Identity, History and Sport: Genesis of Surfing Magazines in Spain

This paper focuses on a topic hitherto ignored in the interdisciplinary framework of the social history of sport and the history of social communication: the forerunners and the genesis of surfing magazines in Spain. It involved intensive research in both public and private archives, uncovering the forerunners of the first surfing magazines in Spain (1972-1976) within the federative communication of the former Delegación Nacional de Educación Física y Deportes (1941-1977). Similarly, the birth of the first surfing magazines between 1987 and 1990, when the surfing industry in Spain began to develop further, was determined, dated and described. Magazines were essential in constructing identities in the pre-Internet world. The images that these magazines disseminated among surfers first generated and subsequently reinforced a sense of
belonging to a sport and a lifestyle.