The aesthetics of risk. A study of surfing

A combination of participant-observation, survey research, interviews, and semiotics was used to examine risk-taking in Australian surfing. It is argued that: (1) aestheticization facilitates risk-taking in the pursuit of an ecstatic, transcendent experience; and (2) the surfing aesthetic involves a postmodern incarnation of the sublime that distorts rational risk assessment. The study also analyzes the role of the surfing media in constructing and reinforcing images of the sublime. © ISSA and SAGE Publications.