How mainstream is surfing now?

I suppose the world is enveloped in selfish pleasures.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Is there?

 

Yep. A co-worker asked me to teach his son. Said his son wants to get into it and is super gung ho. I told him it takes alot of practice and consistency b4 the fun really happens. They live 20 miles inland and his kids only 10. I told him unless he's willing to drive his kid 20 miles to the beach everyday after work, it ain't gonna happen.

 

When i started seeng 45 year old moms sitting around on the beach talking about their new stick while giving each other the shaka I new it was all over. There are places where surfing is noob friendly and anyone with a 7 foot soft top can catch a wave and ride it to the beach and call themselves a surfer. Thats where I live so its out of control. I dont think I considered myself a surfer until the early 2000s. In the 70s and 80s i just surfed, couldnt afford surf trunks so wore cut off jeans. Pretty sure no one back then called themselves a surfer they were just people who surfed. Today its more of an identity that people choose the same as they think its normal to choose their sexual indentity. Saying your a surfer doesnt make you a surfer just like saying your a woman doesnt make a 6 foot male linebacker a woman.

 

That's just it man. It takes time and allot of it. And not just in the water on a board, but paying attention to your surroundings. Hell, today and yesterday it was fairly small here. Fun waves though. Was riding SBs although I probably really should been on a LB. A bunch of "surfers" out. Yet I'm catching wave after wave on a SB while everyone else is just bobbing on there LBs. A slight drift, and within minutes everyone is off the peak and either to dumb or lazy to paddle back to the peak. Eff it. I'm not filling them in. They can sit out of position wondering why they ain't getting none while I do my thing.

It deffinitly gets on my nerves. One of those things you just have to shake your head at. But the line up sorts itself out. Even when it's small. And like I said earlier, come winter, when waves are more worthwhile in my opinion, you don't see this type of crap.

 

And that Mazda commercial that mentions dawn patrol made me think of you guys and that tread a few weeks back about dawn patrol. In the commercial it's like mid day haha

 

I always tell people "you're gonna fail over and over again before you gain any sort of success" and that "it takes a lot of commitment and sticktuitiveness"

Basically my passive aggressive way to discourage even attempting.

 

its only crowded on days like today.warm water,warm air,2ft slop.winter is what seperates the men from the boys..and gals.i definitely seen an increase over the years of the crowds in winter,but its still the same,everyone waits til the storms subsides and its 3ft max.when its 8ft and hollow,only the best are out,and theres not many.

so when I see more ppl out on those 8ft hollow days,then il be worried..until then its obamas fault

 

Ding ding ding

 

It made me want to change my screename

 

Lol

 

I think you're right, Zip... I remember when I was a grom you were still considered a sort of bum/derelict/druggie if you surfed (mid '70s). For a few years in the beginning I was kind of embarrassed, and didn't really want people to know I surfed. Then, once people knew, they called me a surfer. I never admitted I was a surfer until years later, once the image of surfers started to change.

 

Exactly. And we grew up in the same area based on your swellinfo name. In some ways bum was a good description of us back then, or urchins might fit even better. We spent every day of the summer at the beach with little to no supervision. Surfing was just one of the things we did over the course of a day. Snorkeling around the rocks and going on a calico crab killing spree after being bitten more times than you can count. Picking up girls most of the time unsuccessfully, scrounging for beers even though we were only 14, smoking cigarettes at the seawall and then when the tide was right paddling out and surfing till the tide killed it. No surf gear other than an old board and a pair of cutoffs. Our skin was so brown we got those white fungus spots all over including our faces. Pretty sure bum would describe us, it was great.

 

Oh don't be fooled, 50% do. Those fvckers come out of the flipping woodwork when there is a decent hurricane swell and the water's still warm.

 

Here is some insight from da Master of Disaster, same thought process back in the early days: Gidget, Elvis' Blue Hawaii, Beach Boys, etc. Just for some perspective, young uns.




4:31
[h=3][/h]

 

Very apt description of our youth, so well spent.
Who said youth is wasted on the young? (was that you, o Barry?)
They were wrong.

 

[video=vimeo;89732438]https://vimeo.com/89732438[/video]

I think this is a much better reflection than Dora

 

Naw, you see, surfing wise, and other departments as well, my youth was a LOT better than most could even dream of. First 18 years in the Caribbean, sailing, surfing, spearfishing, and hot chicks coming to the island to get popped. I didn't waste it living on the mainland. Had a great youth.
Todays youth?? 90% of their time on the internet with a stupid iPhone.....they are wasting it alright.
btw, Dora--he was a moron, and he died as one....drugged out, alcoholic, unfortunately.

 

That's just it tooncey, they don't care to get half way good and commit cause style points are free (minus the cost of boart and suite)

 

Or shoppes at pac-sun