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ACTIVE. RESTORATION.

MATT Micuda was 12 in 1973 when he surfed for the first time. It was on a board that had come from a friend of the family — a Barry Kanaiaupuni model from Rick Surfboards that was made in 1968. “I loved it immediately,” he said. “Even when I started surfing on shortboards and eventually went pro, I always had a bunch of longboards around. We always met up when the surf got small on the old boards. That was the time when we’d hang with our friends, get the gossip, talk about girls and enjoy the ocean.”

Mr. Micuda, a sign fabricator from Santa Cruz, Calif., still surfs on the old boards and claims that it’s his way of staying in touch with his love of the sport.

Staying in touch with the feelings that surfing evokes is important, because the surfing world has changed. Competitive surfing has become bigger and more exclusive, and boards and gear have become more expensive and higher tech. Prices of modern competitive boards today range from $800 to $1,200.

Luckily for Mr. Micuda, a surfing subculture that has been around for years is beginning to grow. So-called soul surfers, more concerned with the individuality of the sport, and less with the commercial aspects, are picking up the old boards in an effort to retain the original spirit of surfing.

And they gather for events like the Big Stick Logjam, one of the longest running longboard surf contests in the world, which was held April 26 and 27. This year the contest attracted more than 100 competitors, who came from all up and down the West Coast.

“Yes, it’s a competition,” said Gioni Pasquinelli, a former president of the Big Stick Surfing Association, which puts on the event. “But it’s really just a gathering of people who love old boards.” He said the contest started about 20 years ago when some surfers began to feel that the sport had become overly dominated by new board technology. “This is an opportunity for people to share old boards, try out boards you’ve never surfed on and truly appreciate how the boards are made,” Mr. Pasquinelli said. “The cool thing about the whole event is that it really feels like another era. And that’s important for everyone to experience.”

Retro contests and simple club get-togethers have become about pageantry — places to see beautiful mint examples of classic boards. Movies like “Gidget” and “The Endless Summer” and songs from the Beach Boys and Dick Dale like “Surfin’ USA,” “Misirlou” and “Night Rider” — engendered a culture that went far beyond surfing, but ultimately created much of the popularity that still exists today.