David P. Cline is a historian specializing in 20th and 21st-century U.S. social movements. He is a Professor of History at SDSU and the Founding Director of the Center for Public and Oral History. In addition to his courses on social movements and public history, David has innovated courses on sports in American History and is currently working on a textbook focusing on race, gender, and power in American sports.  He is the author of three books, including 2021's Twice Forgotten: African Americans and the Korean War, An Oral History (UNC Press). 

Dr. Brandon Gamble received his training in psychology from Oakwood College for his Bachelor's degree, San Diego State for his Master's degree, and the University of Southern California is where he earned his Doctoral degree in Educational Psychology.

From 1998 to 2009, he served middle and high school students as a school psychologist in the Long Beach Unified School District before becoming an associate professor at Cal State University Long Beach, in the College of Education for the Educational Psychology program from 2007 to 2018.  He has had the honor to serve as the adviser for the Black Student Union at CSULB.  Also, from 2018-2021, he has was at his undergraduate alma mater to serve as the Dean of Student Success at Oakwood University in Huntsville, AL.  Currently, he serves as the Director for the Black Resource Center at San Diego State University. 

Dr. Gamble's written work and research has focused on African American male's social capital and familial support networks that empower young people to succeed in academics and live a strong socially and emotionally health life.  

Kristin Lawler is Professor of Sociology at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York City and teaches with the Bard Prison Initiative as well. Her first book, The American Surfer: Radical Culture and Capitalism, was published by Routledge in 2011, and her new book, co-edited with Michael James Roberts and David Cline, entitled Flow and Roll: the Political Ontology of Surfing and Skateboarding is forthcoming from San Diego State University Press. Her work has been published in numerous edited collections, including, most recently, Feminism and the Early Frankfurt School (forthcoming); Back to the 30s? Recurring Crises of Capitalism, Liberalism, and Democracy; Nietzsche and Critical Social Theory; Class: the Anthology; The Critical Surf Studies Reader, and Southern California Bohemias. Her work has also been published in the journal Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination; she is a member of its editorial board as well as a member of the board of The Institute for the Radical Imagination.

I grew up in the Bay Area and learned to surf in Santa Cruz, California, at a spot on the east side of town called “the Hook.” I earned my PhD in 2005 from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), where I studied under the late Stanley Aronowitz.  At CUNY, I was trained in Cultural Studies and Sociology, with a particular emphasis on the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and British Cultural Studies. My areas of interest are wide ranging including: the culture and history of surfing and skateboarding, the history of the American Labor Movement, science and technology studies, popular culture, the history of rock and roll and critical theory. I teach courses in all these areas, and I am the recipient of several teaching awards. My academic activities are situated in the context of the teacher-scholar model, informed by the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire.

In the area of surfing studies, my work includes an article co-authored with Dr. Jess Ponting titled, “Waves of Simulation: Arguing Authenticity in an Era of Surfing the Hyperreal” (International Review for The Sociology of Sport). In the article we consider how the surfing community has responded to the emergence “perfect” artificial waves produced in man-made wave pools. Using the work of the theorists Jean Baudrillard and Walter Benjamin, we look at how fake waves may become a primary referent for surf culture and what long term impact that will have upon the culture(s) of surfing.

I also was a co-organizer of an international conference on surf culture and the history of surfing held here at San Diego State University in the Spring of 2019. Well established scholars in the field from several countries around the world attended the conference.

I am currently working on two projects: the first is a co-edited book with Dr. Kristin Lawler and Dr. David Cline titled, Roll and Flow: The Cultural Politics of Surfing and Skateboarding which will be published by San Diego State University Press in the Fall of 2022. We take the occasion of the involvement of skateboarders and surfers in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and protests in the Summer of 2020 as a means to intervene into the on-going conversations about the political significance of surfing and skateboarding. My second project is a book titled Surfing and Critical Theory. Co-authored with Dr. Kristin Lawler, the book presents a critical reflection upon the cultural politics of surfing by using the frameworks of post-structuralism, historical materialism, and psychoanalysis to shed light on previously neglected aspects in the history of surfing culture.

I created a course on the culture and history of surfing with my graduate student Chad Smith at San Diego State in 2006 and have been teaching it ever since. I recently created a second course on the topic and both courses will be included in the new “Board Studies Certificate” offered at SDSU. The certificate, which includes several courses on both surfing and skateboarding, will be offered under the umbrella of the new Sports and Society minor also offered at SDSU. 

My previous research has been published in academic journals as well as in monograph form. My first book, titled Tell Tchaikovsky the News: Rock’n’roll, the Labor Question and the Musicians’ Union, (Duke University Press) offers a new interpretation of the cultural politics of rock and roll music situated in the context of an historical account of how and why the musicians’ union neglected to organize rock musicians for several decades. My second book, titled Class: The Anthology (Wiley) is an edited volume on the topic of social class. It is a collection of the best writings about class. Co-edited with Stanley Aronowitz, it includes some previously unpublished essays as well. My third book, titled Nietzsche and Critical Social Theory (Brill) is co-edited with Dr. Christine Payne. It is an exploration into the debate over the politics of Nietzsche and the various interpretations of his work on the Right and Left. 

Kimball Taylor is the author of The Coyote's Bicycle: The Untold Story of Seven Thousand Bicycles and the Rise of a Borderland Empire, which was a finalist for the California Book Award. A longtime contributor to Surfer Magazine, his work has appeared in the The Surfer’s Journal, Surfing Magazine, Adventure Journal, Transworld Skateboarding, Transworld Snowboarding, ESPN Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Vice Media, and The Atlantic. He was a columnist for ESPN.go.com and a contributing author to history books on the legendary surf breaks Banzai Pipeline and Jefferys Bay. Taylor lectures in the Rhetoric and Writing Studies department at San Diego State University.

Tim Tully is a librarian in the Reference, Outreach, and Instruction department who specializes in supporting the Fowler College of Business and the Payne School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. In addition to this, Tim works across library units, such as Special Collections and University Archives and Digital Collections, to develop collections to support the teaching and research missions of the Surf/Skate Studies Collaborative and teaches the Freshman Seminar Gen S 100C - "Surfing and Sustainability." Prior to becoming a librarian, Tim was a retail buyer at a surf shop, interned at surf and skate companies, and co-founded the Florida lifestyle brand Flomotion. Tim grew up surfing and skating in New Smyrna Beach, Florida and competed at the amatuer and junior pro levels.