SATURDAY LUNCHEON

Jerome Lynn Hall, "Beyond the Blue Door: Why I Teach Surf Culture and History"

Play has often been described as little more than a series of physical movements.  But in his seminal volume, Homo ludens, or “Man the Player,” preeminent Dutch historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga (b. 1872, d. 1945) explored the many social, psychological, and spiritual components of playful activity, likening it, on occasion, to the deeply expressive acts of, inter alia, dance and religious ceremony. 
 
Because play necessarily occurs outside of “ordinary life,” it is shrouded in mystery and ritual.  In play we encounter transformational moments – thresholds through which our physical and psychological selves pass.  Nowhere are these events better manifested than in the act of surfing, or “wave sliding” (he’ e nalu) as it was known by the ancient Hawaiians. 
 
Whereas most recreational activities are delimited by the artificial boundaries of gaming boards, courts, or fields, surfing is bounded only by nature; it is a threshold activity, realized on a narrow margin of water where land and sea intersect – a blue door through which those who pass are challenged and often changed: physically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Jerome Lynn Hall is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of San Diego.  He is an officer in the Hawaiian Surf Club of San Onofre and a Board Member of the Surfing Heritage Foundation in San Clemente, California.