The Stoke Sessions: An International Conference on the Culture, History and Politics of Surfing and Skateboarding
April 20-23, 2023

Join us for our conference that aims to bring together scholars from all backgrounds and disciplines – humanities, social and natural sciences, cultural studies, ethnic studies, Indigenous studies, sports studies, etc. in a comprehensive examination of surfing and skateboarding. We also welcome graduate and undergraduate students, writers, journalists, community activists, professional and casual surfers/skaters to join us in a celebration of, and critical reflection upon, the culture, history and politics of surfing and skateboarding and their various progeny like snowboarding, windsurfing, etc.

The Stoke Sessions, featuring keynote speakers Tony and Steve Hawk, Dian Hadiani, and Selema Masekela, is the second international conference organized and hosted by San Diego State University’s Surf and Skate Studies Collaborative. Our first conference titled “Impact Zones and Liminal Spaces: The Culture and History of Surfing” took place in April of 2019. That conference generated two edited volumes, one titled Roll and Flow the Cultural Politics of Skateboarding and Surfing, edited by Michael Roberts, Kristin Lawler and David Cline (forthcoming 2023, San Diego State University Press) and Waves of Hope, Waves of Belonging: Indigeneity, Gender and Race in the Surfing Line Up, edited by Lydia Heberling, David Kamper and Jess Ponting (advanced contract, University of Washington Press). The Stoke Sessions builds upon our previous conference, but with a wider scope that includes skateboarding and other board sports spawned by surfing. We plan to keep the new name and hope to make The Stoke Sessions a biennial, traveling conference that can be hosted by scholars from a variety of locales around the world. The second part of our plan is to link The Stoke Sessions conference to our new journal, Board Cultures: The International Journal of Surfing and Skateboarding Studies, published by San Diego State University Press. It is our goal to create a network of scholars around the globe that can connect once every other year through The Stoke Sessions conference and publish their research and art in a new venue dedicated to surfing and skateboarding studies.

Conference Organizing Committee

Proud to partner with local Black-owned businesses:

 Thanks to our campus sponsors: