Post #577355 by bigbrotiki on Wed, Feb 23, 2011 6:58 AM

I think the question is being asked wrong if one is asking "IS Surf culture Tiki?" (and I am not saying YOU are asking it that way). The answer would be no.

It is quite simple: Tikis were used as icons IN Surf culture, because the history as well as the practice of Surfing is tied to Hawaii. Surf culture is a beach culture, Hawaii is a beach culture dream destination. In the 1960s, kids that went surfing during the day wore good luck Tiki charms, and some then went to parties or clubs where Surf bands played in the evening. That was a real thing, not a commercial set up. Pop culture might have commercialized it by putting out Beach movies that showed the kids dancing by the fire on the beach at night to surf music, or hanging out at surf shacks with an occasional Tiki mask on the wall. But these situations happened. There was a famous Tiki statue at the beach in Malibu, for example.

So Tikis were one (even if small) PART OF Surf culture - which makes Surf culture PART OF Tiki culture.

All this is different today, of course.