Game Over - Is Kelly finally done?

It's all BS. Take any sport for an example. The one who dominates in it will help build any sports related industry. Growth ,exposure, mo money for the greedy bottom feeders. Take lance Armstrong for example. Until people found out he was doping there was a huge boom in cycling. The clothes, bikes and whatever else they needed to emulate lance, profits in the industry skyrocketed prompting new sponsorships and the what nots. When these accusations came out about his doping people just didn't, couldn't accept the fact that he wasn't superhuman. After he admitted to it, people were like all...uuhhh and the interest slowly faded. Only the people that where truly dedicated to sport of cycling stayed in it and when the TDF is run ever year, every cyclist you see on the road is racing in their mind. It's kookie!
My hope is that we have now hit a plateau and we have seen the end of these bottom feeders and bring back the "soul in surfing"

 

I honestly have no idea when a surf contest is happening. I only find out about them here when someone posts a link. I may click and watch for a minute but it doesn't hold my attention long. Local contests are funny to me.

Sometimes I'll hit my local spot that's usually empty and there will be a contest going on. It's almost always poor conditions for a contest. I've seen them go through with comps when it's barely shin - knee high and essentially flat. Watching someone with a jersey on trying to surf a 1ft shore break into an inch of water is silly.

 

Thanks dude...I was losing sleep.

 

I just had this conversation with another local kid last week...

When I was growing up in Cape May in the '70s, there was a core group of hippies that surfed, and that was pretty much it. When I learned to surf back then, the only people learning to surf were me and a small group of 5 or 6 kids, and all those older hippie dudes. All through the '80s there weren't a lot of kids learning to surf, even though professional surfing was in full bloom. MR, Tom Curren, Potzz toward the end of the decade... were the idols of the day. But you couldn't click on youtube videos back then, and you'd be hard pressed to find ANY coverage on TV.

So I think surfing's exponential growth in the '90s and 2000's is due to the fact that we live in the digital age. It's to a far greater degree the exposure of professional surfers and surfing, and not professional surfing itself that's turned what was once a subculture into popular culture.

But there's still many, many days throughout the year that I surf solo, or with only a couple of other guys. I know it's not like there's world class surf here, but still... at least for me... surfing is just as good now as it ever was, and the local kids who surf all year are just as core... and soulful... as we were back in the day.

 

LBcrew--the internet has a lot of weight promoting the sport, true. But only as a medium.
It doesn't do it on its own--people run that.
And those are the persons marketing products. We do not have a contest--we have a "Corona Contest", or a "Red Bull" contest...etc.
Your favorite sport has been delivered to marketers by sell outs. Having said that, it doesn't really bother me up here. And my surfing days are numbered as well. But never let anybody tell you that it is due to longboards, computers, , etc....it is humans that have delivered YOU and all of us to marketing interests.
Funny thing is, in the last election, many of you were complaining about "corporate greed" etc, but not if those corporations had brainwashed you in support of "world class events". Pretty lame self-interest, which often comes back to haunt you.

 

Right on. This I can agree with.

 

Barry you have an interesting way of looking at things considering you made your millions off of an industry that leads all industries in marketing of product. But, I don't necessarily disagree that money drives these events or the world tour. It really is not much different (marketing of products). People and Corpos pay up to drive these events (although you don't have to buy a ticket...yet, to view the Pipe Masters).

However, I think LB makes a very cogent point on the digital age. Hell, look at this site. You have people posting from PA to Corpus Christi on here. You have cams and threads telling you how to actually pick out the proper fin. And the exposure of these contest were never as they are today with online access to view each heat in real time.

Back to Slater, the Tiger Woods reference that SIS made is right on...sure there will be another super star, each generation has one. But just like Tiger did not beat Jack Nicolaus yet, it will be many many moons before Slater's legacy is topped.

Every sport seems be whored out. It's unfortunate that money and greed get in the way of true sport. With that said, I still like watching guys battle at Chopes or Pipe in waves of consequence or one of the best point breaks in the world...after all it's entertainment and well, it's entertaining (to me anyway).

