Using the narrative imagery of Instagram and the cultural narrative of the Olympics, I explore the role of agency and autonomy in modern sport with a focus on the commercial and institutional arms of surfing. This project is an attempt to evaluate visual and cultural narrative from the perspective of a literary scholar and to root theory and philosophy in issues that go beyond scholarship and academics. In chapter one, I use sports sociologists Jennifer Hargreaves and Krista Comer as well as Jean Kilbourne and Rosalind Gill to illuminate and explore two surf-centric Instagram accounts, both of which imagine a story of surfing through a mostly visual medium. In chapter two, I turn to Elizabeth Grosz and Michel Foucault to help explore the institutionalized arm of surfing through its recent inclusion in the Olympic Games. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection