The Deep Duck Dive Podcast

• Every Cape Town surfer has feels about Muizenberg

  Love it, hate it, ambivalent, only when desperate, all-time favourite - every Cape Town surfer has an opinion on Muizenberg!In a bit of a break from our planned episodes, we're starting what will (hopefully) be a mini-series chatting to local surfers about Muizenberg - their history and experiences at the beach, and their thoughts, feels and opinions about it, personally or in the context of surfing more broadly - in South Africa or globally.To kick things off, in this episode, Karen and Glen chat about their own histories and experiences of surfing at Muizenberg, what they like and don't like (spoiler alert: Karen likes it more than Glen), some history of the beach and area, representation of Muizenberg in films, TV shows and academic writing, and its use as a site for contests and as a drawcard for Cape Town tourism. So join us as we take a deep duck dive (wahey!) into the place you're most likely to be forced to catch a party wave.Links to sources mentioned in the episode:Benninger, Elizabeth and Shazly Savahl. 2016. "The use of visual methods to explore how children construct and assign meaning to the “self” within two urban communities in the Western Cape, South Africa." International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being 11(1): https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v11.31251Davis, Roxy Davis. 2024. "A world of possibilities: an exploration of experiences of children with disabilities participation in a surf therapy programme in South Africa." PhD Thesis, University of Cape Town, Faculty of Health Sciences, Division of Disability Studies: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40740Martín-González, Roberto, Kamilla Swart and Ana-María Luque-Gil. 2021. “Tourism Competitiveness and Sustainability Indicators in the Context of Surf Tourism: The Case of Cape Town." Sustainability 13, 7238: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137238Mahler-Coetzee, Jacques. 2017. “From Fringe To Core: Contemplating Surfing's Potential Contribution To Sustainable Tourism Development In South Africa.” Tourism in Marine Environments 12 (3-4): https://doi.org/10.3727/154427317X15062902755932Rolfe, Elana. 2015. "A formative evaluation of the development and implementation of the waves for change coach training programme.” MA Thesis, University of Cape Town, Faculty of Commerce, Department Organisational Psychology: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33142Stroehlein, Leonie. 2021. "The increased feminization of the surfing economy: An exploration of the lived experiences of female surfers in Muizenberg, South Africa.". MA Thesis, University of Cape Town, Faculty of Commerce, School of Management Studies: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36171Thompson, Glen. 2023. "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).Twidle, Hedley. 2021. "Barbarian Phase." Wasafiri, 36 (2): https://doi.org/10.1080/02690055.2021.1879478Worm Sandy. 2014. “Black People Don’t Surf.” Photography series exhibited at the Beyond the Beach Exhibition curated by Paul Weinberg, Casa Labia Gallery, Muizenberg, 21 September - 21. Artist statement at: https://monthofphotography.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/sandy-worm-pdf.pdfFilm and TV Series referenced in this episodeBlack People Don’t Swim, dir. Lucilla Blankenberg, (Community Media Trust, 2008). For the full documentary about longboarder Kwezi Qika, see https://www.cmt.org.za/list-of-documentaries/ (scroll down to the film).Amaza, dir. Lucilla Blankenberg, Laddie Bosch and Tim Spring, (Community Media Trust, 2014). This 13 episode TV series was aired on SABC1.https://www.tvsa.co.za/shows/viewshowseasons.aspx?showId=2228&season=1https://www.cmt.org.za/our-work/#primetimetvFor a behind the scenes of making Amaza video, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzA-eWrFj00We received funding for podcast recording equipment from the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, at the University of the Western Cape, as part of the New Imaginaries for an Intersectional Critical Humanities Project on Gender and Sexual Justice, a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.Thanks to Christine King for our logo design. Check out her book, Stormcaller - you can buy it via her website: https://www.christineking.co.za/.Karen Graaff is a Research Fellow, Women's and Gender Studies, University of the Western Cape.Glen Thompson is a Research Fellow, History Department, Stellenbosch University.

