A surfer suspended on a wave and a skateboarder soaring midair above concrete are both iconic symbols of California cool. But these gravity-defying feats are also emblematic of the state’s legacy of innovation, says Peter Westwick, professor of the practice of Thematic Option and history, whose upcoming book explores California’s technological achievements.

The state’s bold spirit stretches back to the Gold Rush, when engineers developed hydraulic mining to extract precious metals, an early example of ingenuity that set the tone for California’s future. This spirit of innovation fostered high-tech breakthroughs in everything from aerospace to California’s quintessential sport: surfing.

First practiced centuries ago by Polynesians who used weighty wooden boards, the sport was transformed in the 1950s by Southern California surfers who began experimenting with polyurethane and other foams, together with fiberglass and polyester resins.

These new materials were prized for their buoyancy and lightness, making boards easier to maneuver. Tom Morey ’57 used polyethylene foam (and his USC Dornsife mathematics degree) to invent the boogie board, enabling a wider audience to experience the thrill of riding the waves.

The foam boards were now light enough to be hoisted by surfers like Kathy Kohner, a Malibu teen whose adventures inspired her father to write the Gidget series of novels. The books popularized surfing culture, spawning a hit movie and TV show that, along with the sun-soaked, surfing-inspired songs of The Beach Boys, helped cement California’s youth culture in the popular imagination.

Teenagers flocked to surfing partly because many could already swim, having learned in the backyard pools that dotted Southern California’s swiftly suburbanizing neighborhoods in the 1940s and ’50s, says Westwick. Those same pools gave rise to another quintessential Golden State sport: skateboarding.

Surfers began spending waveless days “surfing” the sidewalks on wheeled boards. When drought resulted in the draining of backyard pools in the late 1970s, skaters used the steeply sided bowls to reinvent skateboarding as a thrilling display of daring kickflips, lipslides on the pool rim, and high-speed maneuvers.

Once considered outsider activities, surfing and skateboarding are now Olympic sports. Narrative studies major Amelia Brodka ’12 competed in one of the skateboarding events when the sport debuted at the 2020 Tokyo Games. At the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, skaters will compete in the San Fernando Valley, close to where skateboarding pioneers first balanced on the lips of empty pools before executing the daring drop ins that revolutionized the sport.