Southern surfers talk story

This article uses interviews with southern surfers, surfboard shapers and surf shop owners to chronicle the history of surfing in the American South and interrogate the relationship between oral history and sport. ‘Talking story’ is a Hawaiian phrase for chatting among family and friends. The storytelling tradition also allows elders to pass on knowledge and wisdom to younger generations. Surfers around the world talk story when reminiscing about the sport and their lives. As with the global embrace of wave riding, the practice of talking story by non-Hawaiian surfers treads a fine line between cultural appropriation and heartfelt homage to the sport’s Indigenous island heritage. Based on over forty interviews with surfers from Texas through Virginia, this article analyses the political and methodological issues at the intersection between talking story and oral history.