Living to surf. The cultural meanings of an 'addictive' practice on the Gold Coast, Australia

Sport consists not only in the submitting of athletes to training and strictness; many contemporary disciplines offer more free and playful ways to practice, embodying "alternative" sporting values. Among these, surfing plays a major role. Apparently in contrast with the consumeristic aspects of the practice (competitions, sponsorships, clothes, surfboard factories…), the "romantic" representations of surfing, surfers and the sea orient the surfers' motivations and dispositions. This paper analyses how these global aspects of surfing are "localised" in the context of Australia's Gold Coast, acquiring specific meanings. In effect, in a city characterized by rapid social changes and frequently considered as just a tourist resort, surfing became a strong instrument for the local claims of cultural identity, and contributed to shape the anthropological "landscape", defining a "constructed surfing place". Surfing iconography is ubiquitous here, and surfers from all over Australia and the world crowd the local breaks, trying to balance the opportunities of living in a city (jobs, relationships, infrastructures…) with the consistency of swells. Far from being a "countercultural" practice, surfing in the Gold Coast crosses the age and social boundaries; even if it still epitomizes a predominantly white and male activity. Moreover, the paper shows how the ambiguous nature of surfing ("soul surfers" vs. competitors; romantic image vs. consumerism; "localism" vs. surfing "nomadism") both reflect and contribute to produce the ambiguous aspects of the Gold Coast as a city (unregulated urbanization vs. environmental sensibilities; tourism vs. residents' claim for identity), as well as the Western nature/culture dichotomy.