At the start of the 20th century, Hawaiians living close to Waikiki began to revive surfing, possibly in protest to the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and soon re-established surfing as a sport. Duke Kahanamoku, "Ambassador of Aloha," Olympic medalist, and avid waterman, helped expose surfing to the world. Author Jack London wrote about the sport after having attempted surfing on his visit to the islands.

Surfing progressed tremendously in the 20th century, through innovations in board design and ever increasing public exposure. Surfing's development and culture was centered primarily in three locations: Hawaii, Australia, and California.

Until the 1960s, it had only a small following even in those areas. The release of the film Gidget boosted the sport's popularity immensely, moving surfing from an underground culture into a national fad and packing many surf breaks such as Wind n Sea, San Onofre, Huntington and Manhattan Beach's, Surfrider Beach in Malibu and as far north as Santa Cruz, with sudden and previously unheard of crowds. B-movies and music based on surfing and Southern California beach culture (Beach Party films) as it exploded, formed most of the world's first ideas of surfing and surfers.

Though this conception was revised again in the 1980s with newer mainstream portrayals of surfers, such as Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.It was in the 80's however that the surf culture became a multi billion dollar industry and started to be traded on Wall Street. With high priced surfers like Tommy Curren, Mark Occhilupo, garnering million dollar contracts and being aired prime time on ESPN surf companies such as O.P. Quiksilver,O'neill, Billabong and Hurley became household brands sold in midwest towns across America

.It was in the late 80's that womens surfing spawned such names as Layne Beachley, Lisa Anderson, and now young upcomers such as 13 year old wonderkid Karissa Moore surfer and plunged the surf industry into the feamle market with brands such as Roxy.

Regardless of its usually erroneous portrayal in the media, true surfing culture continued to evolve quietly by itself, changing decade by decade. From the 1960s fad years to the creation and evolution of the short board in the late 60s and early 70s to the performance hotdogging of the neon-drentched 1980s and the epic professional surfing of the 1990s (typified by 8 time world champion Kelly Slater, the "Micheal Jordan of Surfing").

Surfing Documentaries have been one of the main ways in which surfing culture grows and replenishes itself, not just as a sport but as an art-form, the style and quality of surf films have often tracked well the evolution of the sport.With Surfer/artists such as Singer/ Movie maker Jack Johnson and the McCoy brothers leading the charge of avant-gard surf media.

Surfing today continues to evolve and grow as a sport, an art, and a way of life. The evolution of board design with shapers such as Al Merrick / Channell Islands and new compoined board manufacturing techniques ( Epoxy, Tufflite and Firewire ) wave riding techniques, and the ever increasing presence of competitive surfing has kept surf culture vibrant and intact.

Though still centered primarily around Hawaii, Australia, and California, surfing has been expanded to just about anywhere there are waves, particularly Brasil, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Spain, and France. Plus there are now notable surf communities in such diverse locations as Florida, Ireland, Alaska, Jamaica, Peru, and even the American Great Lakes.