 

The re-emergance of surf fashion (the first wave was Ray Ban wayfarers and hurache sandals during the gidget era) during the late 80s and early 90s with the popularity of Salter, Machado, AI, Hobgober twins, Malloy bros,etc was a big reason the sport of surfing became the big fad de juor.

Hopefully that will fade, kids will wear zombie clothes or something

 

Read "Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell," by Chas Smith. He's a bit of a douche, but his book makes a good point (that the Hawaiians know all too well): According to him, the quality of surf and risks involved do not drive pro surfing and the money it generates. LOCATION of comps drives points and money... and therefore rankings... no matter what the surf is like. So large metro areas, that draw big crowds and the big money from advertisers/sponsors, have the highest point values and biggest cash awards... even if the waves are crap.

You can say a lot of things about pro surfing... about the talent, the athletes, the impact it has on crowds, etc.... but one thing is for sure - it's all about the money, not the surfing.

 

And that is EXACTLY WHY I can make those points--it is marketing. I lived it!! It is not by way of complaint, but by way of observation and acknowledging what is happening.
But, I would never give up a good surf ession to watch ANYBODY else surf. Same for any other sport, fut, basket, or base ball...they suck anyways...<grin>

 

There have been sponsors of surf contests going back to the 70s, maybe 60s. Nothing new. The current crowds we see have nothing to do with companies or corporations marketing surf contests. Outside of the local contest venue and maybe a few surfing websites, there is little to zero advertising of the event by the corporation.

 

Agreed. It's much better to be a participant, rather than a spectator.

When we were kids we avoided all contests - they were a symbol of the mainstream culture co-opting the underground (we thought) surf culture. Or maybe it was because we sucked.

 

I would not give up a good surf session either but when I'm sitting my ass at this computer grinding it out it's fun to watch. Unfortunately, I wasn't in S. Africa for that swell so I watched the contest and enjoyed it. Your life experience is well documented here...I know you know how the world works

 

maybe a combo. When i started NOBODY rode a log, it was all big volume shortboards. In the 80's surf culture was huge but crowds stayed sane. Why? One, there were local enforcers to keep the newbies in line (you were relegated to crappy spots to learn), and 2 it was much harder to learn on shortboards and many gave up. IT was the same story year after year, laxxer bro shows up and wants to surf. Said laxxer bro struggles with learning on a shortboard and quits after a month. With the resurgence of the log, laxxer can be riding waves the same day he gets his board (same for the dad bod types and girls).

 

^^^Absolutely. Boards have gotten way more user friendly. We learned to surf on used boards from the shortboard revolution days... that sucked. Literally everything was wrong about those boards... rockers, rails, templates, weight, fin setups... just dogs. Nothing... no design element... went with anything else. You had rockers designed for trimming and rails designed for turning. Just horrible designs. It wasn't until the twin fins started taking over from single fins that surfboards started to work right. That was a crazy time...

 

Longboards with leashes are a huge reason for crowded surf. As pump pointed out, anyone can learn on a LB, and if you take away the element of having to swim for your board each time you fall off, it makes it way too easy to stay in the lineup.

Now that I think about it, when I learned, between the crazy hippy older dudes, and the no kook cord mandate, and the sharks, no wonder there was only a core crew that came up back then.

 

don't forget the soft top revolution...it don't even hurt to get hit by your board anymore.

 

Since the desecration of our jetties there are still herding issues on miles of beach break. I still get my fair share but away from and before the herd stampedes. I suppose I'm just getting too old to change my ways. Most thrive on crowds these days. But I'll say this; when summer is over it gets better.

 

This we can agree on. I'm pretty spoiled that my favorite spot is almost always empty and when there are actually people it's normally a small group. Now if I drove up to Cocoa Pier that's a different story, I avoid that place as much as possible.

 

back in the day all the sponsors were liquor companies like smironoff,etc..

now u have companies like red bull and monster sponsoring events,which kids love.i don't really know what year it was when surfing became so mainstream but id say the internet definitely had something to do with it