Theorising the surfing avant garde

" Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm.The term was originally used to describe the foremost part of an army advancing into battle (also called the vanguard) and now applied to any group, particularly of artists, that considers itself innovative and ahead of the majorityAvant -garde creators have historically existed in a state of mutual antagonism towards both the public and tradition. As pioneers, avant-gardes have shunned popularity, seeing those who are popular as producing complacent or compromised work. This is also why avant-gardists have abhorred fashion, judging it to deal in stereotypes, falsehoods and insincere sentiments. Their iconoclasm has witnessed avant-gardes taking positions against current trendsTaken together, these traits mean that avant-gardes are often estranged from society. This has taken several forms, as some creators were socially alienated. It has been common for avant-gardes to declare their opposition to the bourgeoisie in particular. Their antagonism towards accepted values and approaches has also meant that historically their audience has tended to be the intelligentsia.Where Greenberg used the German word kitsch to describe the antithesis of avant-garde culture, members of the Frankfurt School coined the term mass culture to indicate that this bogus surfing culture is constantly being manufactured by a newly emerged surf culture industryThey also pointed out that the rise of this industry meant that artistic excellence was displaced by sales figures as a measure of worth: a wave riding tool , for example, was judged meritorious solely on whether it was a best-seller, just as music succumbed to ratings charts and the blunt commercial logic of the Gold disc.In this way the autonomous artistic merit so dear to the vanguardist was abandoned and sales increasingly became the measure, and justification, of everything. Consumer surf culture now ruled.. . .. . . except at Olosurfer, headquarters of Monarchy of the Surfing Phillistines "With thanks to wikipedia