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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport, Leisure, Tourism, and Events
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1406311
This article is part of the Research Topic Sport and Active Living: Nature Challenge vis-à-vis Inter-human competition View all articles

The challenges of the wind. Ecology of serious leisure in the Brazilian Northeast

Provisionally accepted
Olivier SIROST Olivier SIROST 1*Bernard Andrieu Bernard Andrieu 2*Jullya Bheatriz Dantas Da Costa Sobral Jullya Bheatriz Dantas Da Costa Sobral 3*Petrucia Da Nóbrega Petrucia Da Nóbrega 3*
  • 1 Université de Rouen, Mont-Saint-Aignan, France
  • 2 Université Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
  • 3 Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The aim of this study is to understand the development of windsports and the challenges faced by wind-based leisure activities.The socio-historical dynamics behind the development of wind leisure are analysed on the basis of specialised tourism blogs, as well as a field study carried out in the Northeast Region of Brazil, combining ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews with 6 wind leisure enthusiasts. All the data is processed using the serious leisure perspective tools developed by Stebbins, and the body ecology tools developed by Andrieu et al.The results show that wind sports provide a dual continuum. First of all, there are the practitioners, from Neophyte to Devotee Worker. Then there is the junction between land, water and air, where wind practices ensure a dual aesthetic. On the one hand, riders are united by a community of flow, emotion and sensation mediated by their relationship with the wind and the creation of play materials (waves, lagoons, trade winds). On the other hand, the tourist development of these practices serves a political narrative based on postcard aesthetics, enabling wind concessions to be traded for the development of wind farms.this original research calls for a more systematic exploration of wind practices and the hybridisation of natural elements, which seems to illustrate the crisis that modern sport and its institutions are going through today.

    Keywords: Serious leisure perspective, wind leisure, wind challenges, Brazilian northeast, body ecology

    Received: 24 Mar 2024; Accepted: 19 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 SIROST, Andrieu, Dantas Da Costa Sobral and Da Nóbrega. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Olivier SIROST, Université de Rouen, Mont-Saint-Aignan, France
    Bernard Andrieu, Université Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, 75006, France
    Jullya Bheatriz Dantas Da Costa Sobral, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 84030-900, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
    Petrucia Da Nóbrega, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 84030-900, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

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