Yeah I'm decidedly confused about the author's conception of surfing. They seem to be under an impression that the sport/hobby has inherent philosophical values.

I think that's a common conception of many surfers. Surfing is somewhat entrenched in philosophy. Surfers have philosophical concepts of individualism, territory, ecology, morality, and existential concepts surrounding their place in nature and what is truly important in life to be happy.

Surfers can be considered to live their life like any spiritual individual. Their _god_ is the ocean, their pursuit is happiness in the moment recognizing risk and danger is a necessary component for a full life.

I wonder how that came about, and how a culture like that could have come to persist into the 2020s?

My initial thought is to the limited range to actually peruse the sport, leading to a closer knit culture. It's coastal dependent and coast culture always has a distinct identity in my experience, more so than Mountain culture in my experience.

It's more that the core that would consider themselves the core have some widely shared values. Lot's of "lifestyle"/"adventure" sports are similar. And these are the people that started the brands that ended up not living up to their values.

I guess I haven't entered to a sport/hobby that hadn't already past that stage of shared values.

I snowboard and when I see other snowboarders I don't assume we share values beyond maybe finding the boots more comfortable than those for skiing.

Surfing is inherently limited in its scope by the number of surfable beaches. There's not room for unbounded expansion of the industry, unless you count surf-inspired lifestyle apparel.

No, its not. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_surfing

That limitation may not hold true for much longer:

http://www.kswaveco.com/