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• Queering surf spaces

  In this episode, we discuss the development of the current heteronormative culture in mainstream surfing, tracking its historical connection to colonialism, Christianity, and capitalism, and how that's resulted in a space that's often very unwelcoming for anyone who isn't cisgendered and heterosexual. We then look at how queer surf groups have developed their own safe spaces, as well as how most mainstream surf organisations have failed dismally to do this. Case in point: we end with a short note on the WSL's controversial decision to include Abu Dhabi as a stop on the Championship Tour in 2025, and what it says about their commitment to diversity and inclusion.Links below:Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest - Anne Mcclintock:https://www.routledge.com/Imperial-Leather-Race-Gender-and-Sexuality-in-the-Colonial-Contest/Mcclintock/p/book/9780415908900?srsltid=AfmBOorpef6Z_EQqHCbDEz3LpAMzbW6xLqad3yTHWoyCd79Ev8W1vda-Ways of Being: A Thematic Analysis of Queer Identities in the Heteronormative Surf Space - Rachel Rouquet:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365361511_Ways_of_Being_A_Thematic_Analysis_of_Queer_Identities_in_the_Heteronormative_Surf_Space#fullTextFileContentWomen in Wetsuits: Revolting Bodies in Lesbian Surf Culture - Georgina Roy:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10894160.2013.731873WSL's call to take surfing to UAE forces gay athletes like Tyler Wright to pay too high a price - Lucy Small:https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/oct/31/world-surfing-league-2025-uae-abu-dhabi-move-gay-athletes-tyler-wrightF*ck you, Billabong. Seriously, f*ck you - Sarah Banting:https://you.women2.com/f-ck-you-billabong-seriously-f-ck-you-84995f3d7946Petition to remove Abu Dhabi from WSL calendar:https://www.change.org/p/remove-abu-dhabi-from-world-surf-league-tour-calendar-support-your-lgbtqia-communityWe received funding for podcast recording equipment from the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, at the University of the Western Cape, as part of the New Imaginaries for an Intersectional Critical Humanities Project on Gender and Sexual Justice, a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.Thanks to Christine King for our logo design. Check out her book, Stormcaller - you can buy it via her website: https://www.christineking.co.za/.Karen Graaff is a Research Fellow, Women's and Gender Studies, University of the Western Cape.Glen Thompson is a Research Fellow, History Department, Stellenbosch University.

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• History of Surfing in Africa Part 2: The Modern Era

  In this episode we continue our deep duck dive into the history of surfing in Africa as part of wider scholarly work within critical surf studies and the blue humanities. This episode is Part 2 of a two part series on the topic. Part 2 focuses on surfing in Africa during the modern era, from c. early 1900s to the present.If you have not listened to Part 1, which covers surfing in during the colonial period, we recommend to you check out the episode [ADD link] before joining us for Part 2.We cover a lot of coastline in this episode: from Agatha Christie's surfing during her Grand Tour of the colonies in the 1920s to examples of indigenous surfing in West Africa in the late 1940s; from the era of "surf discovery" in Africa in the Sixties and Seventies to the diffusion of surfing through the processes of surf tourism, non-profit led social development, and sportisation in Africa from the 1990s and 2000s. We consider how the term AfroSurf is both productive in creating black and brown surfing identities in Africa and the USA, but also is in need of critique for it ideological and material base. We also look to how the entry of surfing into the Olympics is driving the growth of surfing in Africa. And we offer a case study of surfing in Liberia to illustrate these trends.References for this episode:Dawson, Kevin. Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018).Laderman, Scott. Empire in Waves: A Political History of Surfing, (University of California Press, 2014)."Liberia to Host Africa’s First-ever Surf Tour," Daily Observer, 18 April 2024, https://www.liberianobserver.com/liberia-host-africas-first-ever-surf-tourMami Wata. AfroSurf, (Mami Wata International, 2020).Moore, Michael Scott. Sweetness and Blood, (Rodale Books, 2010).Prichard, Mathew (ed). Agatha Christie: The Grand Tour, (Harper, 2013).Rouch, Jean. “Surf-Riding sur la Côte d'Afrique,” Notes Africaines, vol. 42, 1949.Sliding Liberia, dir. Britton Caillouette and Nicholai Lidow: Liberia/USA, Woodshed Films, 2007.The Impossible Wave, dir. Jay Johnson and Jessica Johnson, (International Surfing Association, 2023), available https://theimpossiblewave.com/ - a film on the ISA's path to the Olympics.Waves for Change, “Liberian surf therapy brings the stoke to Robertsport,” 5 October 2022, https://waves-for-change.org/liberian-surf-therapy-brings-the-stoke-to-robertsport/

