The “hot dog” style of surfing based on a traditional Hawai’ian practice began on the west coast of the United States in the mid-1950s, made possible by the development of new boards manufactured from light synthetic materials. Surfing quickly became a cult, popularized by the teen movie, like the series and later television sitcom, Gidget (1959), the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello movies Beach Party (1963), Bikini Beach (1964) and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), the documentary The Endless Summer (1966), as well as the music of the Beach Boys.

Californians introduced their Malibu boards to Australia and a few years later, in 1962, an Australian won the first unofficial world championship. This began a long rivalry between Australia, California and Hawai’i for dominance in surfing.

In conjunction with this emerging rivalry, surfing became a big business. Gerry Lopez, a leading surfer in his own right, began to sell boards through a shop outlet in Honolulu.

Then he established the Bolt Corporation with partners in California, and set up a franchise arrangement that gave manufacturing rights to companies in all the major surfing countries. In conjunction with business growth came technological developments, such as the introduction of V-bottoms on boards, which improved the surfer’s ability to surf waves for longer.

The possibility that surfing will become an Olympic sport in the future has increased with the opening of indoor surfing pools in Japan and Arizona.