Originally Posted by
thisguysthumbs
Maybe if I didn't feel so pressured to be cool every time I walked into the local surf shop, or get stink eye from the young grom who doesn't know a thing beyond what he reads in the mags and who certainly has no concept of me and all the glorious places I've traveled in the name of our sport, maybe, just maybe I'd care about Nike's infiltration into the market. Look who they signed, Hawaiians, the so called protectors of Aloha and the lineage of the sport. Go drive around the North Shore with the giant SUV's and the 'Keep the Country, Country' stickers. What an oxymoron?
This whole sport has been long taken over my the money grubbing vultures. That all started when Kelly grabbed the first 6-figure contract. Even for all the little pesky wannabe pros and all that, there's a perpetuation of the Hollywood desire to somehow be famous. For everyone being so against its getting corporatized, there sure a lot of folks out there trying to figure out how to make money from surfing from being the next independent to that soul sucking sucker looking for a sponsor. Its all the disease.
Even the independent shop owners are whiners. They only want to keep things local so one, they can continue doing what not everyone has the opportunity to do, and to also, continue the spread of localism.
I hope Nike wipes the whole industry clean of all the local B.S., then that way while all the suckers are down there at pipe, I can go cruise Chuns or Pinballs by myself.
Everyone who finds out that I surf is always asking, "did you go to this contest, that event, this party? Did you see so and so, do you know who so and so is?"
"No, I don't. Ya' wanna know why because I was somewhere else surfing on board of my own design and shaping and getting fat shacks for days."
I've made a lot of sacrifice to make my surf life happen, and except for a very brief stint with Hawaiian Tropic, I've never had a sponsor. I don't care, didn't care back when I was learning either. The best part of surfing is actually surfing, so if I'm not doing it where's the fun? Its certainly not at my local surf shop.
They say the goddess Pele forsook Hawaii because they lost their Aloha, and as punishment she escorted the Haoles in. I think the big corporate take over of surf and skate is punishment for all the perpetuation of localism that, at its core, is the biggest problem with this sport, not Nike, Target, or Red Bull.
Ya'll just scared that your going to have to share the waves with a bunch of kooks, but if you were a real soul surfer, kooks wouldn't bother you any more than ravaging locals bother me. So rather than surf the showoff break, I go to the next one down and rip it up all by myself, all day long.
Leave your go pro camera at home, get somewhere where there is no cell signal, and enjoy the ocean for the sake of the ocean, not because someone might see you and think your cool.
Loaded two big ole' shakas for you.
Aloha
This Guys Thumbs
. Something to do with why people SO frequently get taken to task about not supporting local shops, but rarely point out how bad a track record shops these days have in supporting local shapers. 20 years ago, east coast boards made up a much larger percentage of the typical shop's board rack than nowadays. One could argue shops bailed on supporting local before consumers did. I guess I wasn't really asking anything, except I know you work in a shop, and might have a different POV.
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