“Get off my wave!” Surfing made a big comeback in the 1980s, but the sea was no refuge from the problems facing us on land. Overpopulation and violence found their way onto the waves as surfing became a turf war. The sport had opened to women, however, as attested by these Huntington Beach surfettes—attired in timeless sarongs and muumuus —taking issue with some “gremmies” from Riverside. Eighties fashions also included rad-colored wet suits, featured by the Surf Punks and other bands playing an aggressive new form of beach music.
In the 1990s, the watchwords were “intense” and “extreme.” All the old action-sports boundaries were swept away as a new breed of sportsperson skateboarded up Kilimanjaro and surfed Niagara Falls. It is only fitting that sportswear would be similarly extreme, as exemplified by nitro toboggan racer Nell Synefrin's garb, made of steaming-hot lava.
The future of surfwear, circa 2020. After decades of swimming in toxic and chemical waste, scales and fins predominate in beach fashion.
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