Bolsa Chica State Beach Surfing Report

Introduction

I will be observing the people surrounding the sport of surfing in Huntington Beach, CA. Surfing, as defined by Oxford English Dictionary, is “to stand or lie on a surfboard and ride on a wave toward the shore”. My general theme is exploring surfing culture. Within that theme, I will be exploring the the language and social interaction among surfers. Likewise, I will be exploring the perspective surfers have on the community and what motivates them to do the sport.

My field site will be at Bolsa Chica State Beach. This location is in Huntington Beach, also known as Surf City. Bolsa Chica State Beach is a 3-mile wide beach located near Warner Ave across the Pacific Coast Highway. This beach is about five minutes away from the Pier

My non-positivist research is concerned with understanding phenomena in-depth by asking questions such as “How, Why, and What”. Positivist research, unlike my own, is more concerned with understanding the relationship between two variables, and asks questions such as “How many and How much”. My research theme and its puzzles are framed as open-ended questions that seek to explore my topic. By asking general questions such as: “How do surfers communicate and interact among each other?” and “What is surfing culture?”, I hope to explore and find rich, descriptive data that I could not quantify. My purpose is to explore the human experience of surfing, instead of simply examining the relationship between two variables. By observing, interviewing, and taking pictures, I hope to examine individualized experiences and social interaction among surfers and the non-surfers around them. Since I am observing only one location, my research is rather individualized and as such cannot be necessarily

By observing a small number of people, I hope to obtain a more in-depth individual perspective, instead of a generalized one. That would leave about 50-60 participants for the 8 hours of field study. Bolsa Chica State beach has many people attend its beaches every day so the beach is sufficiently public. A strong reason for doing my research at the beach is that I am able to blend into the environment by wearing sunglasses and laying down in the sand. This type of behavior is very common as many people love to relax and suntan on beaches. Therefore, it will not be difficult to observe, in the background, how the surfers