What (or who) has the greatest outside effect on surfcraft design and materials for the average surfer in everyday conditions:
Free surfing, competition, specific individuals, films, the media, mass-marketing, or…?
In 2004? 30 years ago? How about 50+ years ago?
Foam boards, wetsuits, kook cords. Mike
By far I’d say The Media.
Just take a minute to consider the overall impact. 100 years ago it was probably in the form of news articles saying how wierd it was that people COULD surf. Then it became a “lifestyle” topic and the marketing, movies, etc. took off from there. It could be said that the popularization of surfing spawned by the Media then spawned things like foam boards, leashes, surf trips, localism, “surf wear”, music, etc.
I’m not saying the Media’s influence was good, just that it was huge.
I would have to say the media - most notably the magazines. Which image is going to sell more magazines: a guy in the midst of a carving figure-eight or some 120 pound guy pulling a 10 foot air? Despite what is probably the more refined tastes of most of the contributors to this site, I would bet that the latter is what is going to sell to the majority of the surfing public. Given that, what board is most likely to give its buyer at least a whiff of a chance of getting themselves anywhere close to emulating their magazine hero? A lightweight, rockered-up thruster. Which is what I see 90% of the guys in the water on any given day riding, no matter if its 2 foot mush or 2 foot overhead (yes, that does happen here in south Florida, you condescending Californians - ha ha). I’ve been just as guilty of it as anyone else - it wasn’t until the last few years that I started riding different equipment for different conditions. I just started ridiing a 6 foot fish and I probably haven’t been as fired up about surfing since the last time I had a twin fin, which was around 1979.