Empire in Waves: A Political History of Surfing (Volume 1) (Sport in World History)

It was a little odd reading this and seeing formal documentation on just how not-so-innocent the sport I love is when it comes to profiting on and because of Americas sometimes less than idea behavior across the globe. Nonetheless, I love surfing however it is nice to also be aware of the context within which surfing culture thrives

Amazing book, should be required reading for all surfers.

This is a provocative book but it is more than just a book that includes a lot of surfing history. Laderman's interpretation is highly political.He writes that maintaining the pretense that surfing is just a sport has allowed surfers to ignore things like the 1965-66 massacres in Indonesia, Apartheid in South Africa, and the American annexation of Hawai'i. Laderman sees repressive governments as taking advantage of a kind of legitimacy provided by surfers, surfing events and tourism. Beaches, beautiful waves are a surface that may hide repression in some countries that surfers frequent. Laderman also points out that surfing was appropriated from Hawai'ians. I'm not clear on his basic point, so we realize this, then what? Surfers are not going to feel guilty or apologetic.I think his points are a bit overdone, but the point that sports do not exist in a social or political vacuum is an important one, although many sporting events do have the pretense that the world of sport is apolitical.If you can get through this, the book offers an interesting history of surfing, famous surfers and more.