Histories

Exhibiting surfing history and culture

Art installation: “Fragments of Surfing Pasts,” Beyond the Beach Exhibition (curated by Paul Weinberg), Casa Labia Gallery,  21 September  to 21 October 2014.

Writings on gender, race and culture in surfing history

Glen Thompson, ‘Dreaming of “Level Free”: Lockdown and the Cultural Politics of Surfing during the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa‘ in David Andrews, Holly Thorpe and Joshua Newman (eds), Sport and Physical Culture in Global Pandemic Times: COVID Assemblages. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.

Glen Thompson, “A tale of two surf contests: Gender, sex and competitive surfing in South Africa during the late 1970s and early 1990s” in lisahunter (ed.), Surfing, Sex, Genders and Sexualities. London and New York: Routledge, 2018.

Glen Thompson, “Pushing under the whitewash: Revisiting the making of South Africa’s surfing Sixties” in Dexter. Z. Hough-Snee and Alexander S. Eastman (eds.), Radical Politics, Global Culture: A Critical Surf Studies Reader. Durham: Duke University Press, in press for 2017.

Glen Thompson, Review Essay: “Disturbed Waters: New Currents in the History of Water Sport,” Radical History Review, 125, May 2016.

Glen Thompson, “Surfing, gender and politics: Identity and society in the history of South African surfing culture in the twentieth-century,” PhD thesis (History), Stellenbosch University, 2015.

Glen Thompson, “Otelo Burning and Zulu Surfing Histories,” Journal of African Cultural Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2014.

Meg Samuelson and Glen Thompson, “Contemporary Conversations: Otelo Burning: Introduction,” Journal of African Cultural Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2014.

Meg Samuelson and Glen Thompson, “Interview with Sara Blecher and Sihle Xaba: the making and meanings of Otelo Burning,” Journal of African Cultural Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2014.

Glen Thompson, “Riding the waves of change”, Cape Times, 30 August 2013.

Glen Thompson, “Reimagining Surf City: surfing and the making of the post-apartheid beach in South Africa,” The International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol. 28, No. 15, 2011.

Glen Thompson, “‘Certain political considerations’: South African competitive surfing during the international sports boycott” in Scarlett Cornelissen and Albert Grundlingh (eds), Sport Past and Present in South Africa: (Trans)forming the Nation. London and New York: Routledge, 2011.

Glen Thompson, “‘Certain political considerations’: South African competitive surfing during the international sports boycott, ” The International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2011.

Glen Thompson, “Judging Surf Culture: The Making of a White Exemplar Masculinity during the 1966 Natal and South African Surfriding Championships”, Journal of Natal and Zulu History, Vol. 26, 2008.

Glen Thompson, “’From the water to the web’: Surfing, Identity, and the New Media in South Africa.” Unpublished paper, 2003.

Glen Thompson, “Making Waves, Making Men: The Emergence of a Professional Surfing Masculinity in South Africa during the late 1970s,” in R. Morrell (ed.) Changing Men in Southern Africa (Zed Books and University of Natal Press, 2001).

Lectures, talks and interviews on surfing history or surfing lifestyle

Interviewed on 4 February 2020 by Phemelo Motene, host of SAfm‘s radio show “Life Happens”,  on the writing the history of surfing in South Africa. The full interview is available here (listening time: 17min 48sec).

Author interview at book launch: Melissa Volker on her novel Shadow Flicker (Karavan Press, 2019). Xpression on the Beach, Muizenberg, 22 August 2019. (This eco-romance is set in contemporary Cape St Francis, where the female protagonist returns to surfing. The novel addresses environmental issues and wind energy.)

Chair of session: Chris Bertish and Andy Martin talk surfing with Glen Thompson, Me and My Board, Open Book Festival, Homecoming Centre Workshop, Cape Town, 10 September 2016. (Books discussed were: Stoked! (2015) by Bertish and Stealing the Wave (2007) by Martin. Both books focus on big-wave surfing).

Lecture series: “Making Waves: A Socio-Cultural History of South African Surfing,” UCT Summer School, 20-22 January 2016.

Public talk: “What surf magazines can tell us about False Bay’s surfing past,” #ilovefalsebay Speaker Evening hosted by Save Our Seas Foundation, Muizenberg, Cape Town, 7 September 2015.

Post-Phd surf media interview: “Tube Doctor,” Wavescape.co.za, 18 May 2015.

Post-Phd television interview: “Surfer with a PhD,” Expresso TV Show, SABC3, 21 April 2015.

Post-Phd newspaper profile: “Dr Dude rides waves of SA’s surfing history,” Sunday Times, 5 April 2015.

Book launch: I was in conversation with comix artist Andy Mason (aka  N.D. Mazin) at the launch of his graphic novel The Legend of Blue Mamba at the Homecoming Centre, Cape Town during the Comics Fest at the Open Book Festival, 8 September 2013.

Profiled as a historian of surfing: Leon-Ben Lamprecht, “See, ‘surf’ end die impak van segregasie”, By, 17 August 2013. (This was an insert in the Saturday edition of Die Burger newspaper, link is broken).

On the history of surfing in South Africa in “Episode 8: Noetzie to Jeffreys Bay” of Shoreline. Dir. Sanet Olivier, Homebrew Films/SABC2, 2009. (TV documentary/DVD Box set).

