{"id":2601,"date":"2024-12-20T14:17:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T22:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/?p=2601"},"modified":"2025-01-08T15:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T23:23:11","slug":"on-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/on-the-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Edge: Surfing, Skateboarding and Technology Converge in California"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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On the Edge: Surfing, Skateboarding and Technology Converge in California<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
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\n\n \n Links between technological innovations in three of the Golden State\u2019s quintessential sports \u2014 surfing, swimming and skateboarding \u2014 helped cement California\u2019s impact on global culture.\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n By<\/span>Margaret Crable<\/strong>\n \n December 20, 2024<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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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\u2019s legacy of innovation, says Peter Westwick<\/a>, professor of the practice of Thematic Option<\/a> and history<\/a>, whose upcoming book explores California\u2019s technological achievements.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s 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\u2019s future. This spirit of innovation fostered high-tech breakthroughs in everything from aerospace to California\u2019s quintessential sport: surfing.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

These new materials were prized for their buoyancy and lightness, making boards easier to maneuver. Tom Morey<\/a> \u201957 used polyethylene foam (and his USC Dornsife mathematics<\/a> degree) to invent the boogie board, enabling a wider audience to experience the thrill of riding the waves.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> 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\u2019s youth culture in the popular imagination.<\/p>\n

Teenagers flocked to surfing partly because many could already swim, having learned in the backyard pools that dotted Southern California\u2019s swiftly suburbanizing neighborhoods in the 1940s and \u201950s, says Westwick. Those same pools gave rise to another quintessential Golden State sport: skateboarding.<\/p>\n

Surfers began spending waveless days \u201csurfing\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Once considered outsider activities, surfing and skateboarding are now Olympic sports. Narrative studies major Amelia Brodka<\/a> \u201912 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Fall 2024 \/ Winter 2025<\/h2>\n

California<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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