This guys great, total kook feast for the forum

I'm so jelous

 

this is truth:

 

^^^what a sh!tty tattoo...can't even read "salt" and looks like a crackhead scratched it in

 

Sensationalist viewpoints, and garbage writing (like much of the Inertia), but an excellent link nonetheless. If you click on this author's profile, you can see that all of his articles conform to the same style "7 easiest lists to write for online idiots."

As usual, the knowledge is in the comments. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the nuanced viewpoints, especially those my Mr. Smith.

Most of the points that he is correct about are applicable to all sports. The self-centered mindset that's necessary to reach elite-level athletics? That's the same for golf as it is for surfing. The worship of flawed heroes? Diego Maradona and Mike Tyson dwarf Andy Irons. The environmental degradation? Surfboards are environmentally criminal, but so are hockey pads, football helmets, snowboard clothing, and the tracks/automobiles/fuels of racing.

The author says that "any reason to avoid introspection is a good one," but then goes on to write an inflammatory diatribe devoid of introspection.

 

You wouldn't believe it, but nascar is one of the greenest sports in the US.

 

Golf is a game not a sport. What points was he incorrect?

 

All true

 

Long story short, surfing is what you make it. So is life.

The point about the best surfer is the one having the most fun always draws such harsh criticism, but that's for its literal interpretation. Of course some tourist on a soft top that miraculously stands up his first time isn't going to land a contract from Hurley or Volcom and start competing on the QS. You gotta be got dang kidding me if you think that's true.

But to sit there and say that everyone who is having fun and pushing themselves to land some maneuver they've never pulled off before is some sort of kook of kooks is such bull****.

Surfing needs more fun in it. I mean who can honestly get through a summer on the Eastern Shore without pullin out the log and hittin up Assateague just to get some long rides and walk away stoked. If you got skill you got skill, but if you don't, who says you can't huck yourself over the falls a few times til you get the timing down and then start gettin slotted with the boys.

I dunno fellas, don't feed trolls. Dude makes solid points but any casual bystander could say that **** about any hobby/sport/interest.

 

Sorry, I took that too far haha

 

I'll go Gaff, let's get that kickstarter going. I need a vacation anyway.

Ya know, a logical extension to the 'surfer having the most fun' cliche, I've seen it written this way somewhere...it's not how good you are at doing something, it's how good that something makes you feel.

Also, thanks Slash, you my dog.

 

I did not use the term 'incorrect,' I said that the points which he is correct about are applicable to all sports.

I admit that is a heavy-handed statement, but not nearly so much as the article. Replace 'golf' with cycling, bodybuilding, snowboarding, or many other sports for which a 'self-centered mindset' is a prerequisite to reach elite status.

I believe it. It's the only sport where fans live at the center of the stadium and eat all the garbage leftover from the game.

 

Yeah, but team sports are different. I grew up playing them and was competitive all the way through college. The build character, build discipline, teach you of sacrifice... I mean, I stayed out of trouble in high school because of sports, because of me not wanting to let my team mates down by not playing. The coaches are beneficial. Anyway, I could go on and on about it, but playing team sports has a ton of positive impact on development and character. In my opinion, surfing does none of that. Sure, it is very rewarding to us, but it brings out the worst in us as people. It exposes selfishness on a regular basis. I gotta admit, again, that although this guy is blunt and to the point about his opinions, i gotta give him a high five on all of them.

I will try and find it, its an old article. But there was an ESPN article about surfing (believe it or not) that the author just took shots at the entire east coast. Basically saying that although there are a handful of good surfers from the east coast, from Florida to Jersey, the waves are all a joke and how he is sick and tired of hearing about that "Epic day in jersey that was just perfect barrels all day".... Blah Blah Blah he said. Waves like that on the west coast are just another mediocre swell. He also said people that argue about "How their state on the east coast has better waves than another state" are lame and that every dog has it's day and that no matter what you think of your home state, your waves still suck and which waves are sh**ier is a mute point. He was a ****head, but the dude was spot on. It was a complete bashing session. D-bag article and it hurt to read it, but everything the guy said was spot on... If I can dig it up from the ashes, I will post a link just to get everyone's panties in a bunch.....

 

Sports are completely different once you get past a certain age...unless you're a professional athlete that is. I don't see how surfing is any different that rock climbing, golf, hiking, canoeing, running as a hobby...the list goes on. Its a fun way to get a great workout and enjoy nature. Surfing is no more or less selfish than any of activities in the list above. And for what its worth, I think everyone could use some time in nature. Its just a healthy thing to do.

So yeah, I think while the author may make a few good points, you can apply most of them to almost anything.

 

Zach I totally agree about team sports. Three sport athlete through high school and played college lacrosse. The only thing I have to say about team sports vs. surfing is that surfing has taught me survival skills, whether it be surf trips or just situations in the water. But yeah I agree about team sports.

