Abstract
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This chapter traces the emergence, transformation and consolidation of the surfboard manufacturing industry. With historical antecedents in ancient Polynesian cultures, surfboard making has evolved from a small-scale do-it-yourself (DIY) activity into a formalized commercial industry. Since the late 1950s surfboards have been manufactured in industrial-style workshops located adjacent to popular surfing places. In these settings surfboard making combines a unique range of human skills: an eye for design, knowledge and application of hydrodynamics, manual crafting; and close relations between workers, tools, materials and local customers. Drawing from cultural economy theory, we focus on 33 workshops across three global hubs of surfboard production: Southern California, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i and east coast Australia. In these three regions surfboards represent functional products utterly necessary to pursue surfing.