The article examines learning and identity formation for young people in an Australian surf club. Drawing on Lave and Wenger's notion of situated learning, it identifies how membership in the surf club from an early age involves highly significant and meaningful learning and identity formation, where learning is co-constructed with other members as a process of negotiating meaning and knowledge. It identifies how membership in the surf club and participation in its practices over time provides the participants with access to resources for understanding and cultural knowledge through growing involvement in practice. In doing so it suggests that there is a need to view physical learning as a complex process that is inseparable from social and cultural "webs of experience."