 

True, but the one thing that just makes surfing the king of selfishness, way more so than any of those other activities, is the variable of swell. That is what makes us a special kind of do-uche. You can golf any time. You can run any time. You can lift weights any time. You can do ANY other activity pretty much whenever you want. Sure, if it rains one day, you may get skunked on golfing or running. But I can get home from work, have dinner with the family, hang out with my daughter, once she is in bed, wifey can watch her "real housewives of _insert city here_) while I go running in the dark for 30 minutes. Or I can wake up before work and hit the gym. I can go work out at lunch.... Our lives, revolve around variable and chance, and tide and wind and sunlight. Tons of factors that are out of our control. And when waves come, we have to find a way to drop every responsibility in our lives to make a session happen. I was INCREDIBLY selfish for the 10 years I lived on the west coast. Completely consumed, based on the fact that there were waves every day. My poor GF. Our day couldn't even start until I had surfed for a couple hours. Me, waiting and surfing in the afternoon when the onshore wind flow starts and conditions suck? Not me. Never would have happened. Zach, we have the day off, want to go out for Brunch.... After I surf. Want to drive out to wine country? Not until I surf.... and on and on and on.... Yeah, I worked hard and made more efforts than anyone I know to be out there every day.... But can't imagine how intolerable I must have been on hundreds of occasions with this sickness we call surfing.... Where most of us live is different, so my selfishness is held at bay most of the time, until that forecast jumps and I see surf coming. Then the selfish wheels start turnings.

Yeah, some snowboarders hunt "fresh pow".... But if you live in a decent snow-sport region, you can go out and ride something every day....

In summation: we are victims here. we can't help it. I knew within a week or so once I moved to California, that in general, I hate surfers.

 

I think one thing we all can agree on is that there is nothing more douchey than the random guy standing out on the boardwalk/parking lot who doesn't surf and asks 'how are the waves dude?' or 'that's a skinny board you got there'

 

Surfing breeds assholes like no other sport. And I have to agree with you that swell is the primary factor in this.

There are douche runners and douche golfers. But there may be more douches in surfing than running or golf ... Actually, a lot of golfers are country club douchers. But runners, hockey players, footballers? Not nearly as high a percentage of douches as surfing.

It's amusing how the very same people who often wear surfing as some badge of honor are its douchiest practitioners. It really is f*cking sad, because skateboarding is the opposite, the scene is rad, welcoming, and open. Competitive skating is frowned upon and anyone who is 'burning' other skaters at a bowl or spot will just get laughed out of town. When a kid shows up to the ramp or spot and is trying hard, he is welcomed and people will give him pointers. When a skater mentions 'working out' to skate better, he is laughed at.

I know that limited swell and water safety are the reasons for some of surfing's unwelcoming behavior. But lets face it, most of our surfable days on the EC are waist high. Every time I see some a-hole getting aggro and paddle-battling on waist high waves, I sigh for humanity. It's too bad GW's don't nibble at the balls, because a lot of surfers shouldn't be reproducing.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxODgWYz67M
Mar 14, 2013 - 13 min - Uploaded by mrmallet
Todd Snider Columbus OH Southern Theatre Created with MAGIX Video deluxe 2013.

There is no difference between surfing or any other sport. They all have their share of dueche bags mostly in the 16 to 28 year age. Fortunately most people I've come in contact over 35 years of surfing have been pretty decent. People are people some good some bad and most of us in the middle.

 

But in every other sport, everyone is doing the same thing. There is order. Everyone is trying to put the golf ball in the same hole, or the basketball into the same hoop, or a football into the same uprights or everyone is hitting the same run on a mountain or running on the same track.

It doesn't matter if you are first on the tee, last on the tee or whatever. If you hit a nice shot, you hit a nice shot. Surfing is different. If you get a great wave, everyone smiles, but inside they are mad at you, cause that wave could have been their's and now they are worried that what they get might not be as good as what you just had.

I could go on and on, but just think about it. It's a battle and the end result, no matter how you size it up, is that the goal of every session is to go out and get as many waves, and the best waves that you can. I don't mean with reckless abandon, I just mean, regardless of you approach, that is the goal. And it is you again a lot of other people out there that all have the same goal.

People on a golf course just wait their turn. People on a basketball court just wait for the whistle and they play. Snowboards all get on the same lift and get the same crack at the slope as everyone else (minus a few lucky guys that hit the morning powder)...... But you get what I am saying. I don't care if I am surfing with my best friend, if he gets a good wave, I am happy for him, but my natural instinct is "I should have taken that one" and to be even more brutally honest and evil, I often think, what a waste, I would have done a lot more with that wave. You gotta admit, many people on here have thought that. You know, you have been watching a guy flopping around all morning. He is good enough to stand up on a wave, but keeps blowing it. He is next in line and the wave of the day comes, and you have to let him go, just to watch him stinkbug down the line. You can't tell me that you have never thought, what a waste. I should have just burned that guy because waves only break once, and that guy just wasted a wave that traveled 1,000 miles to get here, only to be ridden in a sloppy, disgusting fashion by Mr. Stinkbug when it finally makes it to shore. Just more selfish surf thoughts.