The end of 2013 and the beginning of a new year are bringing some pretty cool examples of surf culture to light.
As always there are surf films both new and old to be seen, such as the classics of 60s and 70s, including 1970’s Pacific Vibrations, which features some pounding psychedelic rock and an environmental message. 1972’s Morning of the Earth also preached environmentalism, featured a dreamy soundtrack and at the same time suddenly thrust Uluwatu into the surfing culture limelight (or at least introduced it on a wider scale). Keep your eyes peeled for new surf films by checking out the Global Surf Film Festival Collective website.
Read a bit about surf film history in the Monterey Herald.
That environmentalism must stay in the heart of surfing culture, as was intimated in Pacific Vibrations and Morning of the Earth, is crucial to the survival of Bali as a surf mecca, holiday hotspot and culture as a whole. Development is taking its toll on the island and the government is now encouraging local tourism businesses to clean up the beach at Kuta.
Other cool surf culture news from around the world includes this BBC News slide show on Sierra Leone’s first surf club. One thing’s for sure about surfing in Sierra Leone and that’s that there aren’t any crowds.
Then there’s the anonymous surf artist called BERT who has recently thrown up a 17-foot (5-meter) mural on the Coast Highway in Encinitas, California depicting surfing god Kelly Slater wearing a turban and holding up a crystal ball.
From Encinitas Patch:
BERT’s street art has gained the interest of a variety of surfing professionals and icons including 2013 champion Mick Fanning and 2012 champion Joel Parkinson, as well as 11x champion Kelly Slater who has 2 BERT paintings hanging in his residence. BERT will be releasing a limited edition print of 72 titled ‘Slater’s Hawaiian Pipe Dream.
So after this strong start look out for some more great surf culture in 2014!
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