viva la surf re evolution

The best waves on the EC are rarely crowded.

 

I hate golf. Thankfully I live right near the water and am having fun exploring this 40 mile long bay in my boat. Im still gonna surf but not gonna deal with any of the crap. If Im getting negative Im out for the day and let everyone else have at it. For the first time in 40 years I'm not foaming at the mouth over it, which is weird. But who knows, if Mitchell calls me ( I know your reading this) on the right day maybe it will all come back. We will see, I really dont care either way other than missing my surf buddies.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel...fing-for-beginners-introduction-a7011021.html

“You don’t have to be a surfer to stay here, but we can help you to become one.”

Ummmm yeah.

 

That euro article makes me wanna puke in my mouth.

On the one hand, I trust LBCrew's assessment that everything will be fine.

On the other, I see kids who care more about their ig account status than they do about the history of this whole thing. The counter cultural aspect that all this was born from, I do feel is being lost in a way.

I mean, people were offended by Greg Noll's ***** eating joke at the "WSL" big wave awards. Greg Noll! Many of these kids that were watching the Eddie probly don't even realise one of the first guys to ride Waimea is still alive.

Not many things have that fresh a history. And obviously, I know we, as humans, have been riding waves for a long time, but I'm talking relative to us here.

I ain't going nowhere, so we'll see how it all pans out.

 

There needs to be a collective effort by all to make surfing seem like a bad thing to do. If a friend, neighbor, co-worker asks you about surfing talk bad about it. None of this stoke, soul, fun, spiritual, etc... crap. Say something instead like "yeah it isn't really what it is cracked up to be, I just do it for exercise along with a treadmill. It is very hard to learn, I get stung all the time, see sharks almost every time out, and by the way can you swim at least a mile in a pool without stopping?" "Oh you can't?" "Way too dangerous then".

Saying all that creates 1 less surfer. Doing that collectively by the hundreds it will help. Or you can just complain on a message board knowing that won't help.

 

^^^^Hear Hear.

This whole olympic thing needs to be avoided too imho.

 

And to add to the above, I group of 3 women came up to me recently and said they were interesting in learning how to surf but were afraid of sharks and wanted to know if I ever see any. "All the time, maybe every time" I said. Their reply was thanks for letting us know, I think we will try something else.

Just doing my part.

 

I'm doing my part. I have this sticker on my car:

 

Don't forget the man eating jelly fish. We had a gator wash up on beach and it was all over the news. All I could think is goode.

2/3rds of the newbies will quit when they realize you have to be in shape and it's not easy. Makes for cheap bort purchases so it's not all bad + I'm all for more bikinis in the line up. When there is truly swell most just bob in the water it's the small days here that can get ridonckulous.

 

My friends that don't already surf say stories about rag-dolling and shark sightings don't make surfing sound fun at all... I've been doing it right all along without knowing it!

 

Now you are talking my language!!!!!

 

Is it really fundamentally different now though? I'm reading 'Barbarian Days' and the author talks about not just the boom in surfing in SoCal and HI in the 60s but then going to Australia, Bali and beyond in the 70s and finding crowded waves in places and all the same stuff you're complaining about here. And that's 40-50 years ago now. So your personal experience in NJ or NH or whatever might be different than when you started 20 years ago but these same complaints probably predate your life*

Of course he also describes camping on an island next to Cloudbreak when basically no-one had ever surfed there let alone named the break so there's some counterpoints too...

I"m not saying your opinion about these changes are wrong, just that they aren't new and people were saying the same things in 1980 and 1990 and 2000, etc...

* not you Barry.

 

Everyone misses the way surfing used to be, but in reality, those over the age of 50 are the only ones that can really complain,and people before their time would say the same.

So get the fock over the fact that you were born too late to truly live in a time where surfers were the counter culture and start enjoy what you have now. You want to be the odd man out? Act hateful on the interwebs, no one likes that dude. Oh wait that's focking gay as **** too. Hmm lets see what else is there when you can hide your identity through social media?

Everyone has a story, most don't live enough to ever be heard, quit whining about what everyone else does and do something that benefits yourself.

 

These complaints absolutely predate me. When I started surfing there was a lag from the boom of the 60s till the boom of the late eighties. At Sandy Hook in the 70s you rarely saw more than ten older guys from the spring till August. August to the fall saw an influx of the guys from further south that would be shut down by hurricane groundswell. My friends and I were pretty much the only kids surfing Sandy Hook back then, it was all older holdovers from the 60s and even they gave us the stinkeye. Once they realized we were there to stay they slowly accepted us. There were 2 women that we surfed with back then, one was a cute lttle thing that I had a crush on that surfed Bradley Beach and the other was Ellie Keck who friggin ripped. That was it, no soccer moms, no surf schools, no kids who looked like they surfed that didn't. But things change, in my opinion its fine, just different. Sometimes you need to shake off all the baggage that spoils it and learn to love it again.

 

Hey Zippy, know where I could find a dunkin donuts?

 

I surfed yesterday 6AM. With one good friend, in a quiet corner of NH. Waves were waist to chest (rare ones), but we had 2 hours of solitude. Choice of wave was "take the one you want".
Point is, no matter where you surf, you can still find a quiet place with few out. Proper day, proper time, proper temps, etc all play a part in the choice. Somedays it doesn't work; some days it does......

But remember this.....First one out determines where the crowd will be. Most need to be "seen". Find a secondary, or even a tertiary location you can enjoy. Go there after the first one out is surrounded by floaters.....

 

+1 ^

 

Parking

Parking is the other thing which clumps people up in NE. It's very easy to go surf at the more popular beach breaks in NH, RI, and MA because you can just park and walk maybe 50' and you're in the water. There are all kinds of other great spots around where the parking is either tiny or marginal so that automatically limits crowds. I know if I only have 2-3 hours to go surf, I'll start with somewhere with easy access because it gets me in the water sooner. If I had Barry's luxury of time, maybe I'd go elsewhere more often but I don't.

 

Basically it's just greed bro. Money money money!

 

Ya mon. Since before Miklos Dora told everyone to f off. So that's like over 50 years, since pre-Gidget.