surfscapes.

Pete Brosius is Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology at the University of Georgia and Founding Director of UGA’s Center for Integrative Conservation Research. He is widely recognized for his work with Penan hunter-gatherers in Sarawak, Malaysia, and for his contributions to the development of Political Ecology. Throughout his career he has been engaged with issues of environmental degradation, indigenous rights and conservation. Brosius has been a surfer since 1969, and for the past ten years he has been the director of UGA’s Surfing & Sustainability: Political Ecology in Costa Rica study abroad program. His current research includes projects on the Tolak Reklamasi movement in Bali, Indonesia, and the political ecology of real estate in occupied surfscapes in the Global South.

Together, Pete and Tara run the study abroad program, Surfing and Sustainability: Political Ecology in Costa Rica, the first of its kind, now in its 10th year running. Their recent work critiquing sustainable surf tourism and proposing diverse economic alternatives to tourism development has been published in books including The Critical Surf Studies Reader (Duke University Press 2017) , and The Ecolaboratory: Environmental Governance and Economic Development in Costa Rica (University of Arizona Press 2020). Their forthcoming research on localisms of resistance in occupied surfscapes is currently under review with Geoforum and a new critical surf studies collection edited by Lydia Heberling, David Kamper and Jess Ponting.

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Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzz

Audio by TwistedLogix