Yet, that’s been a recent  area of research for University of Wollongong human geographers Professor Chris Gibson and Dr Andrew Warren.

The pair have traced the history of surfing and surfboard making – which included ‘‘research trips’’ to Byron Bay, the Gold Coast, Hawaii and California – and will be talking about their work at the next Uni in the Brewery session.

Their work together began when Professor Gibson was supervising Dr Warren’s PhD and he suggested doing it on surfing.

‘‘When Andrew suggested it to me,  I thought, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’,’’ Professor Gibson said.

‘‘But then Andrew talked me through some of the issues. He’d spoken to his local board maker, Mick Carabine, who is well-known in the surfboard-making scene.

‘‘He was thinking about retiring and Andrew got a panic that he wasn’t going to be making his boards any more. He started to talk to him about some of the issues in the industry.

‘‘It was a really interesting case study of a very iconic Australian industry that probably wasn’t really well recognised  as such and had been going through a lot of changes that were quite emblematic of what had been going on in the broader economy.

‘‘It turned out to be  a vivid, iconic and a quirky thing to have a look at,’’ he said.

After Dr Warren’s PhD, the pair worked on a book aimed at the general public called Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers.

It was that book that necessitated those research trips to surf-friendly locations. Though Professor Gibson is more a body surfer, he says Dr Warren did catch a few waves at those locations,  which actually helped with the research.

‘‘It’s a unique kind of fieldwork method,’’ Professor Gibson said.

‘‘We spent a lot of time in factories, we were looking at how boards were made, talking to workers and people who run the factories and so on. 

To get access to those factories and build up the trust so that people will confide in you, you’ve really got to build up a relationship. 

So I think it’s fair to say that Andrew spent a bit of time in the water as well, with the board makers, which I guess was a side effect of doing this kind of research.’’

It’s not the first time Professor Gibson has delivered a talk at a Uni in the Brewery session. He says he likes the concept and finds it much more relaxing than delivering a lecture in front of a hall of students.

‘‘There’s nothing better as an academic than to get outside the ivory tower for a talk, especially in a place where you can have a beer and tell a joke or two and a story on the side,’’ he says.

‘‘As researchers, we spend half our lives in very serious circles presenting our findings at conferences, publishing in peer-reviewed journals.  So it’s really refreshing to have the chance to break out of that and talk about things in a plain-English format and have a bit of fun as well.’’