Perception
Much of society in the past had a negative perception on the surf culture, viewing surfers as long haired rebels that were impartial to work or a career. They were classified as "middle class white males that are fit and healthy who have rejected the middle class values". In this case work. People also viewed surfers as hippies and druggies, bringing about negative values that society had placed on them. For years, this mentality of people hurt the image of surfers until the rise of professional surfing started which completely changed the way people view surfers and the surfing culture. According to Surflibrary, with the rise of professional surfing came the change in the image "with fit and healthy athletes that are clean cut young men and women traveling the world making lots of money". This overall eliminated the stereotype that surfers were nothing but rebellious scums. Instead, they were depicted as strong, determined and heroic. With new and easier ways to catch bigger and better waves, surfer are now they bravest souls that would do almost anything to catch the perfect waves. They are daredevils whose sky is the limit.
Although surf culture was commonly loved by all who loved the art of surfing, there was, and still is today, a lot of rivalry between many surfers over surfing territory. For the different beaches spread out along the coast, many of the surfers were locals of the beach towns and lived there year-round. The locals weren't considered wealthy, so to many of them took pride in their surf spots. Yet, this sparked a lot of resentment to the locals when their beaches would become filled with inlanders who were unskilled or stupid surfers. Hence the expression "locals only", which was commonly used among beach towns that were particularly intruded on my vacationers where weren't from the area. In the 1960's, the term "surf nazi's" was used to describe the very territorial surfers who where often involved in surf related gangs or clubs. For example, the popular skateboard team known as the Zephyr team, or Z Boys, were once a group of kids that began a surf team. Them along with other Dogtown locals prized their surf spot and defended it fiercely. According to a site on Dogtown history, "outsiders had to earn their way in", continuing on that this mindset of a type of initiation "drove into these young people to need to prove themselves". Many beaches across the coast that were very surfer based had the "locals only" mentality for quite some time, even until today where there's still hostility even where the waves break.