When I visited Maui for the first time, I made the insane decision to drive The Road to Hana. It’s a three-hour trek that connects the towns of Kahului and Hana. Most don’t make it to the end, because it’s the 5th most dangerous road to drive in the world. We did. No big deal.

There are several companion apps that you can download that tell you the history of Hawaii and Hana as you make the drive. I noticed two things when listening to the companion apps: Hawaiian culture almost went extinct and surfing is one of the single most important things to their people.

The first origins of surfing are connected to the ancient Hawaiian tradition of “he’e nalu.” It’s this idea that the sea has a persona, and can reflect emotions. So to have a good day of surfing, you’d have to convince the sea to provide the proper waves. So ancient Hawaiians relied on Kahunas (priests) who would “pray for good surf.” To them, surfing was more than just trying to catch waves and have fun. It was about keeping Hawaiian leaders in top shape, resolving conflict, and testing themselves in fierce competitions where wealth, pride, and romance were at stake.

All of this almost disappeared in a snap. When Captain Cook arrived in the late 18th century, it began this increasing boom of foreigners invading their lands. Initially, they were looking for profits and trade, but this eventually led to missionaries and settlers, which would change the culture completely. So when the 19th century rolled around, surfing was nearly extinct.

But in the early 1900s, that all changed. Surfing was revived by teens known as the “Beach Boys of Waikiki.” Initially, the Europeans who invaded the lands believed that only Hawaiians had the ability to surf. George Freeth (an Irish-Hawaiian native) moved to California and Duke Kahanamoku (Hawaiian) moved to Australia to introduce surfing in the early 1900s and would change the course of the sport.
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Environmentalism and Yoga... ftw

Surfing was still an extremely niche sport. When we fast forward to The 60s… that’s when we really started to see exponential growth. It was a tech boom. There were new advancements in the way that surfboards were made. Fiberglass and foam gave people the ability to make surfboards faster, lighter, and more maneuverable. It started to get into the hands of a wider audience.

It wasn’t just tech that opened the door to a broader audience. Folks were still reeling from a post-war world, and surfers were the leaders in anti-conformity and environmentalism. A really good example of this was the Santa Barbara oil spill that dumped 200,000 gallons of crude oil in the channel.

Surfers were credited for their quick response. Organizations, like Get Oil Out (GOO), played a huge role in environmental reforms… energizing students, surfers, and parents to join the beach clean-up movement.

The ethos of early Hawaiian culture was felt through the new movements in the 60s. Movies like Gidget (1959) and Endless Summer (1966) brought surf culture to the mainstream. It was a symbol of freedom, adventure, and youth. The unique spirit of surfing was inspiring a new generation.

A fashion uprising

In the post-war life for Americans, uniforms were a massive part of people’s lives. We’re talking school uniforms, military, work… formal fashion was everywhere. So when surf culture started to take hold, it became a form of self-expression. It was an opportunity to stick a middle finger to the man and the rat race. Brands like Katin, Sundek, and Hang Ten made clothing specific for surfers. It was slowly starting to bleed into everyday society. My favorite part about this whole movement was that the pundits thought this would be a “fringe” movement and that it would disappear.

But the music industry had different ideas. They saw that this new generation of California “surf bums” and did anything they could to jump on the trend. Groups like Jan and Dean, The Surfaris, and the most famous of all the Beach Boys. We all know their songs, and they became world famous with multi-selling tracks. This was the real pivot point where surf culture hit the mainstream, along with its anti-establishment attitude and free spirit.

Have you seen Lords of Dogtown? Even though it’s about skateboarding, it shows how surfing became such an integral part of the youth movement in the 70s. The Z-Boys were surfers who used their skills to change skateboarding forever. But it’s not just that. It’s a story about rebelling and breaking tradition while also showing how their lifestyle impacted the youth across the US.
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Mr. Pipeline

A surfing legend that epitomized this ethos was Gerry Lopez… also known as “Mr. Pipeline.” An absolutely fascinating character and a cultural icon.

Born and raised in Hawaii, he had a surfing epiphany when he went on a trip to Mexico in college. The reason why he became “Mr. Pipeline” was rooted in duality. He was extremely aggressive when he rode “stealing” people's waves often. But he was also a Yogi and had a zen-like relationship with the ocean. He wasn’t just a great surfer, he was an incredible board shaper and entrepreneur. He created innovative surfboard designs that changed the way surfers handle waves.