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• History of Surfing in Africa Part 1: The Colonial Archive

  In this episode we dive into the history of surfing in Africa as part of wider scholarly work within critical surf studies and the blue humanities. This episode is Part 1 of a two part series on the topic.We focus primarily on the history of surfing in West Africa, which has colonial records of African aquatic activities. This history draws on the historical work of Kevin Dawson which explores, and reclaims, West African aquatic practices. We also speculate on what other historical sources scholars could look to when opening up the archives to find evidence for surfing in the past elsewhere along the extensive African coastline. In this episode we focus the period from the early modern period (c. 1500) to the beginning of the twentieth-century (c. early 1900s).For the history of surfing in Africa in the modern era (c.1900 to the present), check out the Part 2 episode in this link: ADD LINK.Scholarship referenced in this episode:Booth, Douglas. "Mediating Contested Narratives of the Globalization of Sport: The Case of Surfing" in Joseph Maguire, Katie Liston and Mark Falcous (eds), Palgrave Handbook on Globalisation and Sport, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).Dawson, Kevin. "Surfing beyond Racial and Colonial Imperatives in Early Modern Atlantic Africa and Oceania" in Dexter Zavalza Hugh-Snee and Alexander Sotelo Eastman (eds), The Critical Surf Studies Reader, (Duke University Press, 2017).Dawson, Kevin. Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018).Dawson. Kevin. "A Brief History of Surfing in Africa and the Diaspora" in Mami Wata, AfroSurf, (Mami Wata, 2020).Corbin, Alain. The Lure of the Sea: The Discovery of the Seaside, 1750-1840, (Penguin, 1995). Originally published in French in 1988.Hofmeyr, Isabel. Dockside Reading: Hydrocolonialism and the Custom House, (Duke University Press, 2022).Maguire, Joseph, Katie Liston and Mark Falcous (eds). Palgrave Handbook on Globalisation and Sport, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).Táíwò, Olúfẹ́mi. “It Never Existed,” Aeon, 13 January 2023, https://aeon.co/essays/the-idea-of-precolonial-africa-is-vacuous-and-wrong.

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• The Waves Don't Discriminate

  In this episode, we discuss the issue of fairness in sport, and how a term that sounds neutral is in fact heavily politicised. We start with the definition of fairness in sport generally, and how many factors it does not include, particularly in terms of access. We then turn to discussing fairness in surfing in particular, and how loaded the term is, given that surfing is a subjectively judged sport, and that the playing field is anything but controlled (a key feature of fairness in other sports). The episode ends with Karen going on a rant about the ridiculousness of bans on trans women in sport, and how it really isn't the big issue everyone seems to think it is.Links below:IOC policy on trans women - https://olympics.com/ioc/human-rights/fairness-inclusion-nondiscriminationWSL policy on trans women - https://www.worldsurfleague.com/posts/511243/wslISA policy on trans women - https://isasurf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ISA_Transgender-Policy_Updated_3_9_23.pdfCaster Semenya's book [The Race To Be Myself] is a great resource for learning more about both her journey, and the development of the IOC's position on women with higher testosterone levels.We received funding for podcast recording equipment from the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, at the University of the Western Cape, as part of the New Imaginaries for an Intersectional Critical Humanities Project on Gender and Sexual Justice, a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.Thanks to Christine King for our logo design. Check out her book, Stormcaller - you can buy it via her website: https://www.christineking.co.za/.Karen Graaff is a Research Fellow, Women's and Gender Studies, University of the Western Cape.Glen Thompson is a Research Fellow, History Department, Stellenbosch University.

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