Over the last century, Australians have shaped their lives around surfing. From pioneering hidden beaches along the coast, building towns and cities because of the beaches to establishing surf brands and surf clubs.
As Australia is an island, the coastline is dotted with towns like Torquay in Victoria that grew because of the amazing beaches nearby. We have even named a city after it, Surfers Paradise. After Duke Kahanamoku came to Australia and people everywhere started surfing, the main beaches became very crowded. It was then a race to find new uninhabited beaches with the best waves. This is how a lot of Australia’s coast was discovered, roads were made and coastal towns were built.
Australians today love going on holidays to places…show more content… Billabong, Ripcurl, Quiksilver and Roxy are just some of the surfing brands that we shop at today. Surfing has influenced the way we dress whether it’s thongs and ‘boardies’ or a sarong and bikinis. It is a typical summer outfit seen along any coastal town in warm months.
Our Australian culture has also adopted surfing slang that people use today such as shaka, dude and gnarly.
Surf music has had a big impact in Australia. In the 1960’s The Beach Boys from California were a huge hit all around the world. They had many hits, which a lot of our parents grew up singing and listening to. They recently toured in Australia as old men and had sell-out crowds. This tells us how much surf music resonates with us still today.
The sixties in Australia were a time of discovery and freedom. Across the world amazing things were happening such as a man landing on the moon, The Beatles, the liberation of women and Martin Luther King. People were starting to speak up and break away from the social norm. Many people in Australia’s coastal towns did this by…show more content… This had never been done before but people loved it. Surf music was played all throughout the sixties until The Beatles came and lead the charts. Many famous surf movies were also made that we still watch today such as Gidget, Beach Party and Endless Summer. Gidget, a movie about a teenage girl and surf culture, was extremely popular and transformed surfing into a fad for nearly every kid who lived within driving distance of the ocean. Surfing had so much media attention in the sixties that it’s easy to see how it had such an outstanding growth throughout the