His style was elegant and powerful. Effortless while being dangerous. It was very distinct. And his mission to conquer the Banzai Pipeline is what led to him winning the Pipeline Masters in 1972 and 1973. The fact that he integrated yoga into surfing started to shape other surfers' philosophies. He was the first to truly place surfing in a competitive atmosphere while also still having a spiritualness to it. His exploration of the sport influenced multiple generations and brought surfing to a new frontier that it hadn’t been before.
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Surfin' USA

This is our take, but those neon colors, psychedelic attitude, and bell bottoms from the 70s and 80s? Probably came from the “surf bums” in the late '60s. The surfer community spearheaded the counterculture movement… opening the door for a broader audience.

It started with the Beach Boys. Their music channeled the free spirit that surfers lived by. Laid-back styles like Hawaiian shirts, shorts, sandals, and swim trucks became very popular. “Surfer style” was becoming a thing. And young people gravitated toward it. At the same time movies like “Gidget” and “Beach Party” were released featuring young, attractive actors and actresses wearing bright beachwear and accessories like sunglasses and sandals. These movies validated surf fashion and their lifestyles.

Surf fashion started to become a serious business. Brands we know and love that still thrive today (Billabong and Quiksilver) emerged creating a growing industry that would continue to boom till the early 2000s.

Going into the 70s, more and more companies were releasing surfing adjacent clothing lines. That’s when we started to see Vans slip-ons, denim cut-offs, and gender-specific clothing in places like sleepy beach towns to the Midwest. It was everywhere.

Growing up in San Diego, I saw this first-hand… In high school, college, and still today, the style hasn’t changed. Maybe some new brands here and there, but the surf and retro aesthetic bleeds through the city. From kids to parents… they’re still rockin’ boardies to school, class, and more.

Through the lens

Music was so important to surf culture. And what’s funny is that Hollywood tried to paint surfing in a different light that didn’t match up with those who experienced it. So the mainstream didn’t get a taste of what it was really like till Endless Summer came out in 1966. And it was perfect. It gave people the feel of what surfing was all about. Bruce Brown, the director, created a movie that oozed California, with a soundtrack by The Sandals. Many surf filmmakers today attribute that film to how they mesh audio and visuals together to evoke the same feeling that Endless Summer did.

At the same time, we were seeing the golden age of surf films. Morning of the Earth came out in 1972 and featured our guy Gerry Lopez and Five Summer Stories which showed exotic locations, soulful surfers, and environmentalism.

Lightweight cameras made it easier to document surfing lifestyles. It created its own viral moment. These movies started to transform sleepy coastal towns into surf meccas and influence future generations by showing California’s prime surfing period.

The world took notice of the rise of surfing. Australia was the first major hub to bubble up outside of Hawaii and California. We can thank Mark “Wounded Gull” Richards for that. Australia’s “surfing saint” is one of the prime reasons surfing changed from a Hawaiian-dominated sport to hitting the waves across international waters.

He made an incredible international debut in 1975 by winning the Smirnoff Pro-Am at Waimea Bay and the World Cup at Sunset Beach in that same year. He was the first person to win 4 consecutive championships ever. He was also a master crafter, designing boards with a Superman-inspired logo which became globally recognized.

Because of this, he was featured in dozens of surf films that made the sport extremely popular on other sides of the world and sparked the “Free Ride generation” that took on Hawaii’s dominance. He inspired thousands of young Australians becoming a role model for a whole country. It legitimized surfing in mainstream culture.
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Parlour's perspective

You can’t spell pop culture without surfing. It’s impossible. It birthed counterculture, it created a movement of environmentalism, it changed music and filmmaking… and it spread across the world at a time when people just really lived in an echo chamber. It’s hard to believe the vastness of it.

And the movement is still relevant today. Nomadic and Vanlife culture is extremely popular. They tap the same ethos as the rising surf culture in the 70s: freedom from traditional work environments, being closer to nature, a commitment to sustainability, and that sense of rejecting materialism. It’s all parallel to how major figures like Gerry Lopez and other icons embodied the 70s.