Surf's upscale! Catching a wave: a new-and-improved image for surfing.

• Position: SPORTS - Brief article

Once the sport of Hawaiian kings, surfing has now come full circle: After decades of association with beach bums and slackers, it's become a status sport, like skiing and golf. Surfing schools and equipment sales are booming. And for $10,000 a day--surfers can vacation in Indonesia aboard a 110-foot charter boat with 15 cabins, a heli-pad, and three-course meals. It was different in the 1970s, according to Chris Mauro, editor of Surfer Magazine. Back then, being a surfer carried a negative image. "You would stop [surfing] at 25," Mauro says, "or you were...