On surfing and skin cancer. Interviewed by Ross Frylinck, Wavescape, 25 August 2007.

Papers on surfing history presented at conferences, seminars & talk series

“Surfers, sharks and sewage: Towards a natural-cultural history of the northern shoreline of False Bay, Cape Town,” paper for the History Department Seminar Series, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 2 April 2019.

“Surfing with the ‘dark nations’: Hawaiian surfers and the silencing of black surfing in South Africa during apartheid,” paper presented at the 26th Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 23 June 2017.

“Surfing with the ‘dark nations’: Hawaiians, subaltern surfers and the politics of professional surfing in South Africa, 1968-1990,” paper presented at the Sports Africa 2017: Sporting Subalternities and Social Justice conference, Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, 12 April 2017.

“Surfing with the ‘dark nations’: Hawaiians, ‘honorary whites’ and professional surfing in apartheid South Africa, 1969-1990,” paper for the History Department Seminar Series, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 2 August 2016.

“Historicising Liquid Girls: Changing surfing femininities in postapartheid South Africa,” paper presented at the Surfing Social Hui: Re-imagining the Surfer Identity conference hosted by the University of Waikato held in Solscape, Raglan, New Zealand, 10-12 February 2016.

“From surfing development to township surf culture: Black youth and the changing cultural politics of surfing at the post-apartheid beach in South Africa,” Paper for the Symposium on Rhythms of Life: Youth and Popular Culture in a Changing South Africa, hosted by the Human Sciences Research Council, the University of Helsinki, and the University of the Western Cape’s Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research, Cape Town, 13-14 November 2015.

“Reconfiguring the historiography of ‘kool’”: Change, consumption and the cultural politics of surfing at the South African beach, 1987 – 1996,” Paper for the Panel on Littoral Histories: Configurations, Contestations and Consumption at the Beach at the  25th Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 3 July 2015.

“Consuming the endless summer: Changing surfing lifestyles, whiteness and pursuit of youthful leisure at the South African beach, 1965 – 1979,” Paper for the HUMA Symposium on ‘Conspicuous Consumption in Africa’ at the University of Cape Town, 3-6 December 2014.

“From Femlins to Saltwater Girls: Surfer Girls and Lifestyle Sport Consumption in South African surfing magazines, 1965 – present,” Paper for the seminar at the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape on Thursday, 28 August 2014.

“Transforming Surfer Boys: A Cultural History of Zulu Surfers in South Africa, 1965 to 2013,” Paper in the panel on Conflict and Leisure at the Historical Association of South Africa (HASA) Biennial Conference in Durban on Friday, 27 June 2014.

“From Femlins to Saltwater Girls: Sport, Lifestyle and Femininities in South African Surfing Culture, c.1965 to the present”, Paper for the 24th Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana, 27-29 June 2013.

“From Femlins to Saltwater Girls: Sport, Lifestyle and Femininities in South African Surfing Culture, c.1965 to the present”, Paper for the Stellenbosch History Department Seminar Series on Wednesday, 24 April 2013.

“Tranforming Surfer Boys: Competing Masculinities and Race Trouble in the Making of a South African Surfing Imaginary at the Post-apartheid Beach”, Paper for the Work/Force: South African Masculinities in the Media Conference held at Stellenbosch University, 13-14 September 2012.

“California Dreaming: Surfing Culture, the Sixties and the Displacement of Identity in South Africa”, Paper for the 23rd Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society, University of KwaZulu Natal, Howard College Campus, Durban, South Africa, 26-29 June 2011.

“South African Competitive Surfing during the International Sports Boycott against Apartheid”. Lunchtime Soapbox Talk Series at Idasa’s Cape Town Democracy Centre, June 10, 2010.

“South African Surfing during the International Sports Boycott”. History Seminar Series, Department of History, Stellenbosch University, April 13, 2010.

“‘A surf riding contest is basically a matter of opinion’: Beach Apartheid, Gender and the Emergence of Competitive Surfing in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. Paper for the Sport History and Sport Studies in Southern Africa International Conference, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 30 June – 1 July 2008.

“Making Waves, Making Men: The Emergence of Competitive Surfing and the Construction of Masculine Identities in South African Surfing, c.1950 to 1970s.” Paper for the Colloquium on Masculinities in Southern Africa, University of Natal, Durban, July2–4, 1997.

‘“Hawaiian Winters” and “Bay Boys”: Representations of Hawaii, Men and Politics in a South African Surfing Magazine, Zigzag, 1977 – 1980.’ Paper for the Second CSSALL Interdisciplinary Conference on Body, identity, Sub-Cultures and Repression in Texts from Africa, University of Durban-Westville, September 25–27, 1997.

“A Local Cultural Museum: Timewarp Surfing Museum.” Paper for the South African Museums Association Humanities Workshop on Local Museums, Ethnicity and Cultural Awareness. Kwa Muhle Museum, Durban. September 22-23, 1997.

‘“Hawaiian Winters” and “Bay Boys”: Representations of Hawaii, Men and Politics in a South African Surfing Magazine, Zigzag, 1977 – 1980.’ Paper for the session Surfin’ Safaris: Race, Gender and Narratives of Imperialism in Surf Culture at the First International and Eleventh MELUS Conference on Multi-Ethnic Literatures Across the Americas and the Pacific: Exchanges, Contestations, and Alliances, Honolulu, Hawaii, April 18-20